Kim Manley Ort's Blog, page 13
April 19, 2017
Is Anything Original?
Is anything original? This is a question that’s been asked time and time again. A friend asked me this question recently and we had two weeks to think about it and then confer. While you can go into a whole complicated discussion of patents and copyrights, I decided to eschew that splitting of hairs. My first reaction to this question was to say no, nothing is truly original, but after two weeks I now think yes.
Seeds from last year’s harvest combine with soil, s...
April 12, 2017
Feldenkrais, Eyesight, and Improving your Vision
The Feldenkrais Method® is “a form of somatic (body) education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and enhance human functioning.”
My contemplative photography practice includes becoming more aware of what we’re feeling in our body; how our body responds to the world around us. I wanted to learn more. Luckily, I discovered a wonderful Feldenkrais teacher right here in Niagara, Fariya Doctor. I met her for a one on one session and then signed up for her ser...
April 5, 2017
Photograph Anywhere and Anytime
One of the most common complaints heard round and round the world (or at least the developed world) is about the weather. Especially here in Canada, it’s a favourite topic of conversation. The weather is never quite right. By practicing acceptance, we can do a 180 on the weather and find new ways of seeing.
Exercise #13 in the Adventures in Seeing book is about accepting the weather and it’s a powerful metaphor for life. We’re going to experience many ups and downs, storms and calm seas, m...
March 29, 2017
Relationships are Everything
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Thomas Berry who said “The universe is not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects.” Recently, while listening to an On Being interview with scientist and philosopher Carlo Rovelli, he said this, “All of reality is interaction.” Everything in me said YES – relationships are everything – and I had to hear more.
We tend to think of the world as made up of things and people. In photogr...
March 22, 2017
What is a Visual Poem?
Poet and teacher Naomi Shihab Nye says that we are living in a poem, whether we know it or not. Her students ask her,
“What do you mean, we’re living in a poem?” Or, “When? All the time, or just when someone talks about poetry?” And I’d say, “No, when you think, when you’re in a very quiet place, when you’re remembering, when you’re savouring an image, when you’re allowing your mind calmly to leap from one thought to another, that’s a poem. That’s what a poem does.” ~ On Being, a Krista T...
March 15, 2017
A Relational Way of Seeing
Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley National Park
“To take vision for granted, to be thoughtless about the variety, miracle, and magic of seeing is to limit one’s self to a play-by-play objectification of reality. But to envision the act of seeing as the marriage between the viewer and viewed is to be woven into the fabric of a shifting field of light, of energy, beauty, and all that one may lay eyes upon. It is to recognize that, as in all marriages, there are a thousand ways to honor the union. And...
March 8, 2017
Still Life Photography and Impermanence
I’ve never been a big fan of still life paintings or photographs. Generally, I prefer the grand landscape or intimate moments in nature. That is, until I attended a photography show called “Flowers, Fruit, Books, and Bones” at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. With more than sixty still life photographs from the center’s collection, it includes works from current photographers to old masters. The show is on until the end of April 2017 in case you have a chance to see...
March 4, 2017
The Beauty Way
Finding that gaze is what it means to walk the beauty way.“Just put your love into your eyes and just look at the world with that gaze and that’s what contemplation is about, really. It’s learning how to find that gaze in yourself and to put it in the world.” ~ Marilyn Nelson via On Being
What our culture considers to be beautiful seems to me to be too narrowly defined. Through the practice of contemplative photography, I’ve redefined and expanded my experience of beauty by discovering it...
March 1, 2017
Walk the Beauty Way
What is beauty?“Just put your love into your eyes and just look at the world with that gaze and that’s what contemplation is about, really. It’s learning how to find that gaze in yourself and to put it in the world.” ~ Marilyn Nelson via ON Being
Practicing contemplative photography has redefined and expanded my experience of beauty. What our culture considers to be beautiful seems to me to be too narrowly defined. I see beauty in the most ordinary, mundane moments and subjects – the way...
February 22, 2017
Lessons from the Saguaro
As I spend time in the desert Southwest, a climate and terrain very different from where I live, I find myself drawn to the Saguaro (Sah-wah-ro) cactus, the symbol of this landscape. You will only find these plants in Southern Arizona and Baja, Mexico.
A symbol is different from metaphor; it is not like something else, it is the literal thing. However, its inner meaning goes beyond what it is. So, the saguaro cactus is a symbol of the American Southwest and its inner meaning expresses the id...
