Thursday, June 29, 2006

...be like Buddha...

I just read an article about Becca Bland and her idea for a "non-photography day". Her website expands on the idea.

Becca, a photographer herself, is drawing from her seemingly newfound Buddhist beliefs to encourage others to live in the moment, rather than stoically document it.

If you read the entire article, you got to the deragatory comments made by David Rowan at the bottom. He starts from the assumption that she is wanting to get everyone to stop taking pictures in general and claims she is "fighting a losing battle" comparing this day to anti-consumerist and anti-television days which have done nothing to stem the tide of watching TV or buying stuff.

I feel that he is looking at this wrong way. These "days" aren't there to elimnate these practices entirely- we are all going to have to buy stuff at one time or another- but to get you to go out and experience life in a different way.

Just as Becca isn't trying to get people to stop taking pictures forever, but to spend a day living in the moment, rather than recording it. While I agree that many people use photos as a way to try and "own" a moment, others use them as a way to simply remember how they felt at a certain time.

So check out her site, and put down your camera for one day.

"The thing is there before our eyes, for it refuses to be ignored; but when we endeavour to grasp it within our own hands in order to examine it more closely or systematically, it eludes us and we lose it’s track" -D.T Suzuki- Essays in Zen Buddhism


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