I used to, or maybe I still do, have a passion for photography.... but I put it away for years. It was the brutal truth for me to realize that I didn't want to look at my environment and so I hid away the camera, got rid of some of my old equipment, only taking my digital SLR with me on road trips. Well, recently, I've felt like taking photos again. Not sure what I want to take, but want to use it as a medium to see what it is that I want to take. I had a book stashed away for a few years and took it out. Within the Frame - The Journey of Photographic Vision by David duChemin. |
Oh.My.God. Just the first pages blew me away.
"Vision is everything, and the photographic journey is about discovering your vision, allowing it to evolve, change, and find expression through your camera and the print."
Just that and I felt like he is not talking about photography but about my whole life. I love this book now. He's talking about lenses, and I'm thinking about perspectives. He's on frames, and I'm thinking about opinions.
"As a visual storyteller, you are responsible for every element within the frame. It's in the frame it's because you allowed it to be."
Ouch. Yeah, in life sometimes we let suckers suck the life out of us. How could it be? But we do. Everything in our life is there, because we put it there.
Because we put it there.
I know. Hard to swallow that. We are so prone to blame others when we feel pain, but when you SEE this, it will FREE you. You realize that you LET others put a guilt trip on you. You LET others take advantage of you. You use it as a EXCUSE to not excel further. If I can have pity on me, I don't have to do something that is more meaningful.
I'm not saying don't let anyone do this to you. Sometimes you have to put in those extra hours at work. Sometimes we need time for our independence muscles to grow. I'm saying be conscious that you have agreed to things that may not always make you happy. Some of the things happen to you for a reason and rather than going off about how someone treated you, look at how you are treating yourself.
These parts of us that have reactions to the world around us are the disowned parts of ourselves. We need not to control them but to listen. Really whole heartedly listen and take that part back into being loved. We go around thinking the world is doing something to us, but the challenge is to see that you are not a victim but the creator of your life - in all ways.
As for the book, I can't get past page 10. It's hard to swallow the truth. Maybe it is time for me to go back to photography.
Because we put it there.
I know. Hard to swallow that. We are so prone to blame others when we feel pain, but when you SEE this, it will FREE you. You realize that you LET others put a guilt trip on you. You LET others take advantage of you. You use it as a EXCUSE to not excel further. If I can have pity on me, I don't have to do something that is more meaningful.
I'm not saying don't let anyone do this to you. Sometimes you have to put in those extra hours at work. Sometimes we need time for our independence muscles to grow. I'm saying be conscious that you have agreed to things that may not always make you happy. Some of the things happen to you for a reason and rather than going off about how someone treated you, look at how you are treating yourself.
These parts of us that have reactions to the world around us are the disowned parts of ourselves. We need not to control them but to listen. Really whole heartedly listen and take that part back into being loved. We go around thinking the world is doing something to us, but the challenge is to see that you are not a victim but the creator of your life - in all ways.
As for the book, I can't get past page 10. It's hard to swallow the truth. Maybe it is time for me to go back to photography.