Photography as a Spiritual Practice
Guest Writer: Alan Schlesinger
“Photography can be a form of contemplation, a spiritual discipline, motivated, not by the desire to produce something, but by the desire to be something, to be in process, open and present, ready to be refreshed, to receive insight.”–Dirk DeVries in Contemporary Vision, Photography as a Spiritual Practice (Church Publishing 2019), p. 4.
Padre Island National Seashore
Yes, I have always found photography to be a spiritual practice. I am attaching a recent photograph. The dog and his owner at the beach were in February, just before COVID, on a birding trip to the Texas Gulf Coast and the Rio Grande Valley that my wife and I took with Gary Shackelford and his wife Penny during one of my daily lengthy walks.
This seems like an appropriate message for these uncertain times.
An aside to the beach picture, I recently had started a practice of approaching people after I have candidly photographed them, if feasible, (like this gentleman and his dog) and giving them a card with my name and e-mail address and telling them I took a candid photograph that they may enjoy having and that if they send me an e-mail, I will return the e-mail with the photograph. He e-mailed me the next day and said, “Thank you very much. My dog is having surgery today for a tumor on his spleen. We were giving him a treat on the beach [when I made the photograph] just in case it [was] his last. It will be nice to have some photos.”
Believe it or not, this is not the only time I have had such a poignant response. People can occasionally be grumpy, but more often than not they love being photographed. Unfortunately, the dog passed away soon after surgery, and the gentleman e-mailed me a few days later and said, “Sorry to be slow in responding. I have been pretty distracted lately. I loved the two photos of my dog... Sadly, my dog (Truk) died this morning. The Vet removed a very [large] tumor and he just never recovered from the trauma of the surgery.”
I thought you might like to hear this story of how truly spiritual photography can be.
Be well.
Alan