Capturing the Present: A Journey into Mindfulness Through Photography
Being in a total state of consciousness and appreciating the present moment can be quite a challenge, especially when faced with our fast paced culture of today’s western society. When society now a days is so rushed, distracted and consumer based; it can be easy to become lost from the present moment.
As an photographer who practices mindful art and slow culture, I would love to share experience on how to access the present moment of conscious being while creating mindful art. In this blog, I will be discussing how I remain mindful and escape the rush and pressure of day to day life, in reference to my process of photography and image making.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a state of fully conscious awareness and being. It is a state of accepting the present moment. A very simple way to experience mindfulness is to take a moment to slow down; inhale deeply for four seconds and then exhale for four seconds, repeat this and feel how your body is in a total state of being - focus on every cell of your body.
Mindfulness can even be celebrated within every day to day tasks that you may have been procrastinated into as a chore. First of all, become habitual of not rushing your chores - instead slow down. For example, when you next start to wash your dishes, bring your awareness to how the bubbles formed are so detailed and beautiful, you can also start to feel the sensation of the warm water run through your hands. Once you start to slow down, you can allow yourself to appreciate and become mindful of your process of completing tasks.
Mindfulness in Art
In applying mindfulness to art, I begin with appreciating the everyday. This aids my overall inspiration and helps me find beauty in the mundane. I then tend to delve deeper into Eastern philosophies such as Wabi-Sabi, a beautiful concept which explains a feeling of appreciating imperfection.
As artists know, it can be pretty tricky to navigate a perfect outcome in our final approaches to a project. This is why I have fallen in love with embracing imperfection. When we’re so attached to a perfect outcome, we are not in a state of conscious awareness; we are lead by our mind and our ego, this is usually driven by expectations (which are usually not met, resulting in disappointment). When we let go of expectation, we can begin to incorporate a process where we experiment and in turn, we then allow ourselves to go with the mindful flow of being and accepting the full process of developing art work. Through trial and error, experimentation and accepting imperfection - we can release any harsh expectations or outcomes and be totally free to the unknown and present moment.
Mindful Processes: Creating Art Through Photography:
1. Observation
Starting with one of the main elements of photography - observation. When I am street photographing, I tend to climates towards my surrounding before reaching for my camera. I attempt to ground myself in the environment so that I am fully aware of the surroundings. Once I become aware of the environment I am in, I can then amplify my gratitude towards my observations. Once I notice and feel how beautiful my surroundings are, I then start to use my camera as a tool to frame chosen subjects in the street. These incidents are usually unexpected, which also strengthens my belief in universal alignment; ‘everything happens for a reason’. Once you are in the present moment, you usually can not undo the awareness of your surroundings; simplicity becomes embraced and appreciated for something more divine.
2. Releasing Expectation
As a freelance commercial and editorial fashion photographer, I am very organised, managerial, and fast paced. While these are great attributes to posses while managing a team of creatives on a photoshoot when working for a variety of clients, it can restrict my practice of mindfulness. This is something that I am self aware of, and I am trying to allocate different methods to become mindful in my commercial work.
Releasing expectation of the final outcome helps me practice mindfulness in my commercial work, while also giving myself permission to embrace mistakes. When we release expectation to a desired outcome, we open ourselves up to surprises, happy accidents and a change of direction. All of these are necessary to practicing mindfulness as they are accepting changes through the planning and creating of art. For me personally, having a detailed structure, time plan and concept sheets are crucial when working on a photoshoot for clients, but having the happy medium of sharing organised structure with releasing expectation will not only release pressure for myself, but also aid my practice of mindfulness in the form of accepting change of plans.
3. Slowing Down
Remember when I introduced mindfulness to you? I mentioned how slowing down helps to not only ground us, but to become more observant in our surroundings. The more observant and aware we become, the more appreciative and mindful we become of the subjects around us. In creating a mindful and slow process, I dedicate my process of slowing down to analogue film photography. We are so used to the fast paced capitalistic society that society now a days forms us into an addiction of being rushed and impatient. When I use analogue photography I treat it although I am giving myself time to take a deep breath away from the distraction of the everyday hustle and bustle, impatience and rush of our capitalistic society. When using film based 120mm or 35mm cameras, I am in a state of mindfulness as I have to slow down and dedicate more detail and time into every photograph I capture. Not only is the process of capturing images mindful, but also the post production of developing and processing film negatives.
4. Play
Taking you back in time to your childhood, remember how good it was to play? You can still do this now. When we are in a state of playfulness, we let go of any limiting beliefs while we also create an amazing space for imagination. While this amplifies our authentic creativity, we can be mindful in appreciating the fun state of playing and experimenting. An example could be using magazines or books to collage with. I tend to use collaging as a technique to unblock me from a creative rut as it helps me create something with absolutely no intention. By experimenting with different textures, colour palettes and imagery, you will start to realise how fun this process can be. The importance of this is to release expectation, like we discussed earlier, you can then allow yourself to be mindful as you’re not limiting yourself to any desired outcome. There is no intention set here - it’s just for fun.
