In Their Own Words - Eckhart Tolle

    There is nothing more still than a frozen Maine landscape.  The sleek surface of ice coated snow looked like polished satin.  By moonlight it was positively magical.  Sitting in silence is a crucial part of my contemplative practice...whether I choose to make a photograph or not.

In Their Own Words: May Sarton

In Their Own Words - Thomas Merton

 And the deepest level of communication is not communication,

 but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept.

   Another of my Seescapes of the pond...this time four loons painted an interesting white line through the reflection. I have never seen loons on this pond...heard them many times...but they normally prefer to inhabit the adjacent larger pond.  I suppose I should have had a telephoto lens but then I would have missed the scope of this scene; its abstract quality as the loons serenely etched the composition.  If I ever get these seescapes printed, I'll do them as large as possible.  I love the exaggerated long format, something that doesn't translate very well in this blog format I'm afraid. (If you click on the image, it will open a larger view of it.)

   I found this Thomas Merton quote recently and it seemed so appropriate to my experience at the pond.  It is truly a communion of souls...the landscape and me.  And to think this has been less than a mile down the road all these years!  Communion is a shared experience; a holding hands with the landscape so to speak.  It is just another way to welcome the landscape into one's self in a meaningful way.

   In November I am forced into my flame orange jacket and hat to keep from being shot at.  It is deer hunting season and not the best time to sit quietly by the pond.  But I will continue to visit the pond, to commune with it as Merton suggests.  It is too wonderful a time of year not to.  Let's hope the hunters are paying attention too!

In Their Own Words: Walker Evans

  I was reading an old piece in the New Republic recently.  It was the talk that Walker Evans did for a class at Harvard in 1975, just 2 days before his death.

   He spoke in an off the cuff, free-flowing manner of his life as a photographer but one particular phrase jumped out at me:

"...some of the best things you 

ever do sort of come through you."  

   Now, Walker Evans would never be described as a contemplative photographer.  He was one of the premier social realists of the 20th century and I am a great admirer of his work.  But here is an illusion to something I've often felt as a contemplative photographer...that it isn't so much my doing that makes the image.  I am merely an instrument through which something flows, a conduit of sorts.  I may hold the camera but it is the landscape that creates the image.

   I hope that doesn't sound overly mystical.  It isn't that at all.  It is simply that when I am in the landscape and I allow myself to be totally open to the energy of the place, I sometimes find myself directed or drawn to particular images.  I try not to think too much about it when it happens...I just let it be what it is and I make the best photograph I can.  It is why I often refer to my photographs as being "received", gifts as it were.

   In many ways, this is what defines the contemplative photographer for me.  This ability to allow things to "come through you".  You abdicate control in a manner of speaking.  You let the landscape direct your lens.

   I leave tomorrow for the contemplative photography retreat on Star Island where I will try to open people to this sort of experience through visual listening exercises.  It isn't easy to "teach" something that has to be experience first hand but I will try. It all begins with practice true mindfulness.  The best I can hope for is that people will begin to understand the importance of letting go...the need to remain an empty vessel.  When you can do that, all sorts of wonderful things will pour in.

In Their Own Words - Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde

You can't depend on your eyes if your imagination

is out of focus.

- Mark Twain

   The imagination is such a powerful tool of self-discovery that Albert Einstein once said that it is more important than knowledge.  That's a pretty strong statement but I totally agree with it.  In all my 35 years of teaching art, I always put the emphasis on the imagination of my students over the mere acquisition of facts.

   Now, as a contemplative photographer, I want to underscore the role of imagination for the photographer.  Some people equate imagination with make believe; if you imagine something it is not real.  But here Twain is implying that you can not trust your reality perceiving eyes if your imagination is not clearly engaged in the process.

   What this means to me is that without a clearly focused imagination, all you will 'see' is the superficial and you will miss out on the deeper reality of the world around you.  Imagination does not alter that reality but allows us to gain a more profound and enriching understanding of it.  You need an imagination if you wish to see the metaphors in the landscape, if you want to go deeper into what you are observing.  Imagination requires that you are open to possibility; that you are able to "photograph things not only for what they are but for what else they are" as Minor White suggests.

   Here is a parting thought from the other 19th century humorist I so admire, Oscar Wilde...

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. 

If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

    

In Their Own Words - Anais Nin

   A friend once told me that the more you come to understand science, the less you will be drawn to issues of spirituality.  In his way of thinking, the two were incompatible.

   I wish I had known these words of Anais Nin back then. Now, the more I know of science, the more I am in awe.  Answers only open up more questions...there is always more mystery!  And some questions can only be answered in spiritual terms. I suppose this is the primary lesson I've learned during the years I've practice contemplative photography; I don't need science to explain everything.

   I may understand the mechanics of  the migration of the Monarch butterfly (the longest of any butterfly on earth)  but it doesn't impede my wonder of the journey these little creatures make.  What brings them to one specific place year after year?  How is the knowledge of the journey implanted in each new generation?  What an amazing act of pure faith they exhibit...of course, my friend would say it is merely genetics...to each his own.

   The following is a link to a beautiful video of the migration of the Monarchs each year from Canada to Mexico.  It includes some breath taking footage created by my favorite wildlife videographer, Louie Schwartzberg.  What a transcendent experience it must have been for him to film these lovely creatures.  Yes, knowing the science of their yearly migration does not dispel the mystery and sense of wonder for me.

The Heavenly Sound of the Monarchs

   The monarchs are in trouble but you can help.  Creating small rest stops in your backyard or along the roadside for these amazing creatures will help them on their journey and it can be as simple as planting the common milkweed plant.  Find out why there has been a sudden decrease in this specie of butterfly and other ways you can help these wonderful creatures...

Why the Sudden Decrease of Monarchs?

Creating Habitats for the Monarch Butterfly

In Their Own Words - Albert Einstein

Trinity

Look deep into nature, and 
then you will understand everything better.

    I have admired Albert Einstein for a long while.  He seemed to me to have a compassionate and deeply contemplative nature.  He saw the art in science and he was a man who embraced the mysterious.  I was so pleased to find this quotation by him recently.

   As a contemplative photographer who tries to see into Nature's divine DNA, I couldn't agree with his words more.  Nature is the commensurate teacher I find.  The lessons may be subtle or bold but they are always there.

   When I was a teacher I believed that for learning to take place all that was required was one mind to send unselfishly and one mind to receive thankfully.  Now, with my contemplative photography, I am the ever thankful receiver from the great mind of Nature.  I've learned so much.

  " A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” - Albert Einstein

In Their Own Words - Esther de Waal

A Threshold at Corcomroe Abbey

Already I am being brought into a world where significant things are shown as images, and insight comes from shapes and patterns, from the visual rather

 than from the written word.

   No sooner had I named my pilgrimage to sacred sites in Ireland and Scotland - my Threshold Pilgrimage - I came across a book by one of my favorite authors on Celtic spirituality, Esther de Waal.  To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border is the ideal book to take along with me.  Its tiny size makes it perfect to keep in my day pack as I journey through the landscape.  Traveling as light as possible is very important to me on this journey.

   This quotation from the book is an apt description of the contemplative photographer.  Our insights are gathered through our images.  The visual world is a lexicon of meaning for our inquiring hearts.  We may be inspired by the written word but it is the visual world that holds the wisdom we seek.

   Unlike the other sacred sites I will visit in May and June, Corcomroe Abbey is a familiar and cherished place. John O'Donohue use to bring his retreatents here every year to experience the amazing power of this place.  It truly has a very special feel to it.  You can take a virtual walk through the abbey in my YouTube video.

   The Abbey is a monument to thresholds.  You cross over many as you walk through the site.  From darkness you move into the light.  From confined and bordered spaces you move into the vast expanse of the Burren landscape.  The transitions are breathtaking.  

    I will re-visit Corcomroe on the first leg of my journey.  I wonder what new wisdom it has to impart to me this time?  For it is true, each visit brings something new and refreshing.  A deeply spiritual place like Corcomroe Abbey can never grow stale.

      

In Their Own Words - Wendell Berry

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry

   I most often quote photographers on this blog but watching the Bill Moyer's interview of a man I have admired for years, Wendell Berry, I felt I needed to mention this amazing man.  Recent world events have left me despairing for the state of things.  I too long for the "grace of the world".

    Using photography as a contemplative practice I have, over the years, developed a very special relationship with the natural world.  As I said in yesterday's post, in many ways this relationship is an important way for me to practice my religion.  If that is so, Berry would be one of my many prophets...which is also what Moyers has called him.

   As contemplative photographers we have a unique ability to call attention to Mankind's mistreatment of the natural world. If you believe, as I do, that Nature is divine presence than this mistreatment is even more profound. In the interview,  Berry said that all of Nature is sacred and therefore our exploitation of Nature is a sacrilege. I would have to agree with that sentiment.

   Watch the interview in the link below and perhaps you will be inspired to enter into a new relation with the landscape.   Perhaps you can become one of the advocates for what Berry calls, "the precious things" of the natural world through your photographs.

Wendell Berry - Poet and Prophet

In Their Own Words - Robert Waldron

Photography is a solitary endeavor; one

must be alone.  One also needs silence.

Solitude and silence are the sine qua non 

of being a contemplative.  In fact, a photographer

is a contemplative in his own right; he too

must become a master of attention. - page 77

   I was encouraged to read Robert Waldron's book, Thomas Merton: Master of Attention by Kim Manley Ort during our recent contemplative photography retreat in Kentucky.  This book fit in perfectly with our weekend study of perception and in our own small way we too tried to become "masters of attention".

   All photographers, whether they call themselves "contemplatives" or not, need this skill.  It is really what is meant by saying that one has a "photographer's eye".  The entire world is reduced to the narrow confines of the camera's frame.

   For the contemplative photographer the entire universe could be contained in that frame.  All the wisdom of the ages, everything worth knowing, the divine itself, can be in that tiny space.  So easy to pay attention to the big and "important" things but so much more revealing are the little and "insignificant" things.

   There is a saying, "If you want to judge a person's character, observe how he treats those who can do nothing for him."  I think that might be a good way to view photographers as well.  Observe how they react to the insignificant, the so-called unimportant landscape.  It takes no great skill to be awed by the Grand Canyon but what of a crack in the sidewalk?

In Their Own Words: Aaron Siskind...

"As the language and vocabulary of photography

has been extended, the emphasis on meaning has 

shifted - shifted from what the world looks like

 to what we feel about the world and what

we want the world to mean."

- Aaron Siskind

   What a perfect quote for the contemplative photographer!  We can now concern ourselves with documenting the interior world through our images.  We reveal the components of self by what we choose to pay attention to, how we frame the exterior world and, paradoxically, what we choose to ignore.  

   Aaron Siskind (1903 - 1991) is most often associated with the abstract expressionist movement in art.  His close up studies of shape and texture are intentionally non-objective.  That's why I found this quote so compelling.  Perhaps, in his heart, he was a contemplative photographer. No matter. I don't think it is inconsistent to imagine a confirmed abstractionist thinking deep thoughts about himself and his world.  After all, we are complex 

characters.

"We look at the world and see what we have learned 

to believe is there.  We have been conditioned to "expect"

...but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs."

   

   It is sometimes said that to appreciate certain types of literature or movies we must "suspend disbelief" otherwise our overly rational minds won't be able to buy into the fantasy.  Suskind is telling us to do essentially the same thing...that it is our belief system that impedes our vision.  I think that is an important idea for ALL photographers to mull over. 

In Their Own Words - Joan Chittister

We are no longer at the mercy of the self.

It is time to taste the essence of life rather

that concern ourselves with it's accessories.

It has taken almost a lifetime to love 

a sunset...but it has been worth the wait.

   One of the great pleasures of being in the autumn of one's life is the new relationship one has with time.  You find that you will take the time to marvel at simple things, like a sunset or a spider's web.  Perhaps that is why contemplative photography has come to mean so much to me and why I think it's a perfect pursuit for those of us who have retired from our careers.

   Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun who writes wonderful and inspirational books. One of my favorites is Monastery of the Heart.  I've just finished reading, The Gift of Years, while I was on retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani.  It is an insightful and heart touching collection of short essays on the grace of growing older.  I wouldn't say, however, that one should wait until they retire to read it.  It touches on issues that can enrich all of us, no matter what stage of life we are in.

It is this spiritual eyesight, the 

ability to see into the inner meaning 

of things, the spiritual value of

things, the essential core of things,

that must carry us from this point on.

   Sounds very much like a mission statement for the contemplative photographer!  At the core of our practice, we seek to perfect our spiritual eyesight that speaks directly to our divine DNA.  We seek the outer manifestation of our inner divinity.  Don't wait until you retire to begin the pursuit...the sooner you begin, the sooner you will arrive and I will tell you from experience, it is a wonderful place to be...

In Their Own Words - Ansel Adams

"It's a strange thing that as techniques develop

[and] the materials, the lenses, the cameras

get more accurate and perfect, the quality of

perception and execution goes down because

they count on the machine to do it."

-Ansel Adams

The Twelve Bens - Connemara, Ireland 2009

   Cameras do not "see"; cameras merely record and they can only record what they are pointed at.  No camera, no matter how expensive or sophisticated, can replace the thoughtful and reflective mind of the photographer.  The contemplative photographer places the heart-felt experience of the landscape over the mere recording of the scene.  I have often gone to a place, like the Connemara region of Ireland, and been so caught up with the experience, so humbled by the sheer beauty of it, that I forgot to make any photographs of it at all!  I never regret the lack of a physical proof of my experience when it happens.  I am just extremely grateful for the experience.  I think if I were ever to get to the place where making photographs becomes more important than living and embracing the experience then it will be time for me to put the camera away for good.

   Here is a link to a short video on Ansel Adams, a true master in any definition of the term, which describes his unique and contemplative regard for the landscape.

Ansel Adam's Style, Technique and Philosophy

In Their Own Words - Francis Bacon

"The contemplation of things as they are,

without error or confusion, without

substitution or imposture, is in itself a

nobler thing than a whole harvest of

invention."

Francis Bacon

(posted on Dorothea Lange's

darkroom door)

In the Most Unexpected Place - South Uist, Scotland, 2011

   This quote always comes to my mind when I begin to toy with photoshop.  The digital age has given us the power to alter reality in profound and mind bending ways.  But I prefer to take my world "as is", straight up, with all it's imperfections. I may play with the tonal range a bit, burn, dodge, crop, all the things I've always done in the traditional darkroom, but I draw the line when it comes to adding things that weren't there or importing different skies.   The world, even with all it's imperfections, is perfect as it is.  Perhaps I could have made this photograph more spectacular if I had cloned the heather so it completely covered the hill and I could have switched out the sky for something much more dramatic but I was satisfied with it as it was.  I feel no need to play God in my photography.  

   Being a contemplative photographer means, for me at least, the contemplation of things as they are.  I've never had any trouble with using what I find on location.  The artistic dimension enters into the equation when I make my choices - composition, lighting, viewpoint, etc.   I want to be sure that it reflects my feeling about the subject, whatever it is.  If I was content with just anybodies feelings, I'd just buy postcards!

In Their Own Words - Minor White

"Surfaces reveal inner states - cameras

record surfaces.  I must somehow be a 

kind of microscope by which the 

underlying forces of spirit are observed

and extended to others."

-Minor White

   To imagine that objects, whether man-made or natural, can possess an "underlying force of spirit" is an idea that underscores much of the contemplative photographer's approach to their work.  But what is lurking behind those words, beyond mere metaphor, is the Taoist concept of Qi...the energy inherent in all things. Landscape can have it, most certainly, but I am inclined to agree with Minor White, so do objects.  This sculpture of St. Benedict, on the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey may be seen as merely a work of bronze sitting placidly in the landscape or, as the artist perhaps intended, seen as powerful gesture of both reverence and  emphasis.  We all  respond to this energy whether we know it or not.  It is the goal of the contemplative photographer to translate that energy into a visual document of the experience.  We can then, as Minor White suggests, extend that experience to others through our photographs.

In Their Own Words - Winslow Homer

"The life that I have chosen 

gives me my full hours of

enjoyment for the balance of

 my life.  The sun will not

rise, or set, without my notice."

- Winslow Homer

  

   I found this quotation in the exhibit of Homer's late work at the Portland Museum of Art.  I felt it was especial poignant after my post, "In Praise of a Sunset".  Whether you make photographs of them or not, the message here is to look and look deeply.  Look not only at the moments of "obvious beauty" like the sunsets and flowers but at the subtle incidences of the beautiful, in the web of a spider or the spiral of an early Spring fern.  What beauty there is for us to enjoy right outside our own windows!  We don't have to travel the world seeking out the beautiful; we are given it every day in myriad of ways if we take the time to observe it.

   I too can say the life I've chosen, my life as a contemplative photographer, will give me" full hours of enjoyment for the balance of my life."  What more can anyone ask for?

In Their Own Words - Joseph Campbell

"If you follow your bliss you put yourself

on a kind of track that has been there all

the while, waiting for you...I say, follow 

your bliss and don't be afraid and doors

will open where you didn't know they

were going to be."

Joseph Campbell  

   In the previous post, "Follow Your Fascinations...", I spoke about developing photographic projects based on subjects/ideas that fascinate you.  Right after I wrote that post I came across this quote by Joseph Campbell.  He calls it "bliss", I used the word "fascinations";  At first I thought they are much the same thing.   As I reflected on the quote, however, I realized that for me, my "bliss" is practicing contemplative photography.  I had to wait until I retired from teaching and the need to make a living that I was able to begin, in earnest, making a life as a contemplative photographer.  Heaven knows it is virtually impossible to make a living from it...thankfully I don't have to.  My photographic projects become focuses of my particular fascinations.

   I suggest you begin now, don't wait until you retire, to find a small corner of your life in which you can practice the art of contemplative photography...follow your bliss!  If you are reading this blog then you have found your fascination.  All you need do is take that first step on your journey.  Who knows what doors will open up for you!

Follow the link below to learn more about Joseph Campbell

and even get your own T-shirt emblazoned with,

Follow Your Bliss!

In Their Own Words - John O'Donohue

    
   Next week marks the 5th anniversary of the death of Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue.  I consider it a great blessing to have known John in the months preceding his death in January, 2008.  I met him in County Clare, Ireland and had time to sit and talk with him and we kept up a correspondence that has had a profound impact on me in the years since, especially his thoughts on beauty and the inner landscape.  These ideas fill my own notions of what it is to be a contemplative photographer.

   You may visit the link below to hear him talk about this wonderful topic in an interview done just two months before his death.  I hope you will find, within that conversation, a motivation to explore the world in the new year with an eye towards seeking out this sense of beauty that is a reflection of your own inner landscape and which can be seen and explored in your photography.

The Inner Landscape of Beauty

with John O'Donohue

In Their Own Words - Paul Strand

" The artist's world is limitless.

It can be found anywhere, far

from where he lives or a few

feet away.  It is always

on his doorstep."

Paul Strand 

   In a recent post, "In Praise of a Leaf", I spoke about a book I recently got, The Garden at Orgeval.  Paul Strand lived out the last 20 or so years of his life in the small village of Orgeval, 20 miles from Paris.  No longer traveling the world, Strand focused his camera lens on the intimate confines of his garden.  This quote is used as an introduction to the lovely and intimate nature studies in the book and its message has even more meaning to me as I face the possibility that extensive over-seas travel will get more and more difficult in the years ahead.  It is an idea that those who love photography but may lack the resources to make extensive travel possible will find heartening.  In my post, Photographing the Familiar, I mention Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz.  No need to go looking for your heart's desire beyond your own backyard.  I will also throw in a quote from one of my favorite transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson which seems to compliment the Stand quote... "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."  The "beautiful" can be as close as your own back yard.

In Their Own Words - Susan Sontag

   As a follow up to my Contemplative Photographer's Bible post, I am starting a series which features quotations from photographers and others that you can cut and paste and insert into your own "bible" of inspiration.  My first is from Susan Sontag who's book "On Photography" I purchased this summer in Paris.  You will probably see several quotes from the book in the months to come because it is a rich resource for thinking about the medium we all love.  Here's the first...

" For several decades American photography has been

dominated by a reaction against "Westonism" - that is, against 

contemplative photography, photography considered as an independent visual exploration of the world with

 no evident social urgency. "

   I found her definition of contemplative photography interesting.  So much of the photography of the 1970's (the time Sontag's book was written) had a social dimension. The years after WWII were turbulent and many artists wanted to break away from the traditions and values of the previous generation. There was a great need to make commentaries on culture and social stratification. At that time, I suppose, Weston's inward looking images seemed irrelevant. Now, over 30 years later, we are beginning to turn inward again. Perhaps as a result of the "me first materialism' of the 70's, 80's and 90's, many people are seeking a more meaningful relationship with their world.  Or perhaps it is just that all us baby-boomers, who came of age in the turbulent 1960's, are seeking a more spiritual dimension in our lives.   While I agree that photography has a roll to play in documenting the best and the worse of mankind, I equally feel that it has a role of introspection and reflection to play as well.  Photography, like all of the visual arts, owes its definition and context to the individual who practices it.  Isn't it wonderful that there is a place for all of us under the umbrella of photographic expression?