Photography as Metaphor for the Inner Journey

So excited to be revisiting my website's Blog. It's only been 8 years!

Recently, I realised I didn’t want my photography to be purely documentary – the perfectly exposed and composed landscapes, or birds. I was beginning a new chapter by wanting to capture my outer world differently:  shapes, colours, textures, contrasts, and, importantly, moods. I also realised that I could look a little deeper into what I was attracted to "seeing" out there, as this was telling me something about myself... Art as metaphor. Have you ever thought about it in this way?

On a deep level, we see what we want to see, and what we see is what we have invited to come into view.

By embracing mindfulness, the silencing of the mind, I can invite something meaningful and informative to come into view, and in the process get to know myself better. Which can only be a good thing, right?

For example:  This is one photograph I took on the night I went out to prep for the next Art in Nature: Mindful Photography Workshop at Narraburra Farm, which included an Introduction to Milky Way Photography

I learned a lot about myself that night:   I am able to sit, alone and very still in the vast mystery, without fear. I can live trusting the moment, the place, myself is happening exactly as it should be.  And my relationship with stillness is my superpower. With the Milky Way streaming overhead representing my connection to the divine ,to the rhythm of nature, to ancestral time, to universal oneness. 

The old dead tree seems to carry its past with such dignity not regret, and I can be open to embrace that in myself.  I love its resilience and function.  It also connects me with my ancestors. 

The open space represents mental and emotional clearing, shedding clutter, roles or obligations – a space to simply “be”.  It’s my inner landscape, laid bare and quiet.