道德經 The Tao Te Ching is a classic Chinese text translated as “The Book of the Way and Virtue.” I read it when I was 14 years old and it still fascinates me at 45.
When I began to take my photography seriously, I began to look at things in a new way. I realized that by putting my photos online, oversharing them, and later curating them, I could find meaning in the pictures I took.
Looking at them 20 years later, I forgot I even took them. Now, they look fresh, better, or more awful. Photos I took then have another meaning now.
To capture stunning images, photographers master the four fundamental pillars of photography: composition, lighting, exposure, and post-processing/editing. All this takes practice, acquired skills, and, eventually, a bit of luck. You can take thousands of photos; only a few will be good ones.
To have a spectacular life, humans need to master the other four pillars of living: our character, our courage, our consciousness, and our creativity. We cannot balance ourselves on only one pillar. We will fall. Things will be out of balance.
That’s why people go crazy with their work or follow their passion. They lose their way. They lose their will. We cannot tackle anything without combining our strengths to slay the dragon.
Photography and Philosophy have been transformative forces in my life, guiding me towards becoming a better person. But it’s not just these pursuits that have shaped me. Suffering, loss of loved ones, regret, successes, failures, and realizations have all played their part. It’s the combination of everything that has the power to make us better people. And what is the conclusion?
Can you look at yourself by escaping your body? Can you see your beauty without the horror attached to it? Don’t you feel there is something mysterious there that you can’t touch? What do you call that?
The Tao says:
Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it, and there is no beginning;
follow it, and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
In another article, I will explore how I used the photo sharing Flickr.com website to self-educate myself on photography, join Getty Images, and leave the countryside of Brazil to pursue a career in photographer
