Music of Photography: Tuning in to Passion

Last Updated on August 1, 2016 by Patrick

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

Maya Angelou

In the world of NLP today, as well as in the world of photography, much is talked about passion, about following one’s own passion and calling. But this issue is not new, for it has been discussed and taught ever since the dawn of civilization, ever since the dawn of humanity. I’d say it is why we are here.

I met a few people lately who said to me that for them, passion is equal to that animalistic, unconscious, vicious passion of brigands or drunkards for their own vices and, at first, I disagreed. But afterwards I gave a lot of thought and I reflected on this question of passion, on their viewpoint and I reminded myself first about the fact that a vice is a spiritual illness that has a spiritual cure. Now, coming to think of it, I realise that passion is a psychological factor that is one and the same in both viewpoints, mine and theirs, and so it is just split into its different sides. They’re two sides of the same thing. But what differentiates it? I think is how it’s been used. It is only a question of how one uses his creativity…

Going back to Nature, I see the normality of natural phenomenon and a plethora of both inferior and superior forces, all being useful in themselves and for Nature in general. But this word “useful” was stuck into my mind and I remember that there are also two major viewpoints in our social, human communities regarding it. One of them gravitates around the idea that “we are doing what we can to make the world better” and the other one is a viewpoint of excelence, geniality, an idea of being the best who one can be. And this idea of being the best reminded me, because photographers like to work with memory, of the principle of the best move in chess, being only one move per turn for each player that brings good fortune and, somehow, unlocks all the positive energies of the Universe assisting the traveler in the game of life which has a purpose but most of it is a journey in itself. Enjoying it brings relaxation and peacefulness, mindfulness and tranquility to the mind, heart and Soul. All the other moves are maybe good, better, but not the best, even worse and the worst moves, called blunders.

But Nature has no problem in expressing its own feelings, so to speak, and during our first four years of life we are endowed with the capacity of free expression, true freedom, which, unfortunately, we reduce it to silence later on. But this reduction to silence is not normal but rather forced and unnatural. It is like putting the stopper into the canon. This is done because of fear.

Excelence is rather a necessity in life today because there was, and still is, much mediocrity and even inferiority. We have a tendency of promoting inferiority, nothingness more rather than true values and this cripples furthermore the human conscience. So it is not a luxury anymore, it is a need. ;)

Going in Nature I discovered the true need of being myself and making it excelent, fructifying it fully and I don’t see it as something unachievable anymore.

Another need is of being present. Being present is everything in photography. You cannot do photography without being present. It’s like photographing with you eyes shut. What are you going to see? The greatest photographic composition of all? Absolutely…. not, of course. :) What you’re going to see is a dead space, so to say, unless your imagination flies and it takes you on a journey somewhere in the “Land of Make Believe”, where you would see everything in your own subjective light. That is not real. Photographers look for reality. That is why many great photographers have left the path of conventional photography and took it on a path different than what is called “normal” and out of their comfort zones into the strange and unknown abstractization of lights. Wynn Bullock is one of them, Connie Imboden is another.

But then again it comes down to want and/or need. What is the difference between the two of them? Well, one of them is real and the other one is fake. Need is real and want is fake, made-up. You don’t need want, but you want the need, you need the need, the necessity. It takes you to where you are, which is here, and to when you are, which is now, and to who you are, which is… nothing that I can answer for you. You must answer for yourself.

When it comes to music, I was always fascinated by the Appassionato way of interpreting a score, a musical writing, a musical creation. I thought it to be very close to my emotional capacity, both of understanding and of feeling it. Being passionate about something does not make you an animal or a dissatisfied beast, but rather a human being. It does not take you to the “Land of Better”, but to the best of you. It chisels you, refines you to be who you truly are and who you can truly become. It fructifies your own powers in such a way that you, transformed, are not better but excelent in your own Nature, and strangely looking and being, though, to those who never dare to cross the line of the comfort zone.

I know I’ve pushed myself far beyond my limits when I hiked in the mountains, on the trails and out of them. I was close to losing my life too, many times, but I saw it with joyous eyes that I made it. I didn’t trick death, I was just making the right moves. But I could not do any of these without stepping out of my comfort zone, out of my warm bed, many times awoken in the head of the night to prepare myself for the early morning train to the mountains and just listening, just waiting for the inner voice to make me feel what was right to do. Alone I was, even in winter, on the trails of the mountains and I was at the whim of Mother Nature, at the whim of the shepherd dogs, or the wild animals, but I managed to get away, to evade an unlucky fate only to come home with experiences. :) I did it out of passion, of course.

Brief moments in Nature don’t last for ever. They come and go and not one of them is equal to the other. But we like to stick with them.

Why do you think we started practicing photography? Because we like to attach ourselves to the great moments of life and put them into our portfolios? But wait! There’s more! We put them interpreted in our own unique way. Don’t get me wrong, please! There is nothing wrong with us doing photography. It has its uses and definitely we bring the world another view, the view of beauty. You know, they say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and, well, I should paraphrase this and say that beauty and passion is inherent and it belongs to our true Nature.

Do we fear death? I guess we do, but mostly we fear the unknown, that which is only out of the comfort zone. We don’t see it with the eyes of an artist, let alone with the eyes of a martial artist who fears nothing, even death. We see it blindfolded. We are not aware of it. And we cannot move, though we want to.

So, do follow your own passion and dreams while you’re still here, but be here and now! Don’t forget that the ears of the world are your ears to hear with, the eyes of the world are your eyes to see, even if nothing lasts for ever, not even passion. ;)