Copyright 2009, Robert Bridges
All Rights Reserved
Photography attempts to write with light. Its purpose is to record, to reflect and to reveal the self and the world. The possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination. Photographs are often seen as visual statements but “photographs can be felt, they can be intuited, they can be imagined as well as seen,” (1) and the camera always points both ways.
Contemplation is a spiritual practice. A spiritual discipline honored by all religious systems. To contemplate is simply to be attentive and open, receptive, inquisitive, and playful. The object of contemplation can be anything. The possibilities are endless. The gentle receptive quality of contemplation opens the heart to experiences of freedom, love, and appreciative joy. “There are moments in our lives there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom.” (2)
Contemplative photography uses the camera as a meditative tool, as a means of concentrating one’s awareness, and focusing one’s intent. Using camera we patiently observe and are absorbed by the inter-play of life before us. Camera allows engagement, exploration, and imaginative play, and playfulness is key. Contemplation teaches us, among other things, to trust. To trust our intuitions our insights, and our experiences; to observe and encounter the phenomenon of life unfolding before and within us and if we are lucky, we experience moments of grace, moments of freedom, and moments of joy.
“The key to seeing the world’s soul, and in the process wakening one’s own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination is an illusion. It is the other way around.” (3)
Robert Bridges
Contemplative Photography
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