Silent Imagery

The world has become loud; and not just loud, but noisily loud. Consider how far out of town you need to get in order to experience the silence of a night without traffic, electric humming of appliances, air conditioners, furnaces, and the back ground vibrations of city life! Add the un-ceasing chatter in our minds and it is no wonder that many people, often especially kids, seem to be unable to sit without constant noise from music, TV, computer games, rarely radio, even be it only in the background. Silence becomes associated with emptiness. Emptiness being considered something inherently un-desirable. Not surprisingly so, in a culture in which all ‘things’ quantitative are valued more than most ‘things’ qualitative.

Combined with the constant fast-paced visual stimulation, mentioned in previous post, there is little space for the mind to find gaps into which it could retreat for rest. Let alone gaps into which it could possibly create something of its own accord. It is easier, so some believe, to have the external world supply, rather than to create from one’s own resources. It may be so, but likely only for the short run.

Winter Bench in Snow Storm

The snow storm for sure was hissing around my head, neither does the almost horizontally blowing snow convey quiet, calm, un-moving silence, either … yet, the image provides plenty of space to rest. Not simply by leaving ‘empty’ white space, but by leaving just enough visible detail in that space to draw the mind into it with a minimum, barely noticeable, curiosity; and then leaving that space just empty enough to not provide anything for the mind to attach to and to label. Sure, the composition with the diagonal of the distant foggy tree line helps to lead the mind into that distance.  The eye usually first is drawn to areas of strong contrast, lightest area in an image, sharpest detail. So the contrast between the dark bench in foreground, likely the first visual perception for most viewers, and then the misty light back ground, too, has the eye move back and forth between bench and distance. The lucky wind direction which streaks the snow flakes from top left toward bottom right, parallel to the disappearing tree line, is a fortunate aid in leading the eye again and again into the empty distance.

There being nothing other than bench, snow, trees, without any clear story, meaning, interpretation, leaves the viewer without a perceived need to label, to put words and names upon the image. It leaves the viewer’s mind free to wander, to get lost, to stop for a while without noticing that it has stopped. An unexpected moment of experiencing the silence, not in the image, but in the mind.

How soulfully nourishing

peter

www.crimsonbamboo.zenfolio.com/

Photographing a Stone

sit still as a rock

You may have heard or read the quote: “In walking just walk. In sitting just sit. Above all don’t wobble.”
Now stones rarely wobble, and if you use a tripod, the camera will neither. So all that is left to not wobble is you. Not wobbling the body is relatively easy; though if you can manage to unwobble the mind, too, the resulting image ought to be of the Stone; Stone as it is, that is, not as a wobbling mind may wish it were but isn’t. Or as we think we would like to see it but on the final photograph clearly don’t.
When the ancient Masters of Chinese painting taught the students that in order to paint Spring you must become Spring, and to paint Bamboo you must become Bamboo, and when they, as seems to be the case, have achieved some impressive level of mastership in painting Spring and Bamboo, maybe we can try similarly in our photography, too?
Next time a stone comes along that you wish to photograph, maybe you can turn into one, too ?

good wishes
peter

here is a stone:

http://crimsonbamboo.zenfolio.com/p657610900/hcda288c#hcda288c

First Greetings

silence

Simplifying life is a desire for more and more people, especially for those living in fast-paced cities.

Yet, simplifying life can be a rather complex process simply because of the multitude of activities, things, and especially thoughts we have going on day in and day out; mind in and mind out.

For sure, I am one of them, too, who would love to simplify lots of things, but find themselves rushing and busying on and on, day by day.

Well, if we can find or develop some activity to become an actual practice of simplification we can reduce that activity to a bare minimum, not in terms of time spent on doing it, but in requirements for doing it. In photographic practice, for example, concerns about equipment, cost, preparation for a day of image work, etc., can become elaborate and extensive. The real simplifying comes less from reducing the number of things externally, though such reduction of material concerns and costs certainly is very conducive to it, but from reducing things internally. Our minds makes our lives more complex and busy than need be by the constant chatter, concerns, opinions, likes and dis-likes, and pre-conceived ideas about pretty much everything.

Simplifying in photography can mean many things to many people. Here, we will explore of the process of making images, their subject matter, the looking, seeing, and viewing of images will become a means and a tool for the practice of simplification and improving not only our image making, but also to let those insights inevitably flow into and influence beneficially other areas and activities in our lives, and, for that matter, maybe other’s, as well.

take care

peter

www.crimsonbamboo.zenfolio.com/