From Image to Experience: A Mindful Approach to Photography

A recent discussion about mindfulness with a friend and student got me thinking about the immense influence it’s had on my own work. The single most important lesson it’s taught me is that what matters most isn’t my images, but my experience. Put another way, the inner landscape is more important than the outer one.

You can’t control the outer landscape. You have no say over whether it’s sunny or not, or whether the light will be just right for the image you want to make. And that’s often where it all goes wrong. We filter the world through our own biases and preconceptions, often based on expectations.

And this has a powerful effect on what we actually experience, what we actually “see.” This makes total sense when you consider the latest theories about how the brain works.

Most of what we perceive is “generated” in the brain as a kind of simulation based on our life experiences andexpectations. We don’t generate the world in real-time from our senses; we use our sense to “error-correct” what our brain is already simulating. If the sense data is different, then the simulation is updated from that sense data. This is called the “generative model” of the brain, which is explained in the fascinating book, The Experience Machine, by neuroscientist Andy Clark.

Consider the curious fact that we have ten times more connections between our visual cortex and higher levels of the brain than between the visual cortex and the retina. Why would that be the case if our sense data provided most of what we perceive?

Depending on the situation we’re experiencing (mainly how familiar or novel it is), our brains are constantly adjusting whether they rely more on the generated simulation or the actual sense data coming in. And because we all have different priors—our subjective beliefs and expectations—we can and usually do experience the same visual environment in different ways.

Most fascinating of all, the way to bias the sense data (and get out of our heads) is to engage and focus our attention. For me, that’s the key insight here—this is precisely what mindfulness is: becoming more aware of what’s actually going on in the moment (sense data) versus allowing ourselves to get caught up in thinking, judging, and labeling (simulation).

When I started to pay more attention to everything around me without the constant distractions of thought, whether it was judging myself, getting disappointed with conditions, or hoping for a great image, my entire perspective started to change. I began valuing the experience over the results.

I slowly learned to let my experience take the lead over my camera and my desire to create great images. Everything I see that is exciting doesn’t instantly become something to capture; it becomes something to give my attention to, which is far better than giving it to my camera.

And the most interesting thing is that slowly everything I see becomes interesting as my attention grows sharper. Dappled light on the side of a tree, the texture patterns on a large boulder, the subtle shift in color on the surface of a pond—all are things I might have missed years ago.

This doesn’t mean that every experience can and should produce amazing images. Photography has its own language that we must use to create images that communicate with others. But successful images all start with “seeing,” and the more you’re seeing, the greater your potential for capturing images that express your perspective and emotions.

This is a progression, of course, and I still get caught up in distractions and self-limiting thoughts. The weather isn’t right…I’ve been there 100 times…I need this or that to make a good image. I’ve learned that I don’t really need anything—it’s already there once I give each moment my full attention (to the best of my ability.)

If, as Ansel Adams said, the most important part of the camera is the twelve inches behind it, then I believe being mindful gives you the best camera you can ever have.