Category Archives: Articles

Contemplative photography with its ordinariness may seem a poor substitute for contemporary, conceptual photography. However, when looked at it from the inside it is a profound way of ‘seeing’ which is easily overlooked and discarded. The author offers an explanation of why it is so.

The author talks about how one can practice ‘experiencing directly’ which is the basis for contemplative photography (he refers to two books).
These practice exercises are simple but take patience and time to develop. When successful one gets a glimpse at what it means to see with body and mind.

The author talks about the importance of seeing first hand what is in front of us without interference by our conditioned egocentric way of seeing. He emphasizes the necessity of a quiet and open mind that pays attention to what is and not to what we wish it to be. It may sound easy to attain a quiet mind, he says, but it requires a great deal of practice and work on oneself.

The author contends that the satisfaction derived from contemplative photography is fundamentally quite different from the satisfaction we get from our habitual way of making pictures.

The author describes special moments of perception that are the centre piece of contemplative photography and of creativity in general.