I don’t know that I can honestly say photography has saved my life, but I can confidently say it gives me a life worthy of living.
As I begin reading through the chapters in Rick Sammon’s latest photography book, Photo Therapy Motivation and Wisdom: Discovering the Power of Pictures, I realize that the suggested exercises are something I sincerely need to take to heart. The best way to hold myself accountable for their completion is to make them public. So here I start with Chapter One, and the task of expressing what photography means to me.
The initial feeling about defining what photography is to me was that the list would be endless. Photography means so many different things; self-expression, therapy, relaxation, meditation, communication, self-identity, discovery… I could go on and on! But I do feel like there must be a way to distill all of these things down. So rather than an endless list I feel it would be more effective to describe how I feel while I am creating an image. So I am attacking this task from that angle.
I guess at my core, when I am creating I have a strong feeling of connection. I am hyper aware of the world around me and the interconnected relationships of everything in it. Yet, at the same time within that interconnected web around me I have the peaceful, freeing feeling that I am able to step outside the web of life and float above it as an observer suspended in time. The world seems to stop revolving around me and everything stills. I don’t feel heat or cold. I have no feelings of hunger or thirst. My drive to go to the bathroom (which most of the time is extremely often) disappears, and the constant chatter in my brain silences. It literally feels like the world stops and lays into my hands the reigns of the universe.
It is pretty obvious when I am in this zone. I can squat for hours it seems waiting for that pet to fall into that perfect pose. I fearlessly lay at the edge of the surf, wet and muddy with my vulnerable camera held inches from the approaching tide. When I am there, every fiber of my being screams out to me to do everything in my power to be ready for that moment. That moment that seems like a split second to the casual observer, but to me with the universe at my beck and call the moment stretches to eternity within the lens of my camera. Oh, the power!
Sounds corny, I know…. But that is truly the significance of photography in my life. There are many other things that I am passionate about. Things like my dogs, travel, teaching, caring for the environment to name the biggies, but nothing has the same power to transform me and my universe as photography.
