When I write in this blog, I take some time to review and edit. Because of this, I set up a calendar to release these posts long after I write them. That way I have time to clean up any spelling and grammatical errors and make sure what I write makes some sort of sense. This post was scheduled for November 15, but I just finished reading Rick Steves' My Take on Catalonia vs. Spain, and felt the time to release this post was right now. In a time when a madman uses automatic weapons to kill in Las Vegas, when protests and counter protests are being held throughout the U.S., when fear of just about everything seems to control our political views, we need to come together as a nation and a world, to reach out to what we fear and see it for what it really is, a reaction to that which is not us. We fear the illusion which we believe to be real, and in so doing, act in a way that is a detriment to ourselves and our society. When we fear, we stay in the dark, in our illusion of safety, and the result is catastrophic. It is time high time we opened our minds to experience the other, that which we fear, the people we do not understand, the contacts we have never experienced. Sure, this blog is about photography. But it is also about experience, about communication, about connecting with our world and the people in it. It's seems a small thing to just go out and photograph this experience, but it is so much more. It doesn't matter if you are a professional photographer or just bought your first compact camera... go out there and make some images. Experience life. Create a vision and express it. See the world not as the illusion you create in your mind, but for the rich and meaningful reality it is... and find joy in the realization that what is out there is not a pit of fear, but the pinnacle of our very existence. With that in mind... Photography as a Political Act... I finished reading Street Photography — Creative Vision Behind the Lens by Valérie Jardin. I gave a short review of the book in an earlier post, so go there if your interested. This post is about what getting this book has made me think about, and that may actually be more important than a book review anyway.
Valérie Jardin photographs people from around the world, and, being someone who loves to experience the world in all its variety, I have been intrigued by her ability to communicate emotional impact in her photographic work. This in turn has gotten me interested in another author and world traveler, Rick Steves. Although I may not always agree with his views, I appreciate his honesty, his integrity, and his ideas on the purpose of travel, which brings me to the description of his book, Travel as a Political Act: Travel connects people with people. It helps us fit more comfortably and compatibly into a shrinking world. And it inspires creative new solutions to persistent problems facing our nation. We can’t understand our world without experiencing it... Americans who “travel as a political act” can have the time of their lives and come home smarter — with a better understanding of the interconnectedness of today’s world and just how our nation fits in. So now I’ve gone from Valérie Jardin's street photos to Rick Steves' socially conscious traveling, and you may be wondering how these two topics relate to each other. I’m so glad you asked. Photography is the one medium that is immediately approachable to just about anyone. We don't have to visit a museum to see it, we don't have to buy tickets to a concert to hear it, we don't even have to own a camera to experience it. It is all around us... on billboards as we drive down the street, hanging on walls of restaurants where we eat, on our own laptops and smartphones as we surf the Internet. And even if we don't photograph our lives, you can be sure someone in our family does. This approachability is the real magic of photography... it is the universal communicator that makes language barriers fall away. With digital imaging, you can share moments with those you photograph, right from that little screen in the back of the camera. What better way to experience our world commonality at a time it seems we can't be farther apart? The very act of connecting with our photography is a political act, be it in a foreign land or in our own neighborhoods. Through this act, we connect with our humanity and realize how few differences we really have, and how much we have in common. You can see this effect in action in the DSFN Project, where Valérie is documenting Joshua Coombes cutting hair for homeless people. As Josh has said, "This isn’t charity, it’s connection. It’s keeping all doors open to listen to others and learn." Our cultures and backgrounds make us who we are, and although different, are not disconnected from each other. We share similar experiences... we work, drink, laugh, cry, sing, play, love... and want the best for those we care about. Of course there are cultural differences, but it's these differences that bring a richness to life. We learn from that richness and from each other, and see how much alike we really are. Landscape photography has been my experience and vision for a long time. I'm not letting that go by the wayside, but it's time to broaden my horizons and include that richness of life I speak about above. In the next post I'm going to outline a tentative plan on how this might happen.
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