Photography

Overview & Objective

Modern life has created a mind that is constantly occupied — overloaded with information, worry, comparison, deadlines, and uncertainty. Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert conducted a study via an iPhone app in 2010 and found 47 percent of the time our mind is wandering and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.

As the Buddha taught, the only true sanctuary from these feelings is the present: "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment".

This is where the profound irony and power of the camera comes into play. Mindfulness is defined as experiencing the "Here and Now, not in the Future or Past". Similarly, a camera is fundamentally bound to the exact second you press the shutter; "Photography is all about present, you can’t take picture of past or future".

This workshop utilises Mindfulness-based Therapeutic Photography (MBTP) to tether the wandering mind to reality. Because a camera is fundamentally bound to the exact second the shutter is pressed, photography acts as a physical manifestation of mindfulness. The objective of this workshop is to show participants how to use the simple act of taking a photograph as an "open-eyed meditation" to quiet the anxious brain, anchor themselves in the present moment, and find genuine mental relief.