March 2, 2019

Photography Is Awareness

Don McCullin, "So I realized that my photography was finally succeeding.  I could see the reactions, and I began to work even more precisely, searching out the really bad scenes to make people aware of them."

In the past photography was a means of expressing something personal, something unique that the photographer felt compelled to create. And bring forward, from our inner motives, into the present tense to be seen as inspiration and a warning that things are beginning to get overwhelmed with the selfish burden of egos taking images without understanding the significance of the scene hidden under layers of easy compositions and an urge to move on before the revelation overcomes the objective moments and you immerse yourself into the subjective scenes created through your intuitive mind.  

Image creation of the past was a stream of consciousness, a representation of our inner landscape externalized. The great masters of photography would be appalled at the shallow character of image making now. There is no burden of self, no deep relationships with the subject but a surface of details that look pretty but do nothing to express the moment in your own unique visual sense. That gives the viewer a real appreciation of the subject and composition chosen because it reveals something inside the photographer and through his deep relationship with the subject he showed the world a truth in himself and in the external universe.

Photos represent an artifact of our existence, yes we lived and we passed into the dark purpose of infinity. Image creation is our means of showing others our inner make-up. What interests us and what we think is an important subject to explore and express through our own personal vision.

To photograph your inner landscape you must know your internal personality not the facade you show to others in the public domain.

The bottom line is that before the onslaught of image takers there was a since of our world being represented in photos that gave us awareness of our unique time on this planet and images specially created in the photographers courage to witness human aggression toward each other in this world that was belligerently evil.

Now the evil is so prevalent that we are overcome by the physical nature of mankind that we don't exist to explore our surroundings but to destroy nature and humanity at the same time.

The physicalness of these shallow, present moments are used not for inspiration but for self indulgence in pleasures of the flesh and crimes against humanity. 

How many times have we felt as photographers the feeling that we are missing an image.  An image that is right in front of us in the present landscape we chose to explore but you still can't get the elements of the scene to come together and you feel the frustration of the mind demanding that you move on down the road but in the back of your consciousness you have an inkling that there is something present and then your intuition kicks in and you see for the first time the scene that was hidden, instead of listening to your domineering intellect you let go of the movement of time and focused your mind on the present moments that were waiting to be discovered and you opened yourself to the possibilities your inner vision saw waiting to be discovered.

The mysterious intuitive voice in our head is stating a fact of life. We sometimes get sidetracked by the hustle and bustle of life and it’s demeaning nature. Like cattle we commute and we slave in order to survive the intense pressure to buy and multiply our possessions without any plan of letting go and becoming yourself and not the social butterfly of conformity.

I think about the energy I spend creating images. I would plan the trip and focus on places I had never been. Planning didn't include a time limit on where I was making photographs. I would get up for sunrise and then travel to a new location I scouted during the day before, for a sunset.  

Photographers still do this and I feel their commitment to the cause of self-revelation. But if you look at the economics of your photography career you are in a vice of low RF pricing and an overwhelming amount of copycat imagery. 

Our senses are being dulled to the photo shopped images with blazing colors of enhancement and not the true colors of nature's rapture.

We are exposed to the human gluttony of avarice and the demanding nature of the 21st century beings of greed to take something from their moments not because they want to remember and understand what they saw and what they felt in those moments of picture creating but because they want to own it, they want to express their ego in the pictures by showing clips of the scene, surface reflections, as if they really experienced the moment in complete unity with their subject. 

Instead of becoming one with their subject they look for the showing of a product, a way to say look at me everyone, instead of making something visually stunning from their inner discoveries projected outward in natures beauty they produce the cliche, the expensive product shown in the foreground.

To be a good photographer you must first embrace your gifted inner dialog, the external world will wait patiently for your inner revelations to be expressed through a growing visual sensitivity. 

By first grasping your inner vision that you were unaware of you began to explore the possibilities with a concentrated effort, to make contact with your vision externalized and then create a moment in time that you were mentally and physically aware was happening.

If you want to compete with the billions of images flooding the stock market on a daily basis you have to create uniqueness on a personal, individual level. And through the process of creating your own personal imagery you gain confidence not from the viewers looking at your work but because you had the strength and determination to create your unique inner expression outward for the world to see. This takes courage and intense determination to focus and not retreat from your inner personal vision.