Philippe L. Gross - Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing

Philippe L. Gross, Down the Stairs
Fribourg, Switzerland, 1987

2001 by Philippe L. Gross and S. I. Shapiro

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Passages from the Chuang-tzu are from The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu trans.
Burton Watson. 1968 Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gross, Philippe L.
The Tao of photography: seeing beyond seeing / Philippe L. Gross,
S.I. Shapiro; with a foreword by Duane Preble.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Photography--Philosophy. 2. Taoism. 3. Photography, Artistic.
I. Shapiro, S.I., Ph.D. II. Title.

TR183 .G75 2001
770.1--dc21
00-064845

eISBN: 978-1-60774-198-5

v3.1

To Edith and Michel

&

To Patricia and David

We thank Asa Baber, Jean Blomquist, Cynthia Clement, David Sherrill, and Julia Trott for editorial suggestions, Catherine Jacobes for design artistry, Publisher Philip Wood and Senior Editor Aaron Wehner of Ten Speed Press and our literary agent Sherrill Chidiac for their enthusiastic support, and Professor Duane Preble for his perceptive foreword.

How has our collective consciousness been shaped by the media? Where do breakthrough insights come from? What provokes lifes wonderful ahas? Why do we find the spontaneous convergence of certain forms, certain experiences, so aesthetically uplifting, so significant? Seeking spiritual nourishment in these roaring times of ferocious change, I ask such questions as I steer between the dislocations caused by too much fragmented information, proliferating technological complexities, the onslaught of commercial media, and the often static formulas of traditional religious guidance.

It is in this context that The Tao of Photography illuminates a path beyond the noise of constricted awareness, awakening in us the kind of intuitive awareness that raises life to a rewarding adventure and photography to an art. The springboard is unrestricted awareness taught by ancient Taoist philosophy and discovered in the reflective comments of leading photographers.

This book is a catalyst for reawakening the sense of wonder. It is a first-aid manual for those who yearn to be free of mind-numbing, predigested, media-generated views of reality. The Tao of Photography is about the harmonization of Little and Great Understanding. It is discovering the young childs and the sages power to perceive awesome mystery in even the most ordinary objects and events. True art is an epiphany, an enlightening spark dancing in the perceived gap between ourselves and everything else.

Seeing is a creative process. The Tao of Photography mines the essence of that process and offers evidence in photographic form. The authors have opened a new, rewarding path to the heart of the creative attitude.

Meaningful artin any mediumis mind changing, challenging the prejudices of conventional thought. In this role, art lives between the known and the unknown, communicating what it discovers in this ambiguous territory.

In The Tao of Photography we experience a great realization: the convergence across time and place of the resonant universal wisdom of Taoism and the wisdom of seeing within and beyond as revealed in the images and words of our eras photographers.

The mind-opening, spirited essence of this book is echoed elsewhere: Dizzy Gillespie, when asked where his jazz came from replied, Its out there, man. Dont you hear it? A teacher in India speaking about receiving grace said, The winds of grace are blowing all the time. All you have to do is put up your sail. My favorite bumper sticker reads, Dont believe everything you think.

On breaking through the enslavement of the judgmental mind, we wander freely, we welcome and embrace the unknown, the chaos, the mystery. We move beyond the prejudice of habitual understanding to spontaneous understanding. In this attitude of receptivity, we discover that we are open to the renewing energy of beauty in all that is.

May you awaken to the beauty of your own creative insights as you experience the heartfelt wisdom presented on the pages that follow.

DUANE PREBLE
Professor Emeritus of Art

ELIOT PORTER
OKeeffes Entrance Door (outside)
Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1949
1990, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, Bequest of Eliot Porter

P hotography has been an integral part of my life since childhood. A creative outlet at first, it evolved into a form of emotional healing and therapy, finally culminating in a way of life. Classical Asian psychologies of the mind, especially the Taoist philosophy of the Chuang-tzu, have also been an intensive pursuit of mine for years. These two passions developed independently, but one day I sensed that like the perfect Yin and perfect Yang, photography and Taoism could mingle, penetrate, come together, harmonize, and that a blend of these disciplines could illuminate both the art of seeing and the art of living. It is this syncretism of the ancient wisdom of the Chuang-tzu and the art of creative photography that we will explore in The Tao of Photography. First, however, I will look back on my initiation into photography and how I came to associate photography with the wisdom of the Chuang-tzu.

Perfect Yin is stern and frigid;
Perfect Yang is bright and glittering.
The sternness and frigidity come forth from
heaven, the brightness and glitter emerge
from the earth; the two mingle, penetrate,
come together, harmonize,
and all things are born therefrom.

C HUANG-TZU

When I was eight years old, my parents gave me a Kodak Instamatic camera. To my young, impressionable mind, it certainly lived up to one of its first marketing slogans: You press the button and we do the rest. It was sheer magic: I was empowered by this gift. With this magic wand, just a little downward pressure of my finger allowed me to capture any subject or event. I was transformed into a powerful sorcerer. This sense of magic was at the core of my initial attraction to photography.

My new hobby was not always positive. Sometimes it brought out an inner tyrant. The images are still fixed in my memory: adults trying to please me with exaggerated smiles, others frantically trying to protect their faces by thrusting their hands in front of my lens. My infatuation with this newly found magic intensified at the photo lab when I retrieved the processed photographs. How marvelous to see my dog drooling on Grandmas new Sunday dress or the unflattering expressions of my friends devouring dessert.