Zen Camera by David Ulrich

Author:David Ulrich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
Published: 2018-02-13T05:00:00+00:00

Swimming Pool, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, David Ulrich

The practice of perfecting a craft is akin to perfecting yourself. Early Zen masters taught techniques of pottery, swordsmanship, archery, and other arts to help the practitioner to get out of the way, to transcend the ego and discover a natural, responsive way of living and working. In a direct and yet mysterious way, the potter’s wheel encourages a centering of the human body. The pot created conveys the attention of its maker, or lack thereof. In swordsmanship, death may result from a lack of fluid, mobile attention. Photography does not have fatal repercussions but is nonetheless reflective of your mindful attention. I have a theory. If two photographers were standing side by side, sharing the same tripod holes, and they were using the same equipment, could you see and feel the difference if one was present and attending to the subject and the other was just making a picture by rote out of a distracted mind? Can awareness infuse art with the thought and feeling of its maker? I think so. You can see in a photographer’s work when they were fully present. You can also see a steady, focused hand in the image done afterward on the computer or in the darkroom. A coherence results in the image from sensitive attention and a fluid responsiveness in post-processing.

Can awareness infuse art with the thought and feeling of its maker?

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