THE MINDFUL STUDIO

Jane E. Dalton

Polly B., mindful photograph with reflection.

Mindfulness allows us to become fully present and aware of the here and now. By practicing mindfulness techniques, we can learn to slow our thoughts and connect to the moment, allowing us to deeply engage with what we see before us.

In the modern world, information must be absorbed quickly in the form of brief sound bites. Mindfulness helps students to calm down and shift to a more focused pace. Using photography as a tool to practice mindful looking cultivates “beginner’s mind” and encourages students to see things from a different perspective. This helps them to notice details they may have missed with a quick glance. Images can also provide an emotional response and encourage a deep attention to shapes, colors, and textures, offering students a richer understanding of the nature of the world.

Mindful Photographing
Participating in a daily photographic practice offers students an opportunity to see with mindful awareness. Looking through a lens can become an opportunity to see forms, shapes, patterns, and objects, consciously noting details that may have been otherwise missed.

This simple but effective photography assignment encourages students to
deeply engage with their own photographs.

Invite students to pause and take notice of the world around them by capturing images through a camera. Advise them that they are free to play with the composition or adjust the focus, but the emphasis should be on the creative process and not the final product. As students capture images, there should be a spirit of play to encourage less judgment and more receptivity to what is before them in the present moment.

This activity was adapted from The Little Book of Contemplative Photography: Seeing with Wonder, Respect, and Humility (Good Books, 2005). The author, Howard Zehr, explains that we rarely spend enough time with an image to “mine” all of its visual, emotional, and spiritual potential, nor do we take time to truly appreciate what we see before us.

This simple but effective photography assignment encourages students to deeply engage with their own photographs.

Procedures
Have students use their smartphone, tablet, or other device to take three or photographs daily for five days. The photos can be of anything they see at home, at school, or out in public. At the end of the week, students should have at least fifteen photographs.

Before reviewing their photos and choosing five images for their final presentation, have students practice one minute of mindful breathing, inhaling slowly through the nose for four seconds and then exhaling slowly through the mouth for four seconds. Then invite them to spend three minutes with each image, trusting their intuition to select the final images.

Once students have selected their images, ask them to answer the following questions for each image in their visual journals:

• I see: What details do you see? What is the light like? Do the shapes and juxtapositions remind you of anything?
• I feel: What do you feel as you look at the images?
• I think: Why did you take this photo? What does it mean to you?

• What did you learn through the process of reflecting on images with mindful attention?
• Has your way of looking at things altered through mindful seeing? Explain your answer and cite examples.

Jane E. Dalton is a professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the author of The Mindful Studio: Cultivating Creativity & Well-Being in the Art Classroom, available from Davis Publications. janedalton24@gmail.com