Walking with Wonder...

   When I first moved to Maine nearly 18 years ago, I could walk in the woods behind my house and be in peaceful silence. (Except during hunting season during which time I NEVER walk in the woods!) I could always find a sheltered place where the noise of the modern world did not intrude on my thoughts.  Unfortunately, that's not the case now.  On the day I took this stroll in the woods and made these tiny studies of the forest floor I could hear the sounds of heavy equipment clearing a lot somewhere nearby and the noise from the wood splitting business down the road about a quarter mile away.  The surrounding mountains amplify noises to an astonishing degree.  It is just not as easy to find a truly quiet place anymore. I'm afraid I will have to go a bit farther afield in the future if I want to find a truly solitary place.

    This post is about seeking out, as much as it is possible, the quiet corners of your world to walk in silent wonder of the small details of nature.  I did manage a few photographs that day and I've included four here.  Now, if you are not familiar with Picasa, the free Google photo editing program you should down load it ASAP.  It offers a lot of simple techniques to enhance your images and I especially like this Polaroid format.  You can easily add notes to your image and keep a Nature journal of your walk.  The program crops the images into the familiar square format of the old Polaroids.  It is a fond memory of my childhood when my Father would record so much of our young lives with his ever present Polaroid camera.  I think the next time I travel I might try keeping a digital journal using this format.  It would also be great to put the images into an accordion book later on with my notes already added.  It is a great way to write your poem of images!

    All these images were made within fifteen feet of each other. I would walk a step or two and look closely and intently at the tiny world at my feet.  Everything caught my eye and seemed, somehow, miraculous to me.  To walk in wonder is a practice that all contemplative photographers should cultivate.  You certainly can't be in a hurry to get from "here to there"!  Remember, the point of the walk is not the destination but the walk itself and you don't have to hike the Appalachian Trail!  A simple saunter in a meaningful, nearby location will offer all the "photo ops" you could want.    Below are two thought provoking links along these lines that you may find interesting.  Truly quiet places are becoming increasingly rare in the world...such a pity.

           

Sound Walking

The Last Quiet Places

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry...

I wonder what photos Harold would have made?

  I just finished reading this delightful and inspirational book by Rachel Joyce.  It seemed fitting after yesterday's post to write a few words about this unlikely hero, Harold Fry.

  Now, Harold was not a photographer but he has a lot to teach the contemplative photographer.  The first, and perhaps the most important Harold-Lesson is to follow your heart even if it tells you something your head doesn't agree with.  Inspiration is often obscured and suppressed in the day-to-day living experience but sometimes there is a tug on your heart you must listen to.

   The next Harold-Lesson is to travel light. You need far less than you think you do. Each trip I make I seem to leave more and more at home. This includes my camera gear. I've pared down my packing to the absolute minimum...it is quite liberating!

   The final Harold-Lesson I learned, which I really always knew, is that traveling solo is essential for the contemplative photographer, even when you are forced to travel with a group.  When Harold is joined for a time by people eager to share his pilgrimage he finds the burden of all their personalities too heavy to carry.  This summer, when I traveled to France with friends I learned that in future, no matter where I go and with whom, I will rent my own car so I can travel solo during the day. I must be free to explore the world in my own way and on my own schedule.  Everyone travels differently.  I am no longer a "tourist" when I travel...every trip is a kind of pilgrimage for me.

   I recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry for all of you who are seekers at heart. It will make you laugh and cry at the same time and you may find that from now on you too will no longer be just a tourist in your travels.

Tourist or Pilgrim?

Tourist or Pilgrim?

I stand at the edge of myself and wonder
Where is home? Oh! Where is the place
Where beauty will last? When will I be safe? And where?
My tourist heart is wearing me out. I am so tired of seeking
For treasures that tarnish. How much longer, Lord?
Oh! Which is the way home?
My luggage is heavy. It is weighing me down
I am hungry for the Holy Ground of home.
Then suddenly, overpowering me with the truth,
A voice within me gently says:
‘There is a power in you, a truth in you
That has not yet been tapped.
You are blinded with a blindness that is deep,
For you have not loved the pilgrim in you yet
There is a road that runs straight through your heart.
Walk on it.’
To be a pilgrim means to be on the move, slowly,
To notice your luggage becoming lighter,
To seek for treasures that do not rust
To be comfortable with your heart’s questions,
To be moving toward the Holy Ground of home with empty hands and bare feet.
And yet, you cannot reach that home until you have loved the pilgrim in you.
One must be comfortable as a pilgrim before one’s feet can touch the homeland.
Do you want to go home?
There’s a road that runs straight through your heart
Walk on it.

(Macrina Wiederkehr)

Certifying Experience...

"A way of certifying experience, taking photographs

is also a way of refusing it - by limiting experience

to a search for the photogenic, by converting

experience into an image, a souvenir."

-Susan Sontag

The Third Eye

       Photographs are the way our culture has of certifying experience.  I was here, I saw that, this person was there too.  Somehow, we feel that by this obsessive recording of the experience, no matter how trivial or fleeting, we have lived...and here is the proof.

   I think that is the real  appeal of social media sites like Facebook.  In small and inconsequential bites we get to digest another persons life experiences.  It is a voyeuristic and essentially futile endeavor.  We cannot know someone through these snippets of their day to day living anymore than we can understand our own lives through our vacation photographs.  We were there, we saw that and those people were with us...does it really matter?

   Yes, all those things, all those souvenirs of our lives contained in our photo albums or on our Facebook wall are important but only on the periphery of our existence.  It is important to know where we've been, what we saw, and who journeyed with us.  We must not, however, limit our photographs to the "photogenic"  but search also for the unfathomable.  In those images we may discern our deepest and most profound reality...I wondered about this, I was amazed at that, I was ever changed by it all...   

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify....

Containing the Things that Frighten Us

   During the last several months I have been attempting to simplify my life by purging unnecessary things around my house.  I'm nearly finished wading through my bookshelves boxing up all but my most essential texts.  I'm also working on the cupboards, closets and attic and I am being merciless.  Things I am unsure of I put aside to reconsider but inevitably I decide they must go.  It is a wonderful and liberating experience.

   I've also decided to dispense with my photography website since I'm in the process of transferring the folios of images to this blog so you just have to click on one in the right side bar under "Pages" to see a slide show through Picasa Web Albums.  What could be more simple!

   Now that I've decided to focus my efforts on my writing and lecturing/teaching rather than worrying about self-promotion and exhibiting, I wanted to consolidate everything.  A separate website seemed superfluous and a bit pretentious.   Now I only have one place to manage which will leave me more time to make the images in the first place as well as some extra money for the travel fund.  Yes, simplifying your life can be very satisfying!  

   At the start of this year I told you about the word I have chosen to reflect on this year...pathways.  It has been a very instructive one for me.  I have finally, after nearly eight years, settled on a direction, a pathway, that feels just right to me. Through this year I will continue to explore contemplative photography both in my field work, reflections, and especially on this blog.  I am very thankful for all of you, all over the world, who have decided to take this journey with me...you are an inspiration.  I've added one last quotation which I found very enlightening, which settle me firmly on this pathway and which might also be helpful for you as well....

"We must be willing to let go of the life

we have planned, so as to have the life

that is waiting for us."

-E.M. Forster

A Taoist Approach to Travel...

   Taoism is not so much a religion as a way of life.  It is a philosophy, the only indigenous Chinese philosophy, that serves as a guide for followers in their journeys through life.  As the name of this blog implies, I also see the possibility of translating Taoist teachings into my photographic practice.  I also find it especially helpful when I set out on my travels whether those travels take me a short distance from my home or around the world.

The Road Ahead - Inis Oirr, 2009

   I think the most important element of a Taoist approach to travel is to remove the blinders.  Blinders are used on horses, like the one on the left, to focus their attention on the road ahead.  Blinders keep them from becoming distracted by things.  I, on the other hand, want to be distracted! I don't want to be so goal oriented and destination focused that I miss what I am passing through to get there! Taoism asks us to live in the moment, to be present in that place at that time.

   On my way to the holy well on Inis Oirr a few years ago, I made the young man taking me there in his horse cart stop at least a dozen times.  He was more use to taking people directly to the spot and back in rather a quick trip.  I felt a bit guilty of depriving him of his takings so I told him I'd pay him extra for all these stops but it was worth it for me. 

   It's good to have some general goals when you travel but remember that they aren't written in stone.  Remain flexible and open to the spontaneous, the serendipitous encounter that will get you side-tracked...you never know where it will lead you and what wondrous things you might encounter. The video below is a great introduction to this approach to travel...

A Taoist Guide to Travel

The Need for Fulfillment...

"To follow the Way removes

the need for fulfillment."

-Lao Tzu 

 I must say that when I first read this quote by the great Taoist master, Lao Tzu, it puzzled me.  After all, isn't it the goal of following a path to reach some destination?  On a spiritual path, wouldn't that goal be the fulfillment of a spiritual need?  As often happens, the moment I translated this idea into photographic terms, it made perfect sense.

   If one follows the path of becoming a contemplative photographer then there is no need to reach any arbitrary destination like an exhibition, publishing or sale of one's work.  Critical acclaim is nice but it is not the point of the journey; the point of the journey is the journey!

   I've gotten great joy this past year by sharing the journey with my blog readers.  It has helped me clarify my own intentions and given me greater understanding of the importance of process.  Yes, I want to make beautiful and well composed images but I no longer value the images I make merely for their aesthetic or monetary appeal.

   In addition, I am no longer an image hoarder, making the accumulation of vast numbers of photographs a bench mark of my "success" as a photographer.  I work much more slowly now and the time between making photographs when I am on location is now minutes...even hours...not seconds.  If I come away with only one significant image from a day of photographing, I am content.

   Again, I mine great wisdom from the well thumbed pages of my copy of the Tao Te Ching...

"The Way produces but does not possess;

it fosters growth without ruling."