A while back I wrote a post for another blog, and for folks on campus, regarding some obstacles that we experience in mindfulness practice (I lead a mindfulness group on campus). As I noted at that time, when I was writing “it quickly became apparent that these are nothing but my own challenges to practice.” It turns out that writing the list itself became an exercise in being mindful about my own practice. A mindfulness practice of course ought to encompass everything we do, and I try to make sure it permeates my photography. So, I thought, why not connect these “obstacles” to photography? I should say that mindfulness and photography are reciprocal activities for me. Photography enhances my mindfulness, and a mindfulness practice sure makes my photography practice better.
Since there were quite a few items I’ll post a few at a time here.
Facing our Assumptions & Inflexible Thinking:
- Either/Or Thinking: This kind of polarization is particularly unhelpful as I often come across folks who repeat things like, “a good practice HAS to be like this,” or who make claims about “the way an image should look” or what being “professional” or a “real photographer,” or “an artist” is or is not. In any case, a practice marked by either/or thinking would seem to be pretty limiting for exploring photography, our artistic selves, beauty, etc. We should try to be explicitly self-conscious about our own assumptions.
- Fear of Truth: This refers to the fear of facing the insight that emerges from deep looking and mindfulness. Often this fear becomes so intense that the insight from practice is distorted in order to make it fit with one’s own cherished assumptions. Discomfort with what we face about ourselves is unavoidable. We must welcome bracing insight about our own assumptions, beliefs, and claims.
- Seeing Only What We Expect or Have Learned to See: The tyranny of assumptions and expectations that are unacknowledged, or that we have been conditioned to expect, is enormous. A healthy mindfulness practice, whether in photography or any other activity, looks deeply to see how we fetishize attachments to brands, equipment, to this or that master, or particular approaches.
The theme here is that photography is a creative enterprise, too many assumptions, too much boxing ourselves in, limits our ability to be present and experience the moment fully.
