Introduction to a 10-Part Series

No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer it has chosen.

                        Minor White, fine art photographer, educator

Today I’m beginning a series that describes my spiritual approach to photography. The title of the blog itself, “Contemplative Photography,” can mean different things to different people. For me, the emphasis is on contemplation. With intention, the act of framing with a camera, irrespective of what’s in front of it, can be an exercise in “presenting” and “mindfulness.” Even at its simplest, when we “capture” images of people, places or objects there’s a level of affinity or caring involved. Those inclined to use a camera often are lovers in a sense. Some love the creative process and the technologies involved. Others love what’s in front of the camera, and there are those who love to share memories through pictures. Love urges us to create, share and express. In this series I describe and illustrate how a camera can be used to appreciate and evoke, in some instances reveal the Divine Artist within His creation—basically “to see God in all things.”

Since the Divine Artist has chosen to create, we cannot love the Artist without giving our best attention to the artwork. Things made must resemble their maker in some deep way.

Beatrice Bruteau, philosopher

Used consciously, photography can increase our awareness and feed the soul by helping us to see deeply, beyond mere looking. More importantly, in this series you’ll be guided to create images that are authentic to your purpose in life. What these weekly offerings have in common is an appreciation of the material world viewed as an expression of the Creator. I’ll share my thoughts and the techniques I use to optimize the effectiveness of this approach, provide guidance on how to discover your unique aesthetic and show through examples how understanding and insight can be gained by reflecting on the images you produce.

I’m not asking you to think, believe or photograph as I do. After more than 60 years of practicing expressive photography as a medium for personal growth and spiritual development, I’m simply offering some of my perspectives and experiences. Hopefully, they will aid in making your photographic journey more satisfying and meaningful. Throughout, I capitalize the word “Spirit” to reference God, the Creator or Divine Intelligence. Lower case versions signify the within of things, the characteristic essence of a material form, which I regard as an aspect of universal consciousness.

Along with indigenous people everywhere I believe that everything in nature, including plants, animals, rocks, weather systems and the earth itself possess a spiritual essence and have agency. For instance, the dense forms that we recognize as granite and iron are outer expressions of the primal consciousness within their atoms, each consisting of dynamic energy fields—protons, neutrons and electrons—that are constantly making decisions about their place, intensity, organization and relationships. Atoms never stand alone and they’re constantly in motion.

Also, from experience, I acknowledge the presence and activity of “spirit guides,” entities  that, among other things, have directed my creative activity since I began to use a camera. From this perspective, I consider matter, mind and spirit to be different frequencies along one grand vibrational spectrum—universal consciousness. The word “spiritual” generally refers to the recognition that there’s something greater than oneself, something more to being human than sensory experience. For me, a spiritual experience occurs when I connect with that grander something. Joy, appreciation, awe, beauty and wonder are telltale signs of that connection. In whole systems parlance, a spiritual experience occurs when a system’s member catches sight of the whole within which it functions—and is lifted up. For some that whole can be a field of interest, nation, humanity, planet or cosmos. For me it’s the Creator.

My journey in contemplative photography has been spiritually driven in four ways: 1) striving to see the Creator in all things, 2) allowing spirit to guide me in creative decision making, 3) attempting to reveal the spirit or essence within objects and people and 4) tracing subject matter to Source. The photographs in The Soul of Photography series were chosen because the subjects depicted are mostly commonplace, ideal for showing how matter can become “spiritualized,” sort of redeemed, through the agency of consciousness.

Matter is a form of Spirit, a habitation of Spirit, and here in Matter itself there can be a realization of Spirit.

Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, yogi, poet

All matter is subject to entropy; it has a lifespan. When you can, with this idea in mind, go outside and pick a mid-sized stone out of the dirt or lodged in a rock wall—not a decorative stone. Clean it and sit with it, alone and quiet. Hold it in your hand and realize that it’s present incarnation began in a galactic explosion, and since then it has journeyed immense distances and been subjected to dramatic changes over billions of years. It has had a tremendous history that alternated between dramatic moments and long periods of relative calm. Eventually, it will disintegrate completely.

If your stone has jagged edges, it’s likely much older than a smooth one that had been shaped by eons of wind and water erosion on this planet. Also, it’s likely to be an “aggregate,” consisting of several minerals bonded together with uncountable atomic cloud-like “fields” continuously making decisions about their electric charge, energy fluctuations, relationships and position. Like us, your stone isn’t just one thing; it changes.

And consider, within your stone there’s far more “space” than there is matter in each of its atoms. The distance from the nucleus to the closest electron in a hydrogen atom is equivalent to a lemon sitting in the middle of the world’s largest football stadium. Your stone feels solid because the atoms are tightly packed together and held by strong electromagnetic forces between their electrons. This means your hand is basically interacting with the electron clouds within the stone’s atoms, not the empty space within them. (The more we learn from science, the greater our appreciation of creation).

Atoms in the laboratory are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom.

Freeman Dyson, Physicist

If your experience with the stone elicits a sense of wonder, awe or appreciation you will have had a “spiritual” experience. You will have touched the place in you that recognizes a whole greater and more mysterious than yourself, and appreciated it. The atoms in the stone were “spiritualized” by your consciousness, redeemed in a sense, made significant by contributing to your expanded awareness and appreciation. You haven’t changed the stone, but it will have evoked a change in you. This is what a camera can do. Used consciously, beyond simply recording, it can produce images that aid us in paying close attention to a subject, going deep with it, engaging and reflecting our innermost thoughts and feelings in a process of self/Self-discovery.

Cleave  a piece of wood (the) I Am is there; lift up a stone, you will find me there also.

Jesus The Christ, Gospel of Thomas (Saying 77:2-3)

Recommended Practice

As you did with a stone, sit with image above. Beyond identifying the subject as wood with some nails in it, what can you say about its history? What was the source—and earlier than that? What feelings arise in you? Images used in this way boost your sensitivity to the realm of spirit, of essences.