Quaker conference several weeks back, I took a workshop in Contemplative Photography. It was taught by Peter Nutting from Maine. The course was about seeing. How to see the world in terms of its images. How to let those images present themselves. How to meet them half-way using the camera. Not to "capture" or "take" pictures. Rather how to let them open themselves on their own terms. How to have the patience to let that happen.
Each day we did an "assignment"...a task that formed a framework within which we could do our own exploring. One day it was color. I smiled broadly when I heard the assignment because the day before I had been struck, rooted to a spot, when I saw the climbing wall in the gym...the holds were of such vibrant colors.
I spent a long while at the gym enjoying them again. And other colors that I had noted before, but I had never really seen them.
The color of the zipper on my mail bag carrier...
The top of a picnic table....
I am not sure that seeing is believing...especially in these days of media-generated images...but seeing does provide a window on understanding the world in some of its own terms.
Location:Dominican Republic
