February 19, 2020

What is it about photography that is so addictive? Why do we love to take images of ourselves, our foods, our bodies, our faces our lives?  

Memories express something about us, how we live, what we like, what our interests might be. Memories can guide us forward or they can cripple us to a life not lived.

Photography is a means of escape, a path to explore the external world and to seek an image that can express an emotional moment without distracting, jumbled subjects, mismatched assembly of in-cohesive details, which allows them to be absorbed by the reality they are present in, unaware of the photographer capturing their moments.

We as a society really like conformity. We don’t like conflict, having to argue with someone about their lives and who we are. We seem to demand privacy when it comes to sharing our inner being, our inner thoughts.  It is time to break free from the fear of expressing your inner nature. 

You need to be strong, have faith in your inner voice ready to express your intuitive vision and hurdle over the mental blocks that are hindering you from becoming your true expression, externalized through image creation. 

We should be fed up, tired of hiding in ourselves missing our only chance to show the reality we live in through our own personal inner visual relationship we have with the outer world. We need to break free from the chains of imitation. To become yourself you need to acknowledge your intuitive force within, which is trying to get you motivated to see your true self through inner awareness outer perceptions.

Life doesn’t end with one set back or two or a hundred. If you believe in your vision then you must follow that path that gives you your inner focus!

In today’s culture living is more copying what other people do rather than expressing your unique visual voice. As technology takes over our mental capabilities, making it easier for us to be manipulated, whereby we don’t have to have independent thoughts of our own perspective, our own unique interpretation of the reality we were born into, because it is easier to flow with the crowd and accept another’s observations as our own. That is demeaning your inner realization of selfhood by substituting someone else’s visual beliefs as your own. 

You can’t be yourself, your true self, if you project outward someone else’s unique talent  that doesn’t represent your inner insights.

This inability to be a unique human being with your own personal thoughts displayed through your artistic imagination will not bring you any closer to your truth, your own exploration of your inner talents.

You must fight to find yourself and what you admire in this world and what you are truly interested in. And more importantly how will you express this knowledge through your own visual originality.

Imagination is the beginning steps of self revelation. Creating something through your own inner will begins your journey towards personal freedom of thoughts. You are an individual without puppet strings attached to your physical presence or your mental perceptions of this old and contaminated reality of wealthy greed determined to control your thoughts and your will to improve your reality.

Singular expression of your subject that has been photographed to infinity and beyond and yet you were able to capture a detail, a landscape that brought a new understanding of the subject to the public eye, a new perspective which separates you from the herd. 

It can be intimidating and sometimes a lonely journey, so we retreat to an easier path, a solution dictated to us by others that have a very different idea of your future life. If you are going to be manipulated why not be manipulated by immersing yourself in nature rather than allowing someone else to dictate how you should live through your future years.

Is it the ability to capture a scene, a person and then have a history represented to you through that image that allows you to remember the scene and its significance as you age and reminisce about the time you were present taking that particular picture or were you the subject of the picture and someone else captured you in the scene. And by being the subject you had no control over the composition or exposure and seeing yourself posed in a way unfamiliar can be an extraordinary feeling of hopelessness. As if that person in the picture is someone else, not you.

Being present in your moments is the gift that photography gives the photographer if he realizes the importance of his involvement in the scene. First, by having an interest in the subject and a feeling of  inner connection with the landscape and allowing his personality, his ego to step aside and just bring forth his inner unique feelings to merge with his presence as the subject is slowly revealed. A revelation that doesn't always happen immediately but over time, you begin to see details that are important but something is holding you back, hindering your ability to find that unique perspective that will free up your mental focus that is obsessing with another aspect of the scene and then as if by magic you see perfectly the  relationship that is beginning to unfold with connective possibilities.

Or is there something else going on that attracts someone to photography? You the photographer have a certain power, an ability to document the world and all its horrors and pleasures.  

The ability to make from the physicality of existence another piece of a unique puzzle, creating an image that can’t be duplicated, framed and admired through your lifetime is just one of the powers in photography. It is a means to describe the world through your own personal expression whether it is a snap shot of a scene or an in depth study of a person or place, a subject that you are attracted to and want to be immersed in because it has a meaningful purpose for yourself and you hope others.

Break free from the structured control society demands of its citizens. All get in straight line and follow all the rules we have set up to control your intuitive self that is bursting with ideas for exploration.  

We are bombarded all our lives with conservative ideas and ways of living. Our existence is determined by the forces of technology and mental propaganda on how to behave in living a dull, bored existence.  

The ruling class doesn’t want you to break free from the role you are playing. You are their pawns to be manipulated for their profits.

We have a natural need to belong to something perceived bigger than ourselves. How can we be part of something bigger than our own unique presence? Our own individuality is bigger than any life worth living. Our uniqueness is our gift to ourselves and our means to freedom and a unique expression.

Once we have summoned our intuitive forces to begin unraveling the structures that limit our ability to be perceptive and innovative in our lives then we can begin to choose wisely by slowing down and studying our subject before we begin making images.

Random shooting is the cliche of street photography. We need to go beyond the unrelatedness of the subject with our inner creativity that seeks harmony with the outer world represented through your inner intuitive force.

The outer world is preoccupied with controlling our lives and stunting our ability to express a personal vision.

Your special presence, being alive, with your individual perceptions is your ticket for freedom and your visual preparations are as unique as you are if you have the courage and a willingness to express yourself in a natural expression of your unique truth.

Photography is a means to capture memories. But whose memories? If you are a wedding photographer you are capturing someone else's memories. 

If you are a photojournalist then you are capturing historic events for future generations to see and feel the past and its powerful influence of the wealthy on our freedoms of expression.

If you are a tourist then you are capturing images that are your memories to share but without the depth of perception and a deep personal connection. In other words you are taking images not making them!

You could be the designated family photographer that clicks his shutter anytime he sees an image he feels might have value even if the subject disagrees months later that that is not what they look liked. He is creating memories for the family to see their own progression through the years, how faces and bodies are aging and those life events that mean something for everyone.

He is taking memories not making them.  He is objective and sees only the surface of a scene without realizing the need to penetrate deeper into the scene with his own unique viewpoint. Instead he settles for an image already framed from a repetitive visual sense that he is tied to, that is solidified as the subjects line-up and pose as they have for decades without any depth of character!

If you are a visual artist then you are creating an inner perception externalized. This could be instigated by a past memory or it could be the revelation in process of an inner intuition that has finally surfaced and presented the photographer with a means of expression, an expression of a deep personal revelation.

The moments that need to remembered lose value as we move forward in times destructive nature, age lessons the need for individuality and religion takes a bigger chunk of your inner life. Mental capabilities lesson and we seek easy answers to our inherent passing.  We feel the longing we missed in youth and we appeal to the maker for a second chance. We don't get second chances in life, what you need is the stamina in youth and the singled minded purpose of your unique visual sense to become, to evolve into your unique perspective. If you wait to long your life begins to unravel and shrivel up, you become unbalanced and your focus is hindered by death's all encompassing determination. 

Your life needs to be constantly on the alert for that unique perspective you were born into but lost as society determined your future.  

Don't let someone else's structured existence influence you to conform to their status quo. You are unique and need to express your inner world through your individual  expression.

We seek the duplicate experience that gave us pleasure and hope and we move forward always trying to duplicate a moment that was unique in our minds eye but can never be identical to your previous moment. Time moves forward, changing us and changing the outer reality we live through. 

Your first truth in making an image of your subject became an ideal you wanted to duplicate. This truth in your subject dissipated through time, a loss of a deep connection, which you always need to bring forth a memorable visual counterpoint that will not imitate an already existing image taken years before. You only get one chance to click that shutter and create an image that you are pleased with.