In the biographical documentary about James Nachtwey, War Photographer, Nachtwey said, “It’s more difficult to get publications to focus on issues that are more critical, that do not provide people with an escape from reality, but attempt to get them deeper into reality, to be concerned about something much greater than themselves.”

Modern culture, which globally is (unfortunately) becoming more Western and even American, has focused on being entertained instead of engaging life around us. It is the difference between reading a book and watching television. It is giving the kids a video game instead of taking them on a walk or kicking the ball around. Those things have their place, but not if they completely replace an interconnected, relational, engaged approach to life.

Nachtwey mentioned how advertising has pushed out content. It is quite simple: companies do not want their perfume and clothing (and beautiful models) seen across the page from war, disease, poverty, and injustice. Evidently, it is hard to sell luxury items when readers might actually be affected by photos of those in suffering. They might just become “concerned about something much greater than themselves”.

It is so easy to be gamed, advertised, and sit-commed to spiritual death. Nacthwey wants to be the eyes in the field for us, and for some of us media producers, we should follow his lead, engage the world, and with camera in hand, pass on a taste of reality to our smaller audiences.

Instead of striving to create more online forum prize winners, why not switch off the ultimate entertainment internet, and re-join our local community, our neighborhoods, our families.

Here’s a tip of the hat to you, Mr. Nachtwey.

He says in the film, “We must look at it, we’re required to look at it, we’re required to do what we can. If we don’t, who will?”

This film is not about a man who pushes to the front lines and is right in the middle of the decisive moment even when the bullet are flying just for personal glory, more prizes, or the photo with the most edge so he can beat out the competition for the front page. The theme that comes through over and over again is that he goes out so he can capture the essence of what is happening around this world, because he believes people want to know, that people want to do something, and in so doing, he is trying to write terms of peace.

I have been questioning the purpose of photography lately, and this is a breath of fresh air. Why even take photos? Why would I go through contortions just to take a beautiful, unique photo of a flower or landscape instead of just enjoy it with my own two eyes and be fully present in the moment? Personal glory? Why do I attempt documentary photography when the photos’ meanings can be so subjective and the story manipulated (by me or others)? Why not just write about it? Am I trying to entertain? Am I seeking personal glory again?

Then I think about my use of Twitter, which for many, including me, is often just “getting my work out there”…i.e. it is all about me and my personal glory. Ich! That may not be a problem for you, but it is certainly easy to do for me. Sure, there are great uses of Twitter and Facebook or blogs (oops!), but it is a matter of the heart.

If am to continue to be a photographer, what is my responsibility? What is my responsibility to my conscience, my God, my culture? James Nachtwey provides a little glimpse in that quote, maybe not the full answer, because that will be different in different situations and for different people, but at least a sign post to get us headed the right direction: “to do what we can”.

What can I do? Well, as much as I would love to begin to rationalize it, I am not going to be able to leave my family for a self-glorious life of photography around the world. So, am I ok…can I just take my flower pictures now? Not quite…at least, that does not begin to console my conscience.

There are plenty of issues close to home too. There are plenty of issues that never hit the main stream media: little injustices around us or maybe even praises of those who are stepping up and doing what they can. There are churches feeding the poor, there are teachers sacrificing financial security to educate, there is the beggar in the intersection, or the lady dying from cancer with a life of experience to pass on.

I agree with James Nachtwey: I think people want to know. There are plenty of people out there, I believe, who are willing to take out the ear buds and reengage society around them. Let’s not entertain or seek our (ill-fated) photographic glory; we do not have the humility to keep it going anyway. Let’s just do what we can.

Is objectivity an illusion? What does objectivity mean to you? Is it something journalists should strive for? Why or why not?
[Ami Vitale said...] “Yes, I believe objectivity is an illusion but I also believe that there are a multitude of viewpoints and that no one “Truth” exists. I believe that unless we understand and give voice to these perspectives, reason remains veiled. Ignorance in each other’s stories leads us to assume we know them. It allows us to maintain perceptions of differences based on our own preconceived notions.”

I mostly agree with that. The phrase “no one ‘Truth’ exists” really threw me at first. Actually, I started writing this post to contradict what she said, but now having read it again a couple times, I think I see it a little differently. To start, I would make that a small t…but that is nit picking and most people would not catch the subtle difference.

If read in the context of covering stories and trying to understand others’ perspectives, I would agree that there is no one truth. Meaning, there is not that perfect set of photographs or those perfect words that say everything just exactly as it truly is, was, and will be. Who would deny that? It is a matter of wording, to some degree.

Going back to the big T Truth, though, this quote touches on a deeper reality. Reality, and thus truth, is extremely difficult to nail down, in a photo or with words, and I would not even say that is the end goal of photojournalism anyway. So, let’s just leave photojournalism for a moment.

Let’s call this spiritual photography. There is a reality, a Truth, present at all times and in every place, filling all things. So, is it possible to photograph that? I would say no. However, surely it is possible to photograph certain facets, images, reflections, or indicators of that true reality, though.

I do not seek to bring this out in every single photo. Sometimes it is good enough to just take a cute photo or a snapshot, but I still seek that reality. I want my photos not to force my point of view (which is more what I think Ami Vitale is talking about anyway…and trying to not do), but to try to dig for the deeper reality, call it the backstory or the Grand Mystery of Things. It is not about what I want my photos to communicate, but rather that I want my photos to make a hard link between the beauty of Truth and the viewer of the photo.

A farm girl caught in a city life,
Primal simplicity wasted not
On the severed souls she helped.
O, that we too could find simpleness.

That we have,
In the picture of love among us,
Like the servant farmer before her,
The daughter’s incense rises above.

______________________________

Happy 60th birthday, Mom. I hope the poem says it all. I just wish I had not been inspired at two in the morning.

So true. How many times have we just shot and later realized we caught more than we initially thought? Or how many times have we realized there was more to a photo than met the eye, when it had that extra something? It seems Minor White just took this realization and made it a purposeful pursuit in his photography, to not only take the photo seen on the surface, but to attempt to capture that which is beyond the superficial layer of the photo.

His Wikipedia page said, “He is remembered largely for his ideas about the spiritual in photography.” Not that I am trying to have a deep thoughts competition, but that statement just sounds so Western. What I mean is, the West tends to divide up their worldview into spiritual and secular, whereas in the East, that division is not made. Their worldview has everything thrown into one big lump, one master category called life.

I think that every time we take a photo, this mixture of the superficial image and the underlying reality is always present. Some photos may be more clearly one or the other, and for some photos we may not even care about one or the other, but they are still present.

That is why some portraits are just a picture of somebody, perhaps the stereotypical family shot, and then, some portraits are a deep and intimately personal look inside a person. And also this is why some art is flat, boring, and does not seem to have any purpose or message, and some art is so unassuming, yet says so much.

Those are just a couple of my thoughts. It’s a great quote: “I photograph things for what they are and for what else they are.”

Fascinating. I will have to respectfully disagree. Not that I am the authority, but it seems to me the reason is staring us in the face. It may sound overly simplified, but do we not like sunsets and sunrises because they are beautiful?

Well, ok, not all sunrises and sunsets are beautiful. You have the rainy days, you have the dead of winter. Ironically, the pollution here in China seems to enhance the beauty…does not sound right to me, but it can be true.

As photographers, why do we go out at dawn and dusk? Well, if you work for a magazine or some such, it is most likely because your editors told you to (or you know they will if you return without it). For the rest of us, it is simply because that is the best light of the day (which is subjective, of course) and maybe, you will catch that great sunset silhouette shot of the local landmark.

That is the simple answer. We like sunsets and sunrises because they are beautiful, and we like that time of day maybe because of the possibility of having a sunrise or sunset. There is a deeper answer, though.

Rick Sammon (and friends) are on to something. I too think there is some deep, natural urge, something beyond our immediate understand, that draws us to the beauty of nature. It is the same reason we want to photograph the amazing power of lions, the mystery of rock formations, the expanse of rolling hills, the grandeur of the an eagle in flight, and even the wild variations of everyday people on the street.

The creation is absolutely amazing. That is why. Creation is made in the amazing, mysterious, expansive, grandiose, untameable image of the Creator. It is made that way on purpose, to draw us in to relationship with the One Who created. In the fullest sense, the appreciation of, study of, fascination with, and wonder of creation is the primal beginning of that eternal relationship.

So, by all means, keep enjoying those sunrises and sunsets (and even the rare eclipse like we enjoyed here last week), and open your spirit to the Great Spirit who is speaking through the creation.

Craftsman selling Buddha idols and amulets on the side of the road.

Finally, the kind of photo I have been looking for. I have been trying to capture the spiritual side of things. I am not talking about some visually appealing monks-in-a-temple shot, but the spiritual reality behind what we see with our eyes, and I am especially focused on the spiritual realm right there on the street and a part of everyday life. In a place like Thailand, it is everywhere, woven into every part of life.