Mindfulness, Respect, Humility

Mindfulness. Respect. Humility. Three concepts that are indispensable for human interaction. As overused as they may be—I consider them essential for photography. Especially when it comes to portraits.

Mindfulness

This word is used quite often when it comes to lecturing others. The word “mindfulness” is badly worn out. Still, please bear with me if I have a use for it as well.

Regardless of who has the authority to define it, I want to describe what mindfulness means to me personally.

To me, mindfulness stands for a non-judgmental and open-minded attitude toward our entire present environment and ourselves.

Mindfulness allows us to notice something and engage with it.

Mindfulness also enables us to discover something special in what we encounter—instead of dismissing it as a subject because it’s not what we wanted. Perhaps even… because it’s not good enough for us.

We notice more of how it affects us. Mindfulness is the gateway to appreciation.

Respect

It’s so easy to say. “Respect!” and “Well done!”

It’s especially easy to say on occasions when something turns out to be “special” because it is (also) difficult, tedious, painful, or exhausting.

But treating something everyday with respect is something hardly anyone is born with.

Rather, we learn to see the supposedly mundane and small as something special—and therefore to respect it.

The daily warm meal. The toys, the washed dishes, the cleaned apartment.

And that’s as it should be. But from there, it’s still a long way to a respect for things and creatures that no human has created (laboriously and thus deserving of respect) and yet are (simply) there.

Respect for life, however small, that we might not even have noticed until recently. Respect for a piece of seemingly chaotic wilderness that is a home for living beings, just like our carefully maintained homes or cars.

It’s about treating nature in every form with respect, simply because it exists.

Not because it is “like this.” But simply because it “is.” That is enough. It doesn’t have to be different or better.

Because we don’t even begin to grasp the “how” in “how it is.” And to offer our due respect only in exchange for a sufficiently impressive “how” is arrogant and vain.

We discover the special in everything. Respect is the gateway to meeting at eye level.

Humility

After we have learned to notice something and learned to respect that it is there, just as it is, the question of our attitude remains.

Humility, I would suggest.

Because what we have noticed is not small, but much, much larger than all of us combined.

If you’re flinching now… humility is not the same as, for example, self-abasement or self-deprecation. Humility means, at least for me, the recognition of another in their defining characteristics. It simply means letting go of the feeling of being better.

For every single aspect, there is someone or something better. Let that sink in for a moment.

We are open to being surpassed. Humility is the gateway to love.

What does this have to do with photography?

Everything and nothing.

What this text means to YOU so far is entirely YOUR business. Maybe something resonates with you. Maybe all of this is complete nonsense in your eyes.

Both are possible. And that’s okay.

I have observed and practiced these three things myself.
And I believe that my pictures have become “better” as a result. Either because they mean more to me than before or because I have learned to appreciate the moments in which they are created more.

I believe I have learned to look more closely at my subjects and to think more beforehand about whether I can capture the subject, whether it does the subject justice, how I can approach it (with animals: without disturbing them), and so on…

Whether and what becomes of these three terms—”mindfulness,” “respect,” and “humility”—for YOU is YOUR journey.

Care for an exercise?

If you would like to practice this, I’d like to give you a tip.

Whether it’s a macro or an entire landscape… please put your camera aside for a moment. You don’t need it yet.

Take your time.

Observe. With all your senses.

• What caught your attention?
• How do you feel?
• What feeling did that trigger in you?
• What do you see, hear, smell, feel, and sense right now?
• What kind of environment are you in?
• …

And only then start taking photos.

The reason is that it helps you learn to “see.” The brain is plastic at any age. And it grows through everything it is confronted with. It learns patterns.

These will be patterns that allow you to find subjects. And patterns that allow you to photograph your subject appropriately.