New (to me) way to look at the world: Miksang

[SolaresLarrave]

A friend of mine, retired art professor at my institution, posted some images in his FB wall and referred all of us who follow him to Miksang. I did a little googling and found this:

"Miksang is photography in which we use the camera to express our visual perceptions exactly as we experience them. Because we know how to prepare ourselves to receive perceptions when we see them, and we know how to understand exactly what we have seen, we then know exactly how to express what we have seen with our camera. The resulting image is an exact expression of our eye, mind, and heart as it connects with the perception."

More information at Miksang (the website).

BTW, I know this is not new to many in this forum. In fact, I ran a search before posting this thread and found Miksang mentioned a couple of times, but why not continue the conversation?

Have a nice day!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The images the people on that site posted in their personal galleries are all slick, boring, commercial shit like they use to package in picture frames or to decorate the walls of hospitals. None of it has any cultural merit. How can it? It was made with a system to teach 'creativity,' which cannot be taught, using a formula. All great photography has one thing in common: the photographer cared about the subject and had something to say in his/her work.

 

[KoNickon]

"Miksang is photography in which we use the camera to express our visual perceptions exactly as we experience them. Because we know how to prepare ourselves to receive perceptions when we see them, and we know how to understand exactly what we have seen, we then know exactly how to express what we have seen with our camera. The resulting image is an exact expression of our eye, mind, and heart as it connects with the perception."

Unlike, what -- all photography? Sorry, but this sounds like hooey to me.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

"Miksang is photography in which we use the camera to express our visual perceptions exactly as we experience them. Because we know how to prepare ourselves to receive perceptions when we see them, and we know how to understand exactly what we have seen, we then know exactly how to express what we have seen with our camera. The resulting image is an exact expression of our eye, mind, and heart as it connects with the perception."

Unlike, what -- all photography? Sorry, but this sounds like hooey to me.

Fully agreed. Hooey, like Minor White at his worst.

 

[sojournerphoto]

The images the people on that site posted in their personal galleries are all slick, boring, commercial **** like they use to package in picture frames or to decorate the walls of hospitals. None of it has any cultural merit. How can it? It was made with a system to teach 'creativity,' which cannot be taught, using a formula. All great photography has one thing in common: the photographer cared about the subject and had something to say in his/her work.

‘The photographer cared about the subject’

This - we’ll worth reading David Hurn and Bill Jay if you haven’t already! Come across in your work Chris.

 

[Coldkennels]

This immediately felt like Alternate Reality Lomography. And, sure enough, they're selling something - only instead of being junky plastic cameras, it's pseudo-intellectual (and possibly even pseudo-spiritual) workshops.

It's a hard no from me on multiple levels.

 

[DownUnder]

Kudos to the OP - for his well-written advertorial.

Amusing, entertaining, clever, but no cigar from me - rather too 21st century New Age-ish, although I admit it may appeal to someone younger.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Well... I liked the idea. Since I'm not a professional it sounded interesting to me, especially since I only follow Garry Winogrand's motto: "I photograph things to see how they look in a photograph."

All in all, to some it may be a departure point, even if the images are not entirely original. At least the enjoyment of tripping the shutter is! 🙂

 

[oldwino]

Well... I liked the idea. Since I'm not a professional it sounded interesting to me, especially since I only follow Garry Winogrand's motto: "I photograph things to see how they look in a photograph."

All in all, to some it may be a departure point, even if the images are not entirely original. At least the enjoyment of tripping the shutter is! 🙂

Winogrand’s quote is really all of the photographic philosophy you (or anyone) needs.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Looks like cumbersome pointing to the direction I'm finding to be self-honest.

I wrote it before. I knew icons (religious) painter. He adored Soviets, enjoyed his time at Cuba and was on top of 500pix. He told me - want to be on top - photoshop.

Photography and religion are the same. You could photograph as it is or you could come at service dressed like whore.

 

[agentlossing]

I'm interested if this thread would strike you guys as containing any better content than the "official" miksang stuff, which, you are correct, is trying to sell you something.

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/show-miksang-finding-beauty-in-the-mundane.88954/

I think good miksang can be a great exercise and hone a photographer's appreciation for the visual world, and it also just might be what some folks with sticks up their behinds need on order to chill out and be a bit less reverential about photography. But maybe applying the term miksang at all just comes with too much new-age pop psychology nonsense, since it is after all just an appreciation for the happy aesthetic accidents all around us.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I think good miksang can be a great exercise and hone a photographer's appreciation for the visual world, and it also just might be what some folks with sticks up their behinds need on order to chill out and be a bit less reverential about photography. But maybe applying the term miksang at all just comes with too much new-age pop psychology nonsense, since it is after all just an appreciation for the happy aesthetic accidents all around us.

Thanks for your contribution! It's precisely what I had in mind. And yes, the idea of miksang as a formula lends itself to unsatisfactory results... but then, who's creating and holding standards when it comes to certain things like what we see in the world and how it affects us?

Just as an anecdote: I've seen the photo posters Chris was talking about: flowers, grassy extensions, cute puppies, eagles... In restaurants and waiting rooms. However, it was in a barber shop here in town that I saw images that really caught my eye and made me think about concepts such as industry, manufacture, massive assembly lines, production of infinite, indistinguishable items... They have a few photos in black and white of screws, rivets, construction steel beams, huge steel cords... they all seem parts and details of bridges like the Golden Gate or Manhattan, but the minutiae (gritty, dirty) gives them a different dimension open to interpretation.

So, that was my take on this miksang idea.

 

[agentlossing]

Thanks for your contribution! It's precisely what I had in mind. And yes, the idea of miksang as a formula lends itself to unsatisfactory results... but then, who's creating and holding standards when it comes to certain things like what we see in the world and how it affects us?

Just as an anecdote: I've seen the photo posters Chris was talking about: flowers, grassy extensions, cute puppies, eagles... In restaurants and waiting rooms. However, it was in a barber shop here in town that I saw images that really caught my eye and made me think about concepts such as industry, manufacture, massive assembly lines, production of infinite, indistinguishable items... They have a few photos in black and white of screws, rivets, construction steel beams, huge steel cords... they all seem parts and details of bridges like the Golden Gate or Manhattan, but the minutiae (gritty, dirty) gives them a different dimension open to interpretation.

So, that was my take on this miksang idea.

I like where you're coming from, I also think some photographers (on this forum as well as elsewhere) have a bit of a macho, hero-worship love affair with street and photojournalist work from the 20th century and believe all photography needs to ape that in order to have "worth." To such, I say get the aforementioned stick unstuck and life will seem a lot better. Photography is anything and everything we can think of it being - we live life in many different contexts and seasons, and we should get some satisfaction from the craft throughout it. Miksang as a formalized, taught practice has some BS attached to it, not least of the reason that a zen practitioner is looking to make spiritual guru type money off it, but, it also taps into a very interesting and enjoyable everyday sort of photography which I think is a great antidote to the popularity contest of the internet photography sphere. It embraces seeing to a higher degree than a lot of other styles. Again, maybe we need to come up with a different name, but the miksang movement/crowd/whatever does get creative juices flowing for me, though I hold some of their "rules" as nonsense and don't subscribe to their entire concept.

 

[Richard G]

Nice to see David Hurn brought up. He said of his photo in the latest B&W magazine of the closed-eyed first communicant, her hands turned upwards possibly towards God, that sure, she may be in prayer but maybe she's about to catch a football. Not his job to decide and he doesn't care. It's a photo.

Avedon: I show what's on the surface, that's all there is in a photograph. Ron Jude: he can't go with too much intention, which comes later in the editing. The more deliberate he is with a camera the less he gets what he wants. That's how I approach my lunchtime and Sunday evening walks with a camera: I may or may not be struck by something. Took a long walk an hour or two ago with a fresh roll of Tri-X. Did not take one photograph.

 

[raydm6]

No disrespect to the OP, but I'm not getting it. I'm not seeing anything new or inspirational; a little too "new-agey" for me.

Some images remind me of Dollar-store calendar shots. And, I'm getting a little fatigued of the whole eastern taoist/buddhist new-age vibe stuff overlayed onto western practices. More of a marketing/monetization vehicle for birds-of-a-feather I feel, but that's ok. If you find value and inspiration from this, more power to you.

Not knocking it for others, but I have overloaded on it in the past. I do still have my 'Power of Now' book and many eastern texts in my library and enjoy them (I also practice traditional martial-arts), but I don't feel the need to apply them to my photography.

I get more contemplation and meditation these days doing my crosswords and Jumble puzzles and watching reruns of The Waltons as I approach my years of dotage 🙂

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

When I opened the link and I watched the rolling montage of images, well, I thought that these pictures are just as good or better than anything I see currently being posted here at RFF.

Based on some of the previous comments I’ve read in this thread I guess my opinion of the Miksang Contemplative (funny name) makes me a shallow Buddhist paparazzi bullshitzu photography weirdo. That’s cool, I don’t care… I’m one with the universe!

Vive la photographie! And, pass the wine (Sophia Loren)!


All the best,
Mike

 

[JohnWolf]

I took a Miksang workshop with Michael Wood and Julie DuBose and found it rewarding. I'm partial to Zen/Taoist philosophy, but feel any photographer would benefit from greater attentiveness, openness, and freedom from judgement, preconception, and control. I found them both very genuine in their desire to teach this.

That said, I cannot get past the dark and sordid legacy of the leaders on whose teachings Miksang is based. Better, I think, to buy the book "The Tao of Photography" and study and practice on one's own.

John

 

[sojournerphoto]

That said, I cannot get past the dark and sordid legacy of the leaders on whose teachings Miksang is based. Better, I think, to buy the book "The Tao of Photography" and study and practice on one's own.

John

Would be interested I who the leaders were and the history?

Mike

 

[Rick Waldroup]

When I opened the link and I watched the rolling montage of images, well, I thought that these pictures are just as good or better than anything I see currently being posted here at RFF.

Based on some of the previous comments I’ve read in this thread I guess my opinion of the Miksang Contemplative (funny name) makes me a shallow Buddhist paparazzi bull****zu photography weirdo. That’s cool, I don’t care… I’m one with the universe!

Vive la photographie! And, pass the wine (Sophia Loren)!


All the best,
Mike

The older I get, I find that I just don't care too much about what people think about me. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.🙁

 

[ptpdprinter]

Miksang is the trademarked name for an approach to photography based on Buddhist mindfulness technique. None of its proponents is going to be having a show at the MOMA anytime soon, but then neither are you. If you think Buddhist mindfulness technique is "pseudo-intellectual", "pseudo-spiritual", or just plain "hooey", then you are certainly under no obligation to sign up for a workshop. If you are curious, but don't want to spring for the workshop, there are a number of Miksang photography books authored by the instructors who are listed on the Miksang website available on Amazon which you can order and return if you don't find them interesting or helpful. I encourage anything which gives you a framework to think about your photographs.