Category Archives: Articles

The author talks about how one can access and facilitate the process of creativity when one has forgotten how to be creative. He outlines how Zen meditation practice (zazen) can rekindle one’s inherent creativity and how it can be applied to photography. Engaging in this process adds richness not only to one’s images but to one’s life as well/

In Zen there is a fundamental difference between the seeing of ‘self without form’ and the seeing of ‘self with form’. An example of formless seeing is the ‘flash of perception’. It changes how form is expressed in a new way and manifests as a intangible vibrant quality that is ordinarily not seen.

Perceiving directly happens prior to any conceptualization by oneself, prior to any deliberate photographic action. One could say the picture is taken before you take it. We take for granted that it is the I or you who takes the picture. By identifying with the attitude of a hunter in pursuit of images we build a fence around …

Continue reading “The Picture Is Taken Before You Take It”

There is an old principle that says “what you resist persists”. The concepts or ideas we have about originality imprison us and don’t allow creativity to flow. They become barriers to seeing – they limit us. The way through a barrier is to be the barrier. Robert Frost suggested something similar: “The best way out is always through”. Using this paradoxical approach helps to switch from seeing conceptually to perceiving directly.

When we encounter art we are engaged in a way of seeing that goes beyond the conventional, beyond what can be conceptualized and defined. It means one has to allow oneself to be open as much as possible. With practice, we facilitate this switch to seeing creatively and recognize that appreciation and creation of art have a common root.