The Path To Photographic Enlightenment Is The Way To A Photographic StyleDeveloping photographic enlightenment is the equivalent of developing an individual and recognizable photographic style. You cannot properly choose, when first starting out on the path of photography, your photographic style. It is a thing that comes from within, in stages, as first the mechanical, then the mental and finally the emotional/spiritual/symbolic aspects of photography are learned and mastered. Also, the goal should never be “a” style that is yours alone. Photographic style(and enlightenment) is constantly evolving as we live each day and make more images to communicate more ideas. It is not and should not be a static thing. We all need to be constantly learning students of visual communication.
All of us, unless we are already an accomplished artist in another field, start out in photography on a totally unenlightened level and having no style of our own. We buy or are given a camera and start making images in a fairly random manner of whatever happens to catch our eye at that moment. When we review these photos they are almost entirely disappointing. Occasionally there will be something that is close to what we had hoped for when we pushed the shutter button. All of these images, bad and slightly better, should be examined both technically and emotionally. The technical/mechanical problems are worked out on a conscious level: smaller lens opening for greater depth of field, faster shutter speed to freeze or blur movement, more or less overall exposure for better shadow and/or highlight detail, etc… The emotional/symbolic problems are the more difficult and are worked out on a subconscious level: why does this image “work” but the other five hundred do not have anything to say? This is the first and lowest level on the path towards visual enlightenment – realizing that we really know nothing and wanting to learn more. The second level of the path involves ridding ourselves of the preconceived notions instilled in us by the world since childhood. We must unlearn the fact that all things are best learned by reading books, listening to teachers and copying the techniques of others. Many things, visual communication among them, are best and only truly learned by doing them successfully ourselves, by experiencing them. So the second step along the path involves much wild and chaotic experimentation. There are many, many failures and dead-ends resulting in a few successes which are never forgotten. These successes are also much more universal in nature, and at the same time more personal, than anything learned from a book. The third step toward photographic enlightenment is an intensely personal inner examination of why the successes learned on the second level work for us. This process is at the core of our personal “style”. It is made up of some material/technical aspects(wide angle lens, very close to the subject, shallow depth of field, intense color saturation, etc…) and mostly emotional/symbolic aspects(how we feel about our subjects, what do we want to communicate through our images, are we inner or outer travelers or both, etc…). Settling these issues even partially and subconsciously allows a truly personal photographic style to develop.
The fourth level along the path is using our new-found inner knowledge and photographic style to live more fully in the wider world. The fourth step is using our photography and our lives as examples for others by communicating the beauty and wonder we see in the world. It means using our hard-won visual communication skills to call attention to problems that are not being adequately addressed. It is using our images to point out our shared humanity so that people of different continents and different faiths and different races see our similarities as well as our differences. This is true photographic enlightenment – good visual communication used to make the world a better place. Return from Photographic Enlightenment to Inner Photography
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