Mindful Photography Course – Week 1

This week I started the delivery of my 8 week course in Mindful Photography for Morriston Hospital’s Brain Injury Service. I was particularly excited to start this as it is the first occasion I have delivered in this format, although I have worked with the service delivering other provision since 2012.

My intention over these 8 weeks is to introduce the students to mindfulness, meditation and mindful photography. The aim of the first week is to provide an overview of those topics and start the practice of slowing down the speed at which we create photos.

Slow Down!

Digital cameras are fantastic in many ways, but your disposable relationship to the photos created has underpinned a disconnection to the present moment. When I used to shoot film there were a limited number of shots on the roll. I could not see what I had just taken. The cameras were often manual. I had to attend to what I was seeing, and to what I was doing with the camera, to be certain that I was creating the best representation of my visual experience. This meant that the process of creating several photos was slower than it is now.

Now you can take eight photos per second. Take fifty of a scene, review them instantly and discard the ones you do not like. Throughout my courses and workshops (online and live) I encourage a greater attention to this experience and share mindful photography practices designed to slow you down and truly connect to the visual moment.

It was entirely appropriate then that the first activity I shared in Week 1 is called ‘Slow Down’. In this practice (I call the photography activities practices because it implies that you don’t have to get then ‘right’ and that they can be repeated, again and again) the students cannot see the viewscreen and have to imagine what the camera is receiving. They are also only allowed to create 10 photos in a set period of time. All of these limitations slow the process down, or encourage a slowing down! Some still find it challenging.

The Photos

After the activity the students return to the class and look at their photos for the first time. During this process I encourage an attention to the thinking that is taking place, particularly the judging mind that reviews each photo and determines whether it likes or dislikes a photo. This is the first time of many that I relate the mindful photography practice to life. For your judging mind, and its interpretation of experiences as ones you like or dislike is echoed in the ‘Slow Down’ Mindful Photography Practice.

Each student then chooses one photo to share with the group and we all follow a ‘Creative Review’ mindful practice where we practice connecting to how the photo makes us feel, rather than critically reviewing its composition or technique. Of course those critical thoughts also pop up, but the practice of connecting to how the photo make us feel is a foundation for future mindfulness and mindful photography work.

Here are the students favorite photos. How does each one make you feel?