Author Topic: Contemplative Photography  (Read 4303 times)

RobOK

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Contemplative Photography
« on: July 23, 2016, 13:18:27 »
Has anyone here practiced contemplative photography ? It seems a combination of mindfulness and photography, almost photography as meditation. I have ordered the prominent book on the topic but have not read yet.

Curious if others here have come across it?

Cheers, Rob

HCS

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2016, 13:43:55 »
Not sure i have, but there is the inner landscape thread here (http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,3131.0.html) that relates to your topic.

Also, it seems Michael Erlewine is approaching his photography in a similar way.
Hans Cremers

Michael Erlewine

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2016, 16:26:12 »
For sure, I approach it this way, where the process of photographing is more important than the results, but also shape the results. I have written a number of free e-books on the topic, one of which is here:

http://spiritgrooves.net/pdf/e-books/Mahamudra%20-%20A%20Story%20Version%203.pdf

I have others. They are not for everyone.

MichaelErlewine.smugmug.com, Daily Blog at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelErlewine. main site: SpiritGrooves.net, https://www.youtube.com/user/merlewine, Founder: MacroStop.com, All-Music Guide, All-Movie Guide, Classic Posters.com, Matrix Software, DharmaGrooves.com

RobOK

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2016, 16:50:51 »
@HCS, I will check that threat!

@Michael, thanks for sharing, I will look at your e-books!!  I hope you post some photos that go along with your approach, maybe you already have?

Rob.

Michael Erlewine

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2016, 17:20:39 »
I have published many photographs, articles, and books, but here is my view:

I don't look for "spiritual" to be reflected in the finished photos of someone who meditates. It is the "process" that can be meditative. What we end up with is a reflection of our particular personality, not a rubber stamp that says we are meditators. And, there are literally scores of kinds of meditation. Why type of meditation you do would be crucial to know. Is it Tranquility Meditation? Insight Meditation? Or what?

I have run a meditation center since the 1980s and trained in Tibetan Vajrayana meditation since the 1960s, but more seriously since the 1970s. So, since we are talking about this, those are my initial thoughts.
MichaelErlewine.smugmug.com, Daily Blog at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelErlewine. main site: SpiritGrooves.net, https://www.youtube.com/user/merlewine, Founder: MacroStop.com, All-Music Guide, All-Movie Guide, Classic Posters.com, Matrix Software, DharmaGrooves.com

Michael Erlewine

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2016, 18:21:36 »
Here are a couple of examples that I took this morning with the Nikon D810, Cambo Actus, El Nikkor 105mm APO lens, and Zerene Stacker.

These two shots of flowers are not particularly contemplative or “meditative,” although they are the result of a more contemplative (and slow) process. The care and time put into creating them in a more contemplative state of mind certainly is reflected in the result, but it would be hard to say just how. Each of us has a different (however slightly) approach to meditation and our results will differ.

Again: what we do in the moment of creation and the entire process affects the result, IMO. But as I mentioned earlier, I don’t photograph with expectations of the result being foremost in my mind, although of course it is there. Putting myself in the magic of the moment in a creative way is something I do.
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elsa hoffmann

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2016, 20:11:52 »
Michael - the colour of the second photo is really stunning.
"You don’t take a photograph – you make it” – Ansel Adams. Thats why I use photoshop.
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Airy

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2016, 21:18:34 »
... so is the "activity"" in the lower part.
Airy Magnien

Frank Fremerey

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2016, 01:04:47 »
Meditation is all about the silence one experiences while it lasts.
It creates a longing for repetition, sometimes a longing for deepening.

Some people experience this silence in sex, some in drugs, but these do not last

Some go deeper and deeper into the same.

I am not sure if it can be anything and everything.

The creative disciplines, arts, performing or visual, music
can be counted to the ones open to meditation.

Also most of the crafts, artisian, also fishing and hunting.

I guess it is finally overcoming the illusion that there is an independent "outside".

Thank you, Michael.
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Michael Erlewine

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2016, 03:03:18 »
I guess it is finally overcoming the illusion that there is an independent "outside".

I agree with Frank, that meditation can be very much a way to remove duality and learn to rest in non-duality.

The OP (original poster) put the word “Contemplative” in the title and “Mindfulness” in the body of his text. Contemplation, generally, is not considered the same as mindfulness. I responded to the “Mindfullness” part of it, since that is more directly connected to various types of actual meditation I work with. Getting in a contemplative mood while out in nature is something I do too, but my mixing of photography and meditation is more deliberate than just contemplation.

The type of meditation that I mix with my photography is called Vipassana or “Insight Meditation,” and it took me some real training to learn it. Its traditional attributes include great clarity and also lucidity, which are connate, meaning that these qualities are like two sides of the same coin.

The process of looking through a clear lens at a flower or small diorama suggests a subject/object relationship, like “I’m looking through the lens at a flower,” but in actuality the beauty of the meditation technique is not just the object being looked at, but the looking itself. In other words, the “Seeing” is not so much about what is seen, as it is resting in the “seeing” itself, if that makes sense.

Here is another image taken today with the Nikon D810, El Nikkor APO 105mm, and using Zerene Stacker in post. Done on the Cambo Actus.
MichaelErlewine.smugmug.com, Daily Blog at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelErlewine. main site: SpiritGrooves.net, https://www.youtube.com/user/merlewine, Founder: MacroStop.com, All-Music Guide, All-Movie Guide, Classic Posters.com, Matrix Software, DharmaGrooves.com

Frank Fremerey

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2016, 09:15:56 »
Enthüllend ohne bloßzustellen ... what is this in English?
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

HCS

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2016, 09:35:00 »
Enthüllend ohne bloßzustellen ... what is this in English?

I'm not English, but i believe this could be translated to something like:"Revealing without exposing". Of course, others may have better translations.
Hans Cremers

Airy

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2016, 15:09:58 »
I think your translation is excellent.
Airy Magnien

Frank Fremerey

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2016, 18:10:50 »
Thank you Hans. Yes. A revelation. Tired brain did not deliver words. I like that part.

Exposure is not hard enough. In German there is more of an embarrassing as connotation.

A portrait can be precise in a way that you reveal something about a person but still leave his/her dignity
do not "expose the naked vulnurable soul with your camera".

In that sense "Revelation with dignity" could be what I tried to find. Not yet there fully.
You are out there. You and your camera. You can shoot or not shoot as you please. Discover the world, Your world. Show it to us. Or we might never see it.

Me: https://youpic.com/photographer/frankfremerey/

Les Olson

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Re: Contemplative Photography
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2016, 09:33:19 »
Thank you Hans. Yes. A revelation. Tired brain did not deliver words. I like that part.

Exposure is not hard enough. In German there is more of an embarrassing as connotation.

A portrait can be precise in a way that you reveal something about a person but still leave his/her dignity
do not "expose the naked vulnurable soul with your camera".

In that sense "Revelation with dignity" could be what I tried to find. Not yet there fully.

An example is the work of Sebastiao Salgado, notably in the book Sahel.  People who could have been photographed as ethnological exhibits in the worst colonial tradition are instead shown as beautiful and dignified - as in this portrait of a woman in the style of Italian Renaissance .  I guess the opposite would be Dianne Arbus, whose subjects are conscripted to illustrate her emotional state.