Photography as Meditation: Tap Into the Source of Your Creativity

240 Pages·2014·12.62 MB·English

by  Torsten Andreas Hoffmann

Torsten Andreas Hoffmann is an author, photographer, and conductor of
photography workshops. He has written articles about image design for several
magazines, including Photography, LFI Leica Fotographie International, c’t
Special Digital Photography, and Digital Photography (Hungary). In his
workshops, Hoffmann leads participants toward their individual photographic
path. He focuses primarily on black-and-white photography and conceptual
photography.
Hoffmann became internationally known for his work New York, New York, a
book of photographs of New York City both before and after the attack on the
World Trade Center (Kunstverlag Weingarten). His classic work, The Art of
Black and White Photography (Rocky Nook) is currently in its second edition.
He has also published art calendars through German publishers Kunstverlag
Weingarten, Dumont, and ars vivendi.
Hoffmann was born in 1956 in Dusseldorf, Germany, and studied education with
an emphasis on photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. He
has gone on photography tours in many places around the world, including India,
Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Turkey, the USA, the Sahara, and the United Arab
Emirates. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions in renowned galleries
in Salzburg, Frankfurt, and Berlin, and has been featured in over 20 photography
books. Numerous works hang in private collections. He is a member of the BBK
Artists’ Guild of Frankfurt, the Munich LOOK picture agency, and the German
Society of Photographers (DGPh).
Torsten Andreas Hoffmann ([email protected]) Project Editor: Maggie
Yates Translator: Susan Schlesinger Copyeditor: Maggie Yates Layout:
Hespenheide Design Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de
Printer: Friesens Corporation Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-937538-53-8
1st Edition 2014
© 2014 by Torsten A. Hoffmann Rocky Nook Inc.
802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor Santa Barbara, CA 93103
www.rockynook.com
Copyright © 2014 by dpunkt.verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany Title of the
German original: Fotografie ale Meditation ISBN: 978-3-86490-031-0
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hoffmann, Torsten Andreas,
1956-Photography as meditation : tap into the source of your creativity / by
Torsten Andreas Hoffmann. -- 1st edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-937538-53-8 (softcover : alk. paper) 1. Photography--Psychological
aspects. 2. Photography--Philosophy. 3. Composition (Photography) 4.
Meditation. 5. Creative ability. I. Title.
TR183.H63 2014
770.1--dc23
2014017097
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Meditation and photography have more in common than you might initially
think: both deal with the present moment, both demand the highest degree of
awareness, and both are most attainable when the mind is empty and free from
distracting, outside influences.
Table of Contents
1 Thoughts on Photography and Meditation
2 Intriguing Ideas About Zen Philosophy
3 Zen Is Not “Light”
4 The Practice of Zazen
5 Mysticism and Thoughts About the Absence of God
6 Eastern and Western Thought
7 File Drawers and Direct Experience
8 Anecdote
9 Is Photography a Life Experienced Second-Hand?
10 Photography as a Direct Experience
11 Duality Dissolved
12 Studium and Punctum
13 Impression and Expression
14 What is Depth, or the Secret of the Night?
15 Inner and Outer Landscapes
16 The Alleged Objectivity of Photography
17 Basic Moods Expressed
18 Representing Beauty without Being Shallow
19 Photography as a Puzzle
20 Street Photography
21 Creating Special Magic
22 Photography as Ink Paintings
23 Magic in the Detail
24 Abstractions
25 What is Creativity?
26 Image Design Perceived During Meditation
27 Subsequent Critical Analysis and Interpretation
28 The Path to Your Own Style
1
Thoughts on Photography and Meditation
The recent phenomenon of mass accessibility to digital cameras has produced a
generation that records everything, even the most benign moments. While this
means that photographs have become a form of mass communication, it also
means that millions of thoughtless photographs are taken on any given day.
However, and despite the capriciousness of the art market, the demand for
conscious, reflective photography has become even greater. For instance, the
works of Andreas Gursky, one of the world’s most highly paid photographers,
have demanded close to a million US dollars for a single largescale photograph.
Increasingly, people in the digital age of photography are beginning to crave
their own inherent form of artistic expression rather than relegating their
photography to simple snapshots. This book will teach you to develop your
photography in a way that it becomes an expression of your personality.
Photography reflects external realities, but also reflects the expression of your
individual thoughts and feelings.
The act of photographing, and the resulting photographs, can be very emotional.
The medium lends itself particularly well to capturing the variety of moods and
feelings in the human range of emotion. This book will guide you to a meditative
calm through a sensitive approach to photography, and help you develop your
own form of photographic artistic expression.
The term meditation stems from the Latin verb meditari, meaning to contemplate
or deliberate.
The term contemplation stems from the Latin verb contemplates, meaning to
look at and observe.
Meditation and contemplation can help you discover what you want to express
through your photography by accessing and bringing your creative flow into
play. Contemplation has certain validity regarding photography because it
denotes the act of seeing and considering. Photography is an art medium that
compels you to find a quiet state of mind because it requires patience; good
photography is generally not a product of a hurried mood. Photography can be a
counterpoint to our often fast-paced and sometimes hectic way of life. Both time
and space have become scarce in our society, and as a result, more people are
interested in meditation and contemplation in order to recover and access their
internal rhythm and balance. Meditation allows you to create an internal free
space to breathe and exist free of distraction from the outside world.
Meditation and contemplation are common to a variety of religious practices and
cultures, including Christianity and Buddhism. In this book, I will relate mostly
to Zen meditation, which I consider to be very interesting because it is free from
the dogma associated with any particular faith doctrine. I’ll begin with the
clarification of certain terms. The word “Zen” stems from the Chinese word
“Chán,” which refers to the meditative state. When I speak about Zen
meditation, I’m referring to a deep immersion into yourself, aligning yourself
with the core of your inner being.
By regularly practicing meditation, you can venture to the source of your
creativity and produce images that have depth. That is exactly the premise this
book discusses: locating your inner creativity through meditation and
contemplation to fully understand your artistic motivations to produce
meaningful photographs that have power that radiates for more than a few
minutes, hours, or even days.
How to accomplish this using the assistance of meditation is a subject of
considerable depth. This book is less focused on the classical criteria of image
design than my book, The Art of Black and White Photography. This book is
designed to encourage you to hone your creative process and put it in motion.
Photography will always remain my foundation, but my many years of
experience with Zen meditation naturally melds with my photographic process.
It is my intention to present to you my personal interpretation of what it means
to incorporate meditation as a tool in the photographic process.
“The greatest events are not our loudest but our stillest hours.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Japanese dry rock gardens (also known as Zen gardens or karesansui) invite
meditation. Granite gravel (or sometimes sand) is placed around rocks, and then
raked into patterns indicating the shape of water ripples. These special gardens
serve to imitate nature conceptually rather than literally, and prompt
contemplation on the true essence of the natural world.