Zen Camera

[Once again I’m writing this for the committed photographer.]

 

Review: David Ulrich, “Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography” (Watson-Guptill, 2018) 217 pages. creativeguide.com/zen-camera/

 

I do hope that Jim Williams from Canada www.flickr.com/photos/55920888@N08/ doesn’t mind my quoting a recent message from him:

“The way I shoot is very deliberate - almost a Zen exercise.”

 

I responded that this is exactly the way I like to work too and that indeed photography is my therapy. So I said that I would write a brief review of a book I still find a source of much inspiration.

 

“Zen Camera employs the camera for its most noble purpose: to learn to see what is.” (p.3)

 

David Ulrich teaches photography at the Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu, Hawai’i. This book is both an inspiration and a practical workbook. Ulrich believes that discipline is required in mastering the craft of photography. The principal discipline in this workbook is to photograph every day. Real progress is only possible he believes by taking 100 to 200 photographs a week following this advice:

“Give yourself the space and luxury of the pure enjoyment of taking pictures for their own sake. Refinement and completion come in their own time. Do not edit. Do not judge. Merely watch with interest what images arise.” (p.17)

 

Ulrich provides the reader with plenty of his own examples, but the work of many other historic and contemporary photographers is featured as well. He is a Zen Buddhist practitioner by conviction, but everyone can learn from his method. Ulrich has a lovely shot of the Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard taken in Hong Kong. Ricard (a former leading French scientist and son of the famous French philosopher Jean-François Revel) also practices photography as a meditative discipline. www.matthieuricard.org/en/photographies

 

LESSON ONE: OBSERVATION

 

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange (1895-1965).

 

I love that quote. Lange of course gave us some of the most powerful images of The Great Depression. She learned to see things that most other people couldn’t, and that is the essence of great photography. So we must begin by looking.

 

LESSON TWO: AWARENESS

 

Mindfulness and heightened awareness of the world around us are the two key elements of this lesson. Training our minds to be like a camera sensor soaking in the light (both real and metaphorical). Once again Ulrich quotes one of my favourite photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004):

 

“I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds – the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate.” - From “The Decisive Moment” – one of the most important books ever published on photography.

 

LESSON THREE: IDENTITY

 

“Know thyself.” – Socrates.

 

Here Ulrich deals with two important elements: Personal style and Authenticity. In order to communicate effectively we must find our own voice. But, it’s one voice within a community of voices (so history and context matters).

 

LESSON FOUR: PRACTICE

 

This is the central chapter of the book. All forms of success in art flow from its practice. Ulrich cites Malcolm Gladwell’s research that it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to gain mastery in a field. Nothing comes easily and one must pay their dues. This is not a popular message in a world of instant gratification. But then, that’s why our photographs are so quickly forgotten.

 

LESSON FIVE: MASTERY

 

“Freedom flourishes in a climate of discipline.” – David Ulrich.

 

It may seem counterintuitive, but true freedom always works within boundaries. The true “master of a discipline” can only push the boundaries once the fundamentals have been established. Two of my examples here: (1) Before ever Picasso became the master of Cubism, he had already mastered classical portraiture, and (2) Jazz musicians can only ever succeed in improvisation when they understand the rudiments of musical form.

 

LESSON SIX: PRESENCE

 

This is by far the most challenging chapter philosophically. I won’t go into detail here, but a few summary thoughts. Ulrich contrasts “spectacle” with “presence”. What do we mean by photographs with presence? We see plenty of spectacle in social media; in earlier days these sorts of pictures were referred to as “chocolate box”, but today they are probably over-processed spectacular sunsets with more than a little post-production fakery. They are made photographs to attract attention (something essential for social media success).

 

But “real presence”, that’s something much more difficult to achieve. It is central for instance to the Christian concept of a sacrament. Here the photograph is a representation of something ineffable behind it. You can’t quite define a photograph with presence, but you know when you see it. Try any number of Ansel Adams’ photographs. A mere landscape is somehow transformed into a meditation on the glories of nature with a minimum of darkroom fuss. The scene is spectacular, but only because the photograph reveals the TRUTH about the scene. We are brought face to face with the essence of Nature. The same with a great portrait: It reveals a truth about the character and personality of the sitter, in a way that a selfie doesn’t.

Annie Leibovitz www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQtXoseZMuo

 

For David Ulrich one of the keys to achieving “presence” in photography is to learn to pay attention. And this takes us back to mindfulness practice. Being awake, alive, attentive, observant, present!

 

It’s a great book with plenty of practical suggestions for exercises in moving beyond the snapshot to mastering the discipline of photography.

 

* Cover photos taken with the Leica D-Lux 7.

 

Done