What book next?

In my studies of contemplative photography, I have now read and worked through the exercises in Karr/Wood’s The Practice of Contemplative Photography, and McQuade/Hall's Looking and Seeing.  As background I have read True Perception, Trungpa Rinpoche’s talks on dharma art.

Another workbook from McQuade/Hall is set to be released in fall 2016, but that project has already been delayed and may be delayed again. 

I have found two more books in this tradition.   From the reviews online, it seems Julie DuBose’s Effortless Beauty is more a collection of reflections on her practice, rather than a programmatic teaching text. Michael Wood’s Opening the Good Eye appears to be much the same.  DuBose’s text looks more interesting for including a discussion of editing, something largely avoided by Karr/Wood and McQuade/Hall.

Anyone have any personal experience with either text?

I am presently engaged with Hoffman’s Photography as Meditation, a collection of reflections on the intersection of Zen and photography (and not a workbook).  Also on my bookshelf is Gross/Shapiro’s Tao of Photography, as well as a collection of Minor White essays.

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Photographer: Mankichi Shinshi

Here's someone whose work reminds me of my own.  I found him through this article at FotoFirst.  His website is here and he is on most of the major photo-sharing sites:

Think Twice:  http://www.mankichi44.com/
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mankichi44/ 

Book review: McQuade & Hall. (2015). Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography (Way of Seeing Book 1)

McQuade & Hall. Looking and Seeing: An Introduction to Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography (Way of Seeing Book 1). Drala Publishing, 2015

The preface makes no bones about the authors' focus:  "...we are really talking about Enlightenment."

The purpose of Miksang is not just to make pictures, but to reorient vision in order to wake up to the world beyond things.  "The most direct way to spontaneous creativity [is] not in “breaking the rules,” [but] in making contact with the world before there are rules at all.”  This can be accomplished, the authors believe, with just a short shift of orientation, or Enlightenment by a few degrees.  They compare the mind to a ship, whose destination can be radically altered by a course change of just a few degrees.

The authors are students of Sakyong Trungpa Rinpoche, one of the first Tibetan refugees of the early exodus to settle and build a Buddhist community of westerners within the United States, and of his disciple, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

This text promises to be the first of three outlining the practice of Miksang, a Tibetan word meaning "good eye."  While the authors feel Miksang is best taught, or transmitted, in face-to-face encounters, they realize as well the value of texts in being able to provide more detail than available in workshops, seminars, or lectures.

Looking and Seeing: Section Seven: Assignment: Dot in Space continued

I find I often don’t get far if I start synchronizing as soon as I walk out the door.

By synchronizing I refer to the process of calming the mind, of letting thought settle and inviting an awareness of presence - the ambient temperature, the wind, the smell and sound of the environment, the weight of my body, the placement of the limbs, the rhythm of the breath. I do this in preparation for and immediately prior to shooting in whatever environment I happen to find myself.

This weekend I was shooting my neighborhood and had the intention of visiting a far corner that I don’t often get to.  But following synchronization, I find my pace slows considerably - as I intend.  And then I never get any further than a couple of blocks from my starting point because there is so much interesting detail nearby.

My solution was to walk deliberately to that far corner without my camera to hand and do my synchronization there, rather than right outside the door.  I thought of my walk as driving to my destination and that turned out to be a workable solution.

A new hero in my pantheon of photographers: Harry Gruyaert

Gruyaert - Launderette 1988

Sometimes FB throws up something worthy.

Today it was this piece from the BJP with the headline:

“There is no story. It’s just a question of shapes and light”

On further investigation, I found:

“In Europe and especially France, there’s a humanistic tradition of people like Cartier-Bresson where the most important thing is the people, not so much the environment,” he says. “I admired it, but I was never linked to it. I was much more interested in all the elements:  the decor and the lighting and all the cars: the details were as important as humans. That’s a different attitude altogether.”

And later still:

“It’s purely intuition. There’s no concept. things attract me and it works both ways. I’m fascinated by the miracle where things come together in a way where things make sense to me, so there’s very little thinking.”

The occasion for this interview is publication of his first English-language monograph.  (BJP's FB update was to note his receipt of the 2016 PHotoEspaña Award.)  Buy the book, or visit Magnum for a collection of over 100 images.

Another interview from 2015 contains this gem on his experience of learning:

When he was 18, Gruyaert took himself off to Brussels to enrol in a film and photography school. It was here that he began spending all his time in the cinema. “The school was terrible, and I was learning nothing. But in watching films I started to understand composition and movement… I went to galleries to look at paintings, I bought magazines and books, and gradually I discovered how to see.”

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Looking and Seeing: Section Seven: Assignment: Dot in Space

Dot in space ... “is the key to the visual as the visual.”  The authors assert it encapsulates the experience of seeing:  to see a figure on a ground.  (As I’ve been arguing all along), seeing is possible because of contrast, because one thing is different from another thing. Perception, the authors argue, is an expression of a foreground figure on a background, or dot-in-space.  In fact, “all the photographs we have taken so far are dot in space.”

They then use a common optical illusion, which can be seen in one of two ways, to demonstrate how the perceiver creates perception.  They do this to make the point that perception and perceiver cannot be separated.  There is, in other words, no objective visual reality.

The assignment is to go out and shoot some dots-in-space. The chapter then proceeds to a discussion of Dot-in-Space as a Level Two practice, which the authors describe as “the world of sense and sensibility, the world of ordinary magic and everyday beauty.”

The biggest difference from Level 1 is a refinement of vision, a pulling back in which the abstract becomes concrete. (This appears to be contrary to conventional photographic practice, which begins with shooting things before learning to see them as symbols.)  There is direct engagement with things, rather than “a distanced documentation and representation.”  In Level 2, “the dot is no longer a formal perceptual value.”

The assignment is extended to work at Level 2 and seeing things as manifesting things. Unfortunately, it is not suggested how one might engage this kind of vision, but the authors claim that in reviewing photographs one should be able to distinguish between L1 and L2 images.  I’d like to see some side-by-side comparisons.

I will be shooting Dot in Space starting this weekend, but until then I have posted some recent images that seem to fit the bill.

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Book review: Trungpa, C., Lief, J. and Trungpa, C. (2008). True perception: the path of dharma art.

Trungpa, C., Lief, J. and Trungpa, C. (2008). True perception:  the path of dharma art. Boston: Shambhala.

This book constitutes the philosophical foundation of Miksang, sometimes known as Contemplative Photography, as taught by Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader and one of the first lamas to teach westerners in English vernacular.  His community proved to be long-lived and is known today principally as the center of a large Buddhist publishing concern, Shambala, and for a 4-year college, Naropa, the only accredited Buddhist institution of higher learning in the the United States.

This volume is not a treatise, but rather a collection of short texts, mostly transcribed talks on practice and aesthetics.  The book is comprised of 28 chapters, most only a few pages long.

The editor’s introduction summarizes Trungpa’s life, motivation, and goals, providing context for the texts that follow.  In essence, Trungpa was using a somewhat secularized version of Buddhist principles and practices to build an intentional community through which might emerge an enlightened society.  He was concerned with more than meditation or even art, but with all aspects of social engagement and management.

Looking and Seeing: Section Seven: Assignment: More Space

I've been focusing on space this week.  Besides setting my intention while out in the neighborhood, I've also taken to forums to seek feedback.  So far the response has been sparse:  one respondent noted a similar confusion.

I've also looked for additional text treatments on the subject (besides Karr and McQuade), but haven't yet found anything.  If anyone reading this knows of any, I would be grateful to hear from you.

I've gone back to review Karr's chapter and note these salient points:

A look at some "official" space images

McQuade and Hall admit that space is the most difficult concept to teach and the most difficult for students to grasp. Perhaps no one understands, but is afraid to say so.

Given the confusion, I thought it best to review some of the images published on Miksang sites run by authorized teachers.  If any images might offer a clue, it might be these.  

To the right is a screen shot from the Space gallery at Seeing Fresh, a website to promote Andy Karr's Contemplative Photography, a somewhat secularized copy of Miksang from a Miksang student.  The gallery features images submitted by students but selected by whoever runs the site, presumably Mr Karr or someone authorized by him.

Looking and Seeing: Section Seven: Assignment: Space

I went out with the intention of shooting space - and photographed a lot of stuff that wasn't.  I paused to synchronize, focusing on the breath, the air as it moved around me, the temperature, my posture.  After I calmed down and went looking, I found all kinds of interesting things, but little that might be space, Perhaps I was too concerned with shooting physical space - openings between things.  I think this is what happened in Japan the last time I did this exercise.  I came away with some interesting images, but not perhaps what Miksang instruction intends.

Looking and Seeing: Section Seven: Space and Dot in Space

Dragon Mart:  Space?

Miksang, speaks of space and dot in space. The art equivalents are negative and positive space.   This assignment begins with Space (negative space).

Space
Space is everywhere and nowhere.  The authors suggest that photographers work with visual space - not physical space.  This is an exercise in foregrounding the background.  It helps, they say, to try and put away common conceptions of space, namely: 1) space as what is between things, and 2) space as what surrounds things.  Both start with things and try to identify that which is not the thing.  Space is treated as something in relationship with things, or something that is not a thing.

However, despite their entreaties, it seems impossible to escape these conceptions.  Here’s how the author define the approach:

Finding my way back

Dragon Mart 2

A number of things transpired to keep me away from working on Looking and Seeing:  hot weather, planning summer vacation, and a lack of interest.  I think the latter may have come from trying too hard, trying to knock the work out so I could say I finished the book.  The Trungpa text, which I was reading in parallel, seemed impenetrable and just made things worse.  I started to feel like maybe it was all a waste of time.  It was so hot out I thought I’d work indoors and planned to spend some days at Dragon Mart.  I managed only two.  I found myself without much inspiration and little will to work through it. While planning for summer, I did a bit of reading in baseball and that led to starting a baseball blog.  I also bought a new computer and spent some hours getting it set up.

Despite the heat, I managed to get out to Hor Al Anz for a few days and start shooting again. I focused largely on objects, ignoring people and interactions.  I found that carrying the big DSLR was good for keeping all but the most curious away.  Even so, a few Pakistanis insisted I take their photos.

Finally a couple of days ago I picked up the text and decided it was time to do a little more exploring.

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Looking and Seeing: Section Six: View Interlude

It seems the authors' use of view is equivalent to philosophy, one’s “point of view.”  This section dips into the ideas underlying the practice. The authors proceed with a review of the flash of perception as an unconditioned experience, something that happens to us, something that interrupts our everyday experience of the world.  The reality is that this flash is the reality behind the ideas that color our understanding of the world.  Our ideas are the equivalent of clouds, the flash of perception a gap in the clouds allowing us to see what has always been there waiting for us to discover (or perhaps rediscover, as children seem to have largely uninterrupted access).  

Publication: The Big Issue North - once more

No sooner had the first image been published than I was asked for permission to use this one, another from my Tbilisi collection.

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Photography in the Academy

I never heard of Neal Rantoul before running across this piece in my FB newsfeed.  It explains quite well my experience of doing photography in an academic context.  I can't say that I've seen nearly the volume of this type of work, so can't possibly agree or disagree with Rantoul's generalization on its quality.  From my student experience I do know that there is far less emphasis on craft and much more reading, analyzing, and writing in order to contextualize the bit of actual photography you do when you are not engaged in documenting your work.


A Disturbing Trend

I’m old. Believe me, I know it. I’ll be 70 in a few months. That fact may make it hard for you to take me seriously, but bear with me for just this post. With age comes wisdom, right? What I want to write here is that I think the field of photography by those making art is changing in a disturbing way. Read on.

Photographic series or bodies of work are being explicated, explained, contextualized, rationalized, and elevated with text or verbal rationals. You’re thinking: so what? That’s no big deal. Let me start with a short history and then let’s take a look at current practice.