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Q&A With the Authors

We would love to hear from you. Please post your questions about contemplative photography, comments about the book, or other observations about contemplative mind and life. We will do our best to respond to whatever you post. (Please keep in mind that we are running as fast as we can, and may not get to this as soon we would like.)

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Recent Questions and Answers:

black and white photography

Submitted by Bryan Grigsby
Question: 

I noticed at the beginning of your book you give credit to past masters, Andre Kertez and Henri Cartier-Bresson. To my way of thinking their approach to making pictures was often the same as Miksang yet black and white is not allowed in the on-line Miksang sites...only color. Isn't Miksang "a way" of approaching seeing and photographing the world rather than a "look?" Bryan Grigsby

Answer: 

Thanks for your comment Bryan. I completely agree that the intention of Andre Kertez, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the other masters illustrated in The Practice of Contemplative Photography is the same as our approach. They shot in black and white because that was the technology of the day.
Today, using black and white is not just forming the equivelent of perceptions, it is adding an esthetic overlay. Black and white shots aren't really prohibited on this site, but they do have to clear a higher bar.

Lenses and 'artifice'

Submitted by wowfactorpix
Question: 

G'day, Andy and Michael. Thank you so much for writing TPCP! It deals with personal investment in vision and mind and that's where I know the growth of my photography lies. I recently presented twice at APSCON (the annual convention of the Australian Photographic Society) on the theme of investing in mind and eye rather than investing in apparatus as a path to photographic fulfillment. I was delighted to discover TPCP amongst a slew of camera craft books at a trade show associated with our convention. I bought it and have been enjoying it immensely. I have a question for you about lenses, funnily enough. Your book deals with clear seeing without conceptions and artifice. I get that. But in clearly seeing the world around me, I see it with my human field of vision - exactly as you do. I get the feeling that I should be doing the exercises with lenses that replicate my vision - whether that be a 'normal' lens or a telephoto that replicates what I see when I view the world around me very selectively. Super-wide lenses are among my favourites, perhaps because they show me my world in ways that I cannot 'see' naturally. I'm interested in your view about whether I should eschew my wide lenses while I'm working through TPCP in order to see in a purer, human fashion. Kind regards, Rob

Answer: 

Good question Rob. I think you got the point exactly. We are interested in forming the equivelant of our perceptions, and normal lenses and telephotos can do that. Super-wide angle lenses do not do that. There is nothing with using wide angle lenses, but they really don't work well for this practice.

The Book

“This is not your usual ‘how to be a better photographer’ book. It takes you into deeper water. It requires investigation and commitment to areas new to you. Among other things, you will think about perception in new ways. If you read this book with care, and without skepticism, it will radically expand your thinking, seeing, and photography.”

—Jay Maisel, photographer
and author of Light on America