Aaron Siskind, " We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect...but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs."
Displacement of purpose, the retreat to create a different reality is the purpose of the the new social media propaganda. The media sites are our new home of expression without real human contact. A distraction from your necessary concerns.
Photographs exploit this need in us to use our imagination to create new selves (other worlds) beyond our short existence. This wanting to be seen, heard and appreciated is a constant drumbeat of life's illusionary mystery.
Imposing your will on the landscape is a constant battle to control the media of external representation. This need for humans to take charge over nature is instinctive.
To manifest your deeper purpose we must let go of the trivia of ego. We must let go the need to project words on the external flux of space and time. You could spend your whole life trying to rule outcomes of your behavior even thinking that you are in charge of your life and then bang something happens out of the blue and dislodges you from your perfect timing. You can't limit the transitions with stubborn will but learn to accept your journey as your necessary path taken.
The acceptance is the internal fight to accept your place as an ever changing struggle to become more. No one should acquiesce to the dull throb of endless constraint.
You must have a strong vision to get the image you have seen in your mind but haven't been able to capture it. This doesn't mean you limit your vision to just one particular object but you open your mind to the multiplicity of manifested subjects calling your name..
It is a battle of wills to push through the trilogy of defeat, accepting less, taking the easy path, allowing the external world to create defeat even before the attempt to start is made.
Stifling oneself with a cascading rain of endless possibilities will confuse your internal purpose. Your uniqueness needs to be expressed and you have the details already present that will make a clear vision of your inner landscape. You just have to be present and looking. Not holding a machine in your hand looking down at it as if this was your life blood to the external world. It is an illusion. You need to be looking up and outward.
In photography your life goal is not already predestined but continually in flux. It is not prefabricated through thoughts but is shaped by you as you mature and deepen your relationships with nature. As you connect more with shaping the external world into an image with power and openness you will begin to break free from the standard conformity of the herd that structures your life's goals.
It is a battle of wills between your vision and the subject you are interested in. You fight against the light changing, the subject not fitting into your preconceived script, the slowness of your reaction, the impatience not to wait but move on and then looking back you see the moment of your vision happen but to late for you to experience it as your own.
In those moments of missed opportunities just enjoy the spectacle and remember patience denies times momentum.
But next time pause your life for a few seconds, minutes or hours and let the image present but unseen reveal itself in all its connective force.
Your vision is to connect first with your subject and then with your viewer. That relationship you have with your subject is the most important in order to allow serendipity to magnify your patience and relationship with the scene.
Bringing forth a new vision a new perspective that others can appreciate and take part in.
As adults we begin to lose our ability to stay the influx of defining words that limit our experience.
It easier just to ignore the undercurrents of a scene and just accept the surface cascade. If you had to concentrate on the scene you might have to dig deeper into yourself and to recognize your connection to the scene in front of you and maybe your fear of what it really reveals.
Children recognize an unblemished perception, a quality in the dialogue being presented, an interaction wanted, a feeling of acceptance of and a reaction to, that is natural and purposeful. Another words a relationship that is real.
