As a beginner , what should my topic be if I I need to solve my mysteries of life?

<p>Interested in both, philosophy and photography. How do I integrate. I am interested in in the "why" and "who".</p>

<p>There IS no "why" and there IS no "who".</p>

<p>There is only YOU.....and what you <em><strong>can </strong> </em> do, and what you <strong><em>will</em> </strong> do.</p>

<p>Just let your passion guide you.</p>

<p>This is a problem of scale. The task you've set yourself is not granular enough to even attempt with any useful feedback regarding progress or direction. What you need to do is break that top-level project down into smaller ones (look up "work breakdown structure" and use such a diagram). That way you stand a chance of achieving something and noticing where progress is being made or not. For a while - eg a few decades - confine yourself to one specific aspect or facet of a particular branch of the subject. Otherwise you'll get nowhere. Your photography will become your interpretive transfer function - a transfer function that relates input to output via a specific set of curves that you are providing and evolving as your understanding superimposes itself upon your process through which life itself passes. As I say, you need to bring it all down to human scale. You yourself couldn't build a skyscraper. But you could probably contribute to a specific facet of one - a metaphorical one, given the time and development of skill over many years. Then you do it many many more times in slightly different ways over your lifespan until you're well practiced and the process is evolving. And then you die.</p>

<p>Mysteries aren't puzzles to be solved.</p>

<p>try meditation</p>

<p>Live life, its mysteries may be revealed to you. Nobody else can tell you.</p>

<p>I suggest you go about photographing God. That should help.</p>

<p>Study Psychology.</p>

<p>'Deep Thought', says the answer is 42.</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything#Answer_to_Life.2C_the_Universe.2C_and_Everything_.2842.29</p>

<p>Best regards,</p>

<p>/Clay</p>

 

<p>A correction if I may. There is just YOU and the VIEWER interpreting your intent behind the image. You have control over the first and fortunately not so often over the second. </p>

<p>If you are truly passionate as Sara pointed out about bringing your point of view across in an image, it will be quite evident, but the added benefit is knowing that the viewer will also add something of their own to it that may surprise you. Let this anticipation for the unexpected from the viewer add to your passion and drive you even further.</p>

<p>You know those that look for and derive spiritual meaning from seeing the image of Jesus in a burnt piece of toast continue to baffle me and that's because I see it as just a burnt piece of toast. Each viewer brings something different you have no control over from a philosophic standpoint so all you can do is be true to yourself.</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Mysteries aren't puzzles to be solved.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Right on the money! I would only add that the <em>journey </em> is the destination...</p>

<p>- Randy</p>

<p>I reread your question. Thought about it. Reread it again.<br>

Why and who?<br>

I think you might benefit from readings on what other photographers thought about, what they were going after, and why they shoot. You can certainly ask yourself why some imagery appeals to you, or doesn't appeal. And why other photographers' works appeal/repulse you.<br>

Who? As others suggested, I would include yourself in the who, but also look at other's work, see what appeals to you, and go from there. Hope that's close to what you were asking.</p>

<p>These are questions only to be answered by you. Asking an online forum to counsel and guide you seems to be an avoidance tactic. Step, stumble, fall and start over are what life is all about. It is the same with photography in its varied facets. Can you learn the lessons taught by the stumbles and falls? Here just doesn't seem to be the place where YOU will learn what you seek.</p>

<p>The three subjects of philosophy, philosophy of photography, and photography each deal with what we don't know or what we haven't yet seen.</p>

<p>Your personal philosophy of life should apply to (guide) your photography. If that isn't fully developed, it doesn't matter much, as neither is your photography. </p>

<p>And neither may allow you great insight into the mysteries of life, but they are probably as good a vehicle as any in that never-ending search.</p>

<p>You aren't going to "solve" mysteries of life. Forget looking for answers and focus on understanding the questions (Douglas Adams wasn't really joking with "42". He posed a sincere philosophical point in his absurdist fiction).<br>

Start with this question... WHY do you take photographs? Are your photos primarily for yourself, or are they primarily to communicate with others? And if you're communicating with others, what are you trying to communicate - ideas, feelings, historical record?<br>

The "why" leads to the "what" and the "how", questions of subject and technique. But we usually start shooting before we start thinking about shooting, and select our subjects intuitively, so we can work backwards from "what" to "why".<br>

The big advantage to thinking about photography, imho, is that it helps us focus on what matters to us, and not get distracted by things that don't matter. It's very, very easy to get distracted by gear, or by "rules" regarding our favorite subjects, or shooting things that don't move us because we're supposed to shoot that stuff. But the less time and effort we waste on things that don't matter to us, the more we can advance on the things that DO matter.</p>

<p>Find, if you can, Ralph Hattersley's Discover Yourself Through Photography.<br>

His exercises are spiritual in outlook. You don't make pictures so much for their intrinsic value as for what insights they, and the experience of making them suggest. Hattersley's approach is Jungian almost to a fault (Jerry Uelesmann is a heavy contributor of images).<br>

Out of print.</p>

<p>You know, I really found this question thought provoking, and in a variety of stages. First I found it humorous (and I note others did too as indicated by some flippant reponses), then I thought it was naive and grossly inflating of the potential importance of photography, then I became intensely sad for you as I associated some feeling of being very lost into your question, and I have settled on a kind of optimistic curiosity.</p>

<p>My own sense is that you should 'park' the question for a few years. Somehow or other become free of it so that you are not developing as a photographer in a manner that is conscious of this bigger search. Get some skills, and most of all take your camera everywhere and take images that 'feel right' for you, that interest you, that challenge you... whether they are macros of bugs, or sweeping landscapes, or moody portraits, or a mish-mash of all of the above And <strong>then</strong> look at the portfolio that you have built, only after a few years, and there may be some insightful threads in there.</p>

<p>But the catch is... if you are deliberately looking for meaning as you shoot rather than letting your spirit free then you are bound to come up with something that is contrived, and to ultimately fail. So you have to find a way not to worry about this big question too much, and to rid your mind of it at least insofar as your photographic spontenaity goes.</p>

<p>Keep in touch if you like too. Your question has really interested me.</p>

<blockquote>

<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=977570"><em>Luis G</em></a><em> </em><a href="../member-status-icons"><em><img title="Frequent poster" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/3rolls.gif" alt="" /></em></a><em>, Aug 22, 2009; 08:33 a.m.</em><br>

<em>Mysteries aren't puzzles to be solved.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Luis is right.<br>

Forget about solving any mysteries of life.<br>

You already know all you need to know.<br>

If you need to know more, it will be shown to you when the time is right, by forces that will go unexplained.<br>

Just go out and do your photography and leave the bigger picture to higher powers.</p>

<p>Bill P. </p>

<p>Maybe Mohan asked for photographic suggestions. It's that kind of website, right?</p>

<p>One suggestion: There are things to be learned about humanity, and as much about ourselves as individuals, by photographing people just like ourselves with their verbal agreement (not candidly, looking right into the lens).</p>

<p>I've found it especially juicy to do that by appointment...it becomes even better (more challenging,, more rewarding) to give the subjects prints. Prints that we can give (or sell) are a traditional reason for photography (thats another suggestion). </p>

<p>If we're reluctant to try that (I was initially) it may tell us something: maybe we lack basic personal or photographic skills or don't respect people. </p>

<p>A beginner for solving the mysteries of life !!!! Aren't we all ??</p>

<p>"Find, if you can, Ralph Hattersley's Discover Yourself Through Photography." - Jeff Cosloy</p>

<p>Interesting. Never noticed that. That Uelsman and Jung are involved might be an interesting way to look at photography and perhaps self. But I don't think Uelsman's darkroom tricks and Jungs interpretations are as close to my own sense of things as is perhaps-more-direct work (eg Edward Weston, John McPhee, Miles Davis)</p>

<p>I've never been interested in "discovering myself" so much as creating myself. I suspect that, with Gurdjieff/Ouspensky, Minor White was forcing himself in somebody else's direction. From some of his photography, and certainly his teaching-of-teachers, I think he found rewarding threads and may have drifted away from them. (Minor White does probably relate to the OT).</p>

<p>In this vein, I recommend Richad Avedon's beautifully simply written, very clear recollections about his intentional personal photographic development: Richard Avedon Portraits (a physically strange accordeon-folded book with many fine photos). Avedon seems to have followed one thread from childhood. </p>

<p><em>"what should my topic be if I I need to solve my mysteries of life"</em><br>

Your family.</p>

<p>As I read your question, you're interested in the integration of philosophy and photography.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if you're interested in photography providing an avenue for exploring further the depths of philosophy, or conversely whether philosophy can provide unique tools for the further exploration of photography. Perhaps both; once mixed, they may become inseperable.</p>

<p>As a starting point, read Geoffe Dyer's "The Ongoing Moment". It doesn't attempt to explain life through photography, or use photography as a tool for mysticism, but you'll discover some interesting aspects of photography that are a starting point for further research.</p>

<p>You could, of course, go completely into pure philosophy, or completely into a non-philosophic approach to photography, but that goes outside the bounds of what your stated conditions were, which I read as the set of all aspects of both philosophy and photography that overlap.</p>

<p>I might also suggest that you not limit your exploration to merely photography, but look into how art (specifically visual art) and philosophy overlap; there might be much more fertile grounds for discovery.</p>

<p>Joe</p>

<p>I'm not sure "solving" and "integration" can even theoretically relate to "who" or "why." Or that those questions mean anything whatsoever.<br>

Perhaps the "answer" is physical? Weight lifting, running, cooking, dishwashing. Or perhaps it's musical, non-verbal: a flute, bongo drums. Or perhaps it's in mindless meditation (eg zen).</p>

<p> </p>