In Philippe Gross's book "The Tao of photography: seeing beyond seeing" Gross emphasizes, through his photography and other more well known photographers works, the Taoist philosophy and wisdom. I found this books message not only creative ,but both inspirational and instructional. He couples photographic works with informational text to help more deeply understand his philosophy. Gross emphasizes creativity and heightened awareness rather than formal techniques. Straying away from formal techniques is something that I feel I have been trying to do when I take pictures. This photo book has helped me understand new ways of approaching the camera. Upon opening the book in the store I was instantly drawn into the photos. The ones that I liked the most were the works that had an obvious theme of light ,but more so they all had a wonderfully beautiful feel to them, a feel that I want my photographs to have. An clear theme of light is what I try to incorporate in my photos. A streak of light in a dark room or a soft window light detailing a bed sheet are the little nuances that make great photographs. Simplistic forms and details created by light are things like I like to see and pay attention to when I look at photographs. After reading the book and understanding the Taoist approach to taking photographs I not only appreciated the photographs much more , it made me want to take better photographs.
The photograph Light ray by Philippe Gross has a simple bean of light seemingly peeking through a door crack. The simple light ray is so sharp and so alluring. The pointed light is coming from the right corner and leading into the left. The direction of the light drew my eyes into the photograph. The light is so bright and the room is so dark it provides a great and interesting contrast. This one beam lights up the dark corner of the cement block wall providing a light gleam of light separate from the main ray.
"Main Concepts of Taoism: Yin and Yang." Taoism and the Taoist Arts. April 2002. http://www.taoistarts.net/main.html#yin LeGuin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2000.
‘The way’ is cluttered with constant imagery of contradictory views which are both compelling and insightful, through which we are taken on a journey, our final destination being the true meaning of life. In a world where we are all yearning for the meaning for life, true harmony and real balance it is no surprise that the Tao Te Ching is a very haunting piece of literature that holds the reader in an almost trans like state of mind as it attempts to portray the way to accomplish the above.
Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were painted on the walls of caves found in southern France. Former director of photography at New Yorks museum of modern art says that “The progress of photography has been more like the history of farming, with a continual stream of small discoveries leading to bigger ones, and in turn triggering more experiments, inventions, and applications while the daily work goes along uninterrupted.” ˡ
A picture is more than just a piece of time captured within a light-sensitive emulsion, it is an experience one has whose story is told through an enchanting image. I photograph the world in the ways I see it. Every curious angle, vibrant color, and abnormal subject makes me think, and want to spark someone else’s thought process. The photographs in this work were not chosen by me, but by the reactions each image received when looked at. If a photo was merely glanced at or given a casual compliment, then I didn’t feel it was strong enough a work, but if one was to stop somebody, and be studied in curiosity, or question, then the picture was right to be chosen.
Toropov, Brandon and Chad Hansen. The Complete Idiots Guide to Taoism. Indianapolis, IN: Beach Brook Productions, 2002. E Book.
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
of light being the main focus in this work. Shadow also plays a large part in the
He implements several references to light, from refraction to reflection to distortion, he makes it clear that his light has meaning. He defines the light by placing the strongest source in the center, precisely where the experiment is taking place. Once he has connected his “illumination” with a scientific experiment, it doesn’t take the audience a huge leap of faith to assume that the light symbolizes, or at least has some connection to, the progress of science. This is further exemplified by the fact that behind the characters stands an open door that seemingly contains only darkness. Wright has the characters move from a dark room into one lit up by a scientific experiment similar to how mankind, roughly during the time of this painting, shifted from the dark ages into the age of enlightenment. The situation in the scene is a rather
In the book Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu employs different ways to explain what “Tao” is to people. He uses different techniques—using simplicity, nature, metaphor, and comparison—to affect people’s mind so that they would rethink and relearn the things in their daily life. As a consequence, people can understand well the main concept—“Tao.” Overall, Lao Tzu wants to express the importance
The Birth of Photography goes way back to the very early stages of it’s development, in 1565 it was found that certain silver salts turned black when open to an element, which at this time they believed to be air. It wasn’t until mid 1720’s when they discovered it was in fact light that reacted with the salts to turn them black; this led to numerous amounts of unsuccessful trials at capturing images in a lasting, photochemical form. Many scientists, amateur inventors and artists passionately pursued developing this form throughout the 29th century. A French scientist, Joseph Niepce was the man who made this process a success. He took an eight-hour exposure of what is believed to be his courtyard outside his house and created the first paper negative in 1816. It took another three years before a fixing agent was discovered for this process and the term ‘photography’ was born. It was hundreds of years till photography had reached this stage but over the next 80 years progression in photography was dramatic. Different techniques were tried and tested but most common was the black-and-white method, which dates back to the birth of photography. “In this ‘gelatin silver’ technique, a sheet of paper is coated with a mixture of white pigment and gelatin, then with a gelatin / silver-salts solution. It is exposed to light through a negative and developed in a chemical solution.” (Wheeler, 2002, p.9)
When one comes into contact with a Chinese painting, the style is almost instantly recognizable. The attention to detail, craftsmanship, and vast depictions of elaborate landscapes appear to pay homage to mother earth in an attempt to reach a state of eternal balance with nature and life. Before this equilibrium could be achieved, one must attain internal discipline. This was required before one began mastering their brushwork in Chinese culture. In Mai Mai Sze’s “The Way of Chinese Painting,” 1959, New York: Vintage Books, Random House, Sze discusses the philosophy known as Daoism/Tao, or “the way.” Before one became a skilled painter, one trained in the personal disciplines of poetry, art, calligraphy, and internal reflection/achievement. Only after reaching this internal state of tranquility between brushstrokes and idea (ie. symbolism) could one begin the next journey to achieve a state of overall harmony/balance between life and nature. Throughout the centuries the concept of Tao remained relatively constant, though political judgment such as Confucius brought forth the idea of philosophy as a separate entity between religious ideals. This was in contrast with the traditional principle, which consisted of religion as the focal point of life. The idea of balance between nature and man is abstract, encompassing thoughts of a heaven and earth interweaved through mathematics. Sze presents several viewpoints: that of the yin and yang, de, li, and “the way” (Tao). Chinese values teach a way of living and bringing ideas together. This involves deep focus from an early age, concentrating on calligraphy and discipline, which transfers over through careful precision in the execution of brushwork to represent ideas (ie. the depiction of...
Have you ever seen a painting or picture that captivates you and directly stirs up emotion within you? More than likely, you have. Usually, viewers merely observe the picture and enjoy the way it looks and how it makes them feel. But, have you ever asked yourself, “why?” What about the picture makes it pleasing to the viewer? With each strategy the photographer uses creates their own touch and passion that floods all over the picture. The emotional connection nearly goes unnoticed for when the picture is well photographed, the viewers experience the sensation in their subconscious. This is one of the most powerful tools that a photographer holds in their hands. If one can become a master of manipulating how the photo affects its viewers, the said photographer can potentially maneuver people’s minds and thoughts with one click of a button. The time spent with my mentor has opened up the door for me to tap into that power though the use of background, focus, shutter speed, angles, and most importantly, lighting. Even with all these techniques, the person behind the camera must remember that creativity must be at the forefront of all operations. Caleno (2014), when writing about the basics of capturing a beautiful moment in a picture commented, “If we want to be creative we must drop these pre-conceptions and start looking at things from a small child’s innocence.”
This book is a note written by Roland Barthes to record the dialectical way he thought about the eidos(form, essence, type, species) of Photographs. Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist in his lifetime, but surprisingly he was not a photographer. As Barthes had a belief that art works consists with signs and structures, he had investigated semiotics and structuralism. However, through Camera Lucida, he realized the limitation of structuralism and the impression to analyze Photography with only semiotics and structuralism. Barthes concludes with talking about unclassifiable aspects of Photography. I could sense the direction Barthes wanted to go through the first chapter ‘Specialty of the Photograph’. He tried to define something by phenomenology
When going for a walk, a person takes in the beauty around them. On this particular day, the refulgent sun is extra bright, making the sky a perfect blue. White, puffy clouds fill the sky, slowing moving at their own pace. The wind is peacefully calm, making the trees stand tall and proud. There is no humidity in the air. As this person walks down the road, they see a deer with her two fawns. The moment is absolutely beautiful. Moments like this happen only once in a great while, making us wanting to stay in the particular moment forever. Unfortunately, time moves on, but only if there were some way to capture the day’s magnificence. Thanks to Joseph Niépce, we can now capture these moments and others that take our breath away. The invention of the camera and its many makeovers has changed the art of photography.
Photography is a word derived from the Greek words “photos” meaning light and “graphein” meaning draw. The word was first used by John F.W Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material (Bellis, N.D).