A question I’ve encountered recently: what is mindful photography… about? The short answer is that mindful photography can be about anything. The better answer however is that the subject of photography is not what is mindful or not. Hence, just because I take a photograph of a Buddhist monk does not mean that I am a mindful person, that the shot was taken mindfully, nor that mindfulness resides somewhere in the image. We should probably move to defining mindfulness, but I will skip that for now.
Well then, where does mindfulness reside? For me, and given my own background practicing mindfulness, it resides not in me as container (nor in other objects as repositories of mindfulness, all bottled up for use here and there), but in my disposition to enact an ethos of mindfulness. That means that mindfulness is not a thing. It is instead, a practice, an attitude, a disposition and inclination, a sensibility, it is a way in which we relate to all that is. Whether taken in a spiritual way, from a Buddhist perspective, from a scientific and medical perspective of stress-relief, or even from an artistic understanding of presencing, mindfulness is not about the subject, it is revealing of the relationship of being fully present.
But, can a picture be mindful? My concern here is that folks will think that we can create another genre or category of images, those under the rubric “mindful” and somehow expect them to not just look a particular way, but evoke a particular response or set of responses. The key is that as photographers we can practice being mindful observers of the world, as well as engage in our techne with as much mindfulness as possible. Such a disposition can enhance our witnessing of the moment, our photographic imagination, our seeing deeply, and infuse our work with such a character (ethos). The outcome might be that our images are more than mere representation, and become revealing of the world we inhabited at that moment. Notice that I did not say “the world as it was at that moment,” nor “the world as it is.” What might be revealed in such photography is the way we mindfully experienced that moment. That mindfulness opened our eyes to elements of the situation that we perhaps treated, composed, and/or addressed differently as a result of our being fully present. That makes a difference in our images, and in how a viewer in turn sees what we present. Of course, our own mindful persona might influence the subjects we select, our imagination, our artistic vision. And let us not forget that the viewer brings much to that experience.
Ah, but another question comes up: does our photography have to reveal such mindful disposition? No. Viewers might know nothing about mindfulness and still get a feel for the photographer’s deep witnessing and/or presence of that moment. What’s more, the image does not have to be iconically about what gets depicted as “mindful subjects.” A good photograph of a Buddha statue does not necessarily entail any mindfulness on the part of the photographer. I italicize the word necessarily because beyond technical skill, great photography, in its artistry, does require having the kind of sensitivity and sensibility that reveals a mindful disposition (at least for that moment).
Do you have to be a great photographer to be mindful and/or produce mindful work? Of course not. A mindful disposition will most likely increase your enjoyment of photography, make you slow down and pay attention, look deeply, and enhance your photographic imagination. Slowing down and paying deep attention are foundational steps for enhancing your technical skills. Photography will become more than “point and shoot” and its technical aspects will be more than just an exercise in the mastery of imaging technology.
There are, no doubt, many ways in which people take mindfulness and practice it. For me, given my Zen inclinations and practice, a mindful disposition is not just about being a good artist, nor about a particular subject, or “look” of images, but about developing an ever increasing understanding of interbeing (interconnection with everything). I also want to offer that understanding, that feeling (if that’s what comes through) to those who view my images.
What is it for you?
