Part 2: Aperture
A photograph is neither taken or seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Second appointment with the series of video reflections on contemplative photography and the various connections with Christian meditation.
This time we will consider how the action of taking pictures could be a possessive act and how we can transform it into something different, in something more relational.
Let's have a look to the introductory video:
Video 2_1: Introduction to Searching for Light (and Shadow)
Video 2_2 Aperture - Possessive Photography and Contemplative Photography
In English we use the verb “to take” - to take a picture - to describe the act of recording an image.
In contemplative photography we pass from a possessive approach to a compassionate and contemplative approach.
Video 2_3 Aperture - Edward Weston and Still Life Photography
Now we are going to consider Still Life Photography as a genre that might help us in establishing an empathic relationship.
A warm-heartedly bond that we can also call compassion.
Video 2_4 - Aperture - John Main (1926-1982) and Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Two contemplatives of the 20th century are accompanying us in our journey.
John Main, the benedictine monk who gave birth to the WCCM and Thomas Merton, a renowned spiritual author and writer.
In saying our mantra, in the daily return to the discipline, we gradually learn to look beyond ourselves.
We learn to see with a vision that focuses itself ahead of us, in God.
John Main, The Way of Unknowing
Keep your eyes clean and your ears quiet and your mind serene.
Breathe God’s air.
Work, if you can, under His sky.
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, c. 12
Video 2_5 - Aperture - An Exercise of Still Life Photography
For this reflection I suggest a simple exercise of Still Life photography.
Take an object, or a fruit, or a plant that you have in your house and bring it into your meditation room...
A picture from father Laurence Freeman, OSB
A picture taken from father Laurence's collection for the
Daily Wisdom - https://wccm.org/mobile/daily-wisdom/
Daily Wisdom - https://wccm.org/mobile/daily-wisdom/
Bibliography.
Beholding Paradise: The Photographs of Thomas Merton
by Thomas Merton, Paul M. Pearson
Paulist, Mahwah; 2015
Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton
by John Howard Griffin
Wings Press, San Antonio, Tex.; 2010
The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes
by Andy Karr, Michael Wood
Shambhala, Boston; 2011
Zen Camera: Creative Awakening With a Daily Practice in Photography
by David Ulrich
Watson-Guptill, New York; 2018
Christian Meditation. The Gethsemani Talks
by John Main
Medio Media Pub., Tucson, AZ; 2001
New Seeds of Contemplation
by Thomas Merton
New Directions, New York; 2007
First edition: 1962
Meditazione e fotografia. Vedendo e ascoltando passare l'attimo
by Diego Mormorio
Contrasto, Roma; 2008
Fotografia creativa. Corso con esercizi per svegliare l'artista che dorme dentro di te
by Franco Fontana
Mondadori, Milano; 2017
This is a project for the World Community for the Christian Meditation - WCCM
Teacher Leader Programme - Cohort II - 2021-2022
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