Mar. 2002
President's
Message
Article - "The Spiritual Side of Photography"
The Spiritual Side of Photography
- Bill Talarowski
Photography can be many things to many people. It can be a way of making
a good living for you, satisfying not only your financial needs but your
creative passions as well. It can be a hobby, albeit an expensive one,
to fill some of your leisure time or as a break from the normal 9 to 5
dog eat dog world. It can also be a spiritual awakening into what really
makes you tick.
Through the years with the Club, I have learned to express in my images, what was hidden deep down within me in places I didn't even know existed. When I was high, my images had a free spirit filled with lots of space and vibrant colors, and on other occasions dark and foreboding with heavy forms and somber tones. This has increased dramatically with my venture into the digital world where you have much more input into the creative aspects of your image. I have also learned to see. Not in the way you see as you go speeding down the highway of our hectic life, but to really see, deep, dissecting, and searching sight, stripping away the layers until the very soul of the image is exposed. Once you have learned how to do this there is no turning back. From here on your world will be made up of all kinds of images not only beautiful, happy ones, but soul searching pictures as well, but all reflecting in some small part your inner feelings when you made the exposure and thus, gave it life. This metamorphosis will bring out of you the true person you are and you will become a better photographer because of it.
As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, during one of the field trips I conducted for the Club, we were at Jenny Farm in Vermont one cold wintry day. I trudged through the newly fallen snow, huffing and puffing along the way, anxious to see what was ahead of me. As I reached the top of the hill, the valley was laid out before me in wondrous shades and colors. The quiet was deafening as I tried to figure out my place in this beautiful slice of time and space. I sank into deep thought as I tried to take it all in. I stood there and gasped just like a man that had just surfaced after a deep dive in cold water. Too soon it ended, as my fellow members jockeyed for positions to record what they also saw and felt.
On another occasion, while on a visit to California, I walked out onto a stone out cropping over looking the whole Yosemite valley laid out before me. The grandeur hit me like the sight of my first child as she was presented to me. All kinds of emotions are released as you try to figure out your part in this emotional scene. It is up to you and your maker what you do with the moment and how it will be reflected in your images. If it all comes together as you planned in your picture, you'll know instantly that you not only have a great image but are a better person from the experience.