still bewildered?

 

Time has been transformed, and we have changed;
it has advanced and set us in motion;
it has unveiled its face,
inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.
~Kahlil Gibran

 
A fellow photographer emailed me after reading yesterday’s journal entry, asking a few questions regarding Rumi’s quote on selling cleverness and buying bewilderment, and how I feel this might specifically relate to our work as photographers. Since his email was so contemplative and thought-provoking I decided to consider it further here.

So, Michael, to answer your question as to whether I believe that we as photographers have become more concerned with cleverness over substance in our work, I’d have to answer: I don’t know. Remember, I’m bewildered. (Walked right in to that one, didn‘t ya!?!)

Seriously though, for me personally I’ve been better off selling my cleverness because it never really was my strong suit. There will always be someone else more clever, always. So what’s left for those of us photographers who’ve cashed in our cleverness? More heart is all I can come up with. Buying bewilderment means living and photographing from the inside out. Allowing room in our images for questions to linger and ambiguity to reside. Approaching our subject with as much vulnerability as we can muster, and without words conveying the truth that we don’t know where things are heading but it doesn’t matter. What matters is what might be unearthed between us in this very moment……the questions that may arise that cause us to expand our thinking and to see and feel something differently.

I truly don’t believe that it’s cleverness that gets you there, I think it’s bewilderment.

 
~Cynthia