Contemplative creativity

I took Margie The Practice of Contemplative Photography, as planned last week, and we had a marvelous (literally full of marvel) time talking about photography, how to make and edit photos in the phone (a brand new exploration for me), and the difference between looking at something when one’s mind is elsewhere, and seeing something when one is fully present. As an example of contemplative photography, I took a photograph of her cane against the wall beside her (Extra), and I was tempted to blip that, but I can’t resist another portrait of Margie herself, with a hint of the cane beside her. 

She’s excited about embarking on this new field of discovery and attempt, and her excitement is infectious. I noted as I glanced at the book before handing it over that I need to read again the chapter called “Lifting the Veil of Boredom,” about seeing new photographic inspiration in an environment we have photographed hundreds or even thousands of times.

I remain passionate about tonalities in black and white. Sue usually prefers color, and I have never been able to explain why B&W affects me as color does not. Sometimes color is necessary (as in last week’s Monday shot), and sometimes the photograph is about color, but most of the time, a photograph feels unfinished to me until I have at least seen it in B&W. 

Today is also a banner day because Donna Hayes and I succeeded in getting her play submitted at 10:37 p.m. on March 31st, in time for the April 1 deadline. For this first submission of her first play, she was able to cut from thirteen monologs down to the eight she feels are the most powerful, and I think they are eight very different, very rich characterizations, four of “white” people and four of “Black” people, four people with what the world characterizes as “mental illness,” and four that had no such diagnosis, all killed by police who chose to use lethal, rather than non-lethal, force. I hope the production company will consider workshopping the play with Donna and some good actors. I will wait with some nervous excitement, and as little expectation as I can manage, to hear from them. If they say no to it, we have backup plans. 

As the news of the latest mass shooting in New Zealand drifts away and we are consumed with other news, I have seen many interviewers asking survivors how they cope with the loss, the grief, and the anger. The families of people killed by the police have those same hurdles. Donna deals with her grief and anger by pouring her energy into love for the community of families who have lost loved ones to police violence, and into her own creative attempt to bring the dead back to life, if only for a few minutes, in her imagination, and in the imaginations of others.