Living so closely near water, I find myself drawn into a relationship with the experience of the ocean and the deep, quiet truths we long for with our world becoming more busy and noisy. Pat O'Donohue says we are "pushing silence out of our lives at a rate that suggests a fear of what it has to say to us about ourselves."
My mentor, John Diamond, M.D., said photography is "the art of relationship." It's a teaching that unfolds its wisdom gradually over time. The more I photograph, the more I see the facets of this relationship. At times, it's a relationship of play, a dance between myself and those in front of the lens, especially if children are involved. At other times, especially when I am focused on nature, it is a relationship to silence, and it's here that I want to focus my thoughts for a moment.
In silence, we become awake to both joy and pain. We all try to push away the silence that brings us closer to our pain. But suffering is undeniably part of life - any Buddhist will tell you that. And you can't push pain away, not really. The more you push, the more entangled you become with it. I've found that the more you lean into pain, the more it moves through you. It's difficult, but sometimes, years afterward, you find yourself more resilient and more awake to the beauty mixed in with those moments. We need silence because it lets us come home to ourselves, and the expressive medium of photography can be a helping hand to nudge us along that path.
The relationship to silence, the ocean, and the ability to slow time with the camera shutter gives me a chance to glimpse the world with a new sight, revealing the invisible layers of our day-to-day experiences. It sometimes feels as though a spirit is tapping me on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, reminding me of their presence, and at once, I am more awake to my life's circumstances and surroundings. If I am lucky, the photograph will reveal that moment to its later viewers and become the quiet teacher I hope it to be.
So, for me, photography is not just a visual medium; it is an intimate act of feeling that brings you deeper into the mystery and imagination of what might at first appear mundane. With each press of the shutter, I am, as Pat O'Donohue writes in his forward to his brother John's book Four Elements: Reflections on Nature, on a journey from the womb of the sea with our gaze of longing fixed on the stars.
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