- My doubt was simple. But maybe it was more of a fear. What if my faith is just a brainwashing? The more books I read about God, the more I believe. The more I surround myself with Christians, the more I live like they do. I’m told how to deal with my questions, “If you have doubts it’s the enemy and it would be best to just ignore.” Well what if I don’t want to ignore?What if I have doubts because I’m believing a lie? Don’t tell me not to question!
Here’s what I mean. You are in a philosophy class and your professor tells you that money is the key to happiness. He also tells you that anyone who tells you different is only trying to discourage you . You then spend your free time discussing, reading, and strategizing how to make money. You have now thrown yourself into a life of money but have forgotten the most important part….discovering whether money is in fact the key to happiness. Your mind is being trained by a lie.
- So this led me to believe that this way of thinking is wrong; that maybe saturating our lives with God can lead to a fenced in belief so caught up in itself that it leaves no room for failure. And then I met photography…
I love the idea of photography and I love photography. There’s something significant about being able to combine my mind and God’s creation. At first I thought that by not knowing anything about taking pictures, I would be unrestricted. But as I read, practiced, and talked to others about photography my mind became more and more trained. Trained….but not restricted. I could do more than I ever imagined possible. I found that as I surrounded myself with photography, the more I understood my passions/perspectives and the more freedom I had to reach to those passions/perspectives. And now my doubt is cured…
- So I was scared that I was being brainwashed. But maybe God created our minds this way; to be influenced by our surroundings. Just because it can be a bad thing does not mean it can’t be a good thing. I voluntarily brainwashed my mind with photography. And now that I have seen through my flesh into the reality of our God, I will voluntarily brainwash my mind with Jesus.
I know there is something in here that you either don’t agree with or isn't clear ….tell me what it is.
24 comments:
numbers indicate change in thought progression.
1. how this entry of yours affects me: reminds me of how God is so timely. the end : P
2. Those questions and concerns you mention in the beginning are natural, normal, and healthy> the main way we learn is through trial and error and asking questions. never stop asking questions. one way i discern preaching from teaching is: preaching discourages questions and teaching encourages me to ask questions that in turn cause me to increasingly grow thirstier for more information(truth, in this case) (you always have a the choice of accepting or rejecting the teachings)
3.Phil 1:21
4. Photography (in it's purest form aka no Major photoshop work like changing the color of some one's eyes or adding something that wasn't already in the original photograph),what i have come to believe, is one of the few art forms that can clearly/accurately reflect and be the closest means of Man being able to make Absolute truth tangible, concrete, and more relatable. Photographs don't lie. I find comfort in that fact. (Everything that ends up in photographs seem to confirm God's existence)
5. With that said i am always careful and try to be aware of when i try and use photography as a means of control and bending reality to my liking.
6. I must always remember that our God is a sovereign God; and because of that absolute truth i willfully put my trust and all aspects of my life in God's hands.
::this comment sort of became stream of consciousness...so some of it may need further explaining or just to be completely ignored ha.::
oh snaps,
I think it is a weird balance between always questioning God and total faith. I mean, faith in it's purest form is believing in something that you can't entirely prove. But then I think it's also right to question God, although I'm not sure how much. I mean, I think it would be bad to just always question God's existence all the time because you couldn't really move on to trusting Him and having faith in Him, but it also doesn't seem right to just have blind faith in Him and not seek out further evidences.
Eye Dee Kay.
mark are you saying influence in regards to our faith from things outside of God are a good thing? I am not following...
Jake you make an interesting point, although I don't know that it is ok to question God. We are told to have faith, regardless, to me in my mind questioning God is a lack of faith. Whether in desperation or frustration. What do you think? Or did I miss what you were saying? Also though what you said makes total sense, because I am myself completely disbelieving all the time. But that is because I am a bastard
Sam: I mean that influence can be good or bad. At first I thought it was only bad. But influence from God is good.
-I think it can be good to question if it leads to greater faith
1) by finding an explanation leading to truth
2) by not fining a satisfying explanation (thus you follow God despite not having an explanation=greater faith)
*I'm waiting to hear Jake's response
oh ok, then I agree...with both statements. Not that it matters, haha, but I agree
Well, I guess I would say that it's almost natural to doubt the existence of God, no matter how strong of a Christian you are. I mean, we can't detect Him with any of our senses, and there is no final proof of Him for our mind. I guess whenever I doubt His existence I look for him even harder, but I could see how constant doubt would be damaging. I don't know.
im curious. what are people's thoughts on photography and photoshop?
Oh, awesome picture by the way!
my thoughts are this... to some it is an art form. And that is ok. Some people view the picture itself as a canvas on which to add. For me though, the art and the discipline comes in getting exactly what you want from the camera. And it is possible. And this isn't some soapbox, elitist thing i am on. I just think, in my view an image doctored in Photoshop looks like poop. You can tell, for the most part when it's done. But if you like it, then roll with it. but for me, what i see through my eye, can be captured through the viewfinder onto the negative. And that is what I think is cool.
let me reiterate, again, for some they love it. I don't but you might, and I am not coming down on anyone for that. I will be the first to say to the guy who starts talking about the purity of photography being the raw image to shut his mouth...because ALL photographers touch up the image at some point. It's like being in 8th grade in sex ed...and they are talking about you know what...and all the dudes are looking around saying, thats gross man... WE ALL HAVE MAN, ALL OF US. hahaha. im sick
hahaha thats good. i like your view. and no your not offending anyone...accept maybe jake with the sex ed stuff.
Can you really tell when something has been photoshoped??...like what about the picture on this post?
more views on photography and photoshop?????????
well everyone lightens and darkens. Except maybe Pegg...he is the exception to every rule. There are images within a batch, I may have shot, that I didnt have to do anything with, but for the most part for every 10 I lighten or dark 2 i would say...
Yes, I am offended.
About the sex ed stuff.
But I'm not really sure why.
On a different note...
Am I functionally retarded or do you guys also struggle with those word verification things at the bottom? It takes me like 6 tries each time.
Dang, now I have to do it again.
Hi Mark,
I was happy to stumble on to this post. I have been doing a lot of thinking, reading, and writing about photography in the last month and I love to see discussions like this.
I have experienced two significant "events" that have influenced my philosophy during this time.
Last week I went shooting with a former student of mine. We were driving on back country roads determined to stop only when really struck by something. After several miles without stopping, we rounded a sharp corner and there in front of us, jutting up into the sky, was a massive hill. It was like the hump on the back of a camel. The hill was striking enough but at the apex of the hill was a black horse. "Woah!" I said, stopping the car immediately. I was shooting with my Minilux and snapped 3 or 4 images.
Later I described this event to my wife. When I was done I thought about how the images may turn out. Somehow I knew that the printed image would not match up to the impression made on me when I came around that corner. I thought of Ansel Adams. Hear me out.
In my photography classes I make a scale on the board and ask the students to draw one in their notebooks. On the far left of the scale is Ansel Adams, a man known for his striking images and for touting the power of finalizing the print in the darkroom (and extracting every last detail from the perfectly exposed negative). I deeply respect his work though I am not particularly fond of landscape photography.
On the far right of the scale is Henri Cartier Bresson. HCB was known for capturing what he called, "The Decisive Moment". He had ZERO interest in print making. His only interest was in taking the picture. He had other people make the prints for him.
While I know that there are other aproaches, I ask the kids to place a mark between these two names to signify what style of image making they may find more attractive. I have always been closer to the Bresson side.
That night I read a passage from Susan Sontag from "On Photography":
"For photographic images tend to subtract feeling from something we experienced at first hand and the feelings they do arouse are, largely, not those we have in real life."
The line shifted a bit towards Adams for me. He always said that what he did, was, in a sense, a lie. What you see in his images is not what was there but what he may have felt upon seeing it initially. The impact of being there. Needless to say, after seeing that horse standing on that hill I feel like I understood Adams more.
The biggest issue that I have with Photoshop is what people are able to do with it. It makes us question the authenticity of all images. Don't get me wrong, I see the place for a program like that and for mixing media. It is another tool for creation and manipulation.
The other "event" that I was referring to really has nothing to do with Photoshop at all. But the other day I was reading a biography of one of my favorite authors, Borges, and for some reason I had this thought that was almost audible, "You are a photographer." In other words, I aspire to be creative in many areas, writing being one of them, but I am constantly frustrated with myself for not doing more. But the one thing that I do not have to conjure up is photography. It is ok to just be a photographer. And not only is it ok but I should stop fooling around with these other pursuits and give every creative thought I have to photography. If I write or draw or make a collage then fine, but I am done trying to force those things. I am a photographer. It was like having a bus lifted off of me.
I know that has nothing to do with the conversation but I think there is something to be said for finding something that you are passionate about and doing it for all its worth.
Thoughts?
Jeremy,
First of all I like the scale idea of Adams and Bresson.
The way photoshop can be used is rather annoying. It's almost like steroids in sports: a quick fix to match the competition.
I don't think that I could place myself as a steady point on that scale. It depedns with each picture; not in the sense that I only use photoshop if the picture isn't good enough. But a lot of the pictures I take are becuase of my mind. When I see the surroundings, my imagination produces an image to fit the Lord of the Rings world in my head.
I honestly don't use photoshop very often. I take pictures based on what I like and not how I think others would want them to look. So i guess my own picures explain to me what words can't.
But I think I agree with you. When looking at other people's photography it is much more attractive to be on the side of Bresson. It sounds like you're a very raw phototgrapher. Is that because you don't want others to mistake your pictures as "fake" or because that is what looks best to you????
That last paragraph you wrote is very cool, and congrats on getting a bus lifted off of you. Why are you passionate about photograpy? What about it? Why do you take picutres and what do they mean to you?
Mark,
I agree with you. The scale slides. I gravitate to Bresson but hold both men in equal respect.
You said, "It sounds like you're a very raw phototgrapher. Is that because you don't want others to mistake your pictures as "fake" or because that is what looks best to you????"
When it comes to my personal work I can say with confidence that what other people will think of my work has nothing to do with the making of an image. I can not say that with as much confidence when it comes to Enigma.
If I had to guess why I am attracted most to the idea of "the decisive moment" and doing the work with the camera rather than the darkroom (digital or film, I would say it has something to do with my past.
Besides my grandfather being a photographer, my father dabbled in it as well. He developed and printed his own stuff and I was curious about anything he did.
I have two very distinct black and white images burned in my head. They are two different 8x10 prints my dad made.
One was of my great Great Grandpa Parker. A classic portrait that absolutely captured the man.
The other was a candid of my dad's brother, Uncle Skip. A great picture made even greater (more important and with a sense of reverence) by the fact that he died in a helicopter crash when I was about 7 or 8.
I saw these images every day until I moved out of my house.
I would say that has something to do with it. I have never thought about this that deeply but those two images are what I aspire to.
I have to run but I will answer the questions from your last paragraph later this afternoon.
Jeremy
Part II
"Why are you passionate about photograpy? What about it? Why do you take pictures and what do they mean to you?"
As long as I can remember, if there was something that I had an interest in, I have always tried to learn as much about that thing as possible.
And it isn't enough to know about it. I want to submerge myself in it.
I went from being interested in cigars to having my own radio show about them. I obsessivly collected Xixing Tea Pots after reading everything I could about tea and the best way to brew it. Poker. Baseball. Chess. Audiophilia.
I have no idea why I do that and I don't claim to be an expert regarding any of these things. That includes photography. There is always more to learn and another image to capture.
Photography is the worst kind of lust.
It is never satisfied. Maybe temporarily, but there is always another image waiting.
The one constant for me has been photography. It gives me more joy than anything else I have ever done. It gives me peace. I get my peace ultimately from Christ, but when I go out alone with my camera or develop a print, it really does put me at ease.
Jeremy
Thats cool man. I really respect that. I would love to learn some stuff about photography if your willing to teach.
Mark I dont think you understand what you are asking...
hah well now im not sure...what am i asking?
I am always willing to help or teach.
cool...i guess it will have to be after the summer
i was randomly in some museum that had an exhibition on God (it was really a hype for some book)-anywho, the book talks about how its just about been scientifically proven that our brains are biologcally and chemically made to seek God. Like a cavity not in our hearts but brains specifically made for God : P some people see it as a fact that God is in fact a figment of mankind's mind but I understand it as God made us>God made a specific place for Himself making it that much easier for us to get to know him. He made it so we already naturally seek after him. just thought it was cool.peace
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