contemplative photography

my mother, of all people, sent me an email last night to tell me about a story she saw on the cbc yesterday about a type of photography based upon meditation and the relinquishing of one’s preconceptions about the world called miksang photography.
in the story, the photographer who is educating people in the art of miksang, which is the tibetan word for “good eye”, said that, as a classically trained, technical photographer, if he had seen his miksang photographs he would have thought they were interesting, but that they broke all the traditional rules of composition. he confessed that he probably wouldn’t have understood them on many levels.
the story struck a chord with me in two distinct aspects. the first made me realize that i do a lot of photographing and then thinking later. most of the photos i love best are the ones i just made, without judgement of whether they were technically perfect. i don’t often follow any the rule of thirds and i’ve been known to deliberately chop the heads of people. the second, was to realize that many times my photos are not understood by people. specifically when i do something unusual, like chop the heads off the bride and groom.
watching the clip, seeing his photographs, learning more about the exercises he teaches his students to let go and just see the world, compounded by my recent desire for a new camera and seeing the movie the photographer have made me realize, and remember, that one of the things i love to do, more than anything else, is make photographs. i’ve been taking pictures all my life. i may not remember everything i used to know about f-stops, apertures and depth of field, nor may i ever be famous or even considered adequate by anyone other than a small few, but i love taking pictures. it may actually be that one thing that i love to do, that i could learn to do very well.
just imagine!