Photography & Personal Growth
When you stop seeing photography as a hobby and look at it through the lens of personal growth, everything changes. The camera becomes a catalyst for transformation, enabling us to develop transferable skills that enrich our entire lives.
We learn to look at the world in abstract ways, becoming problem solvers along the way. We deepen our presence, alter our perception, and become more decisive as we develop our unique way of seeing the landscape.
As we improve and refine our artistry, we might even uncover a certain style of photographing that is unmistakably ours. By creating ‘better’, more original photographs, our confidence and self-esteem increase immeasurably. We are forced to overcome challenge after challenge on the pathway to mastery, not only challenges to understand the camera, but also in putting that technical knowledge into practice in the field: understanding light, composition, depth, subject, and texture; the list goes on.
The constant overcoming of self and our self-imposed limitations as we seek deeper, more meaningful photographs and experiences creates a positive feedback loop. In our pursuits, we must engage the creative process with greater courage, experimenting with more abstract, out-of-the-box photographs, and exploring farther-reaching places. We might eventually reach a point in our journeys where our creativity earns respect from peers, impacts our audience, and starts conversations that make change.
This emerging voice, alongside our vision, can empower us to be so much more than someone who ‘captures’ photos; rather, we become someone who stands for something; someone who is aware of our humanness, and all the pain and joy and grief and beauty that comes with being truly alive on this earth; and someone who chooses, consciously, to make something meaningful of our precious and temporary human existence.
When we spend our days studying light and shadows in the landscape, we become aware of the same two forces within. Therefore, we begin to understand the importance of balance, recognising the beauty of the darkness we so often reject as a part of our human experience.
With greater clarity of vision resulting from our training, we might begin to see the world as it truly is, ridding ourselves of the ego’s projections and seeing beyond our conditioning into the true nature of reality.
When used in this way, we become practitioners of photography, rather than ‘hobbyists’, ‘enthusiasts’, or ‘professionals’. This spiritual practice can lead us towards a deeper truth and authenticity if we are open to being guided by our souls’ intuition, which is naturally drawn to walk the path of wholeness, healing, and integration towards the light of creativity and love.