jdhubert

Mind Wandering

I seem to have an innate desire to get to the root of creativity even though I know it is an impossible task. I have previously written essays on the subject of creativity, especially as it relates to photography. The most recent book I read is Stolen Focus-Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari. Focus is not used as the photography term but the thinking term for clear perception and understanding.

Hari uses the phrase “mind wandering” which can result when the external stimuli are turned off and you can actually let your brain drift and think without interruption. The difficult part is that you have to stop the “noise.” You have to give your mind room and space to process thoughts. This means you have to slow down the input to your senses. A major benefit of turning off the hyper-world is regaining the ability to allow for mind wandering which can open the door for creativity.

“Creativity is not (where you create) some new thing that’s emerged from your brain. It’s a new association between two things that were already there.” –Stolen Focus, page 96.

I question how one can be creative when trying to process all the external stimuli that bombards the senses non-stop. Unfortunately, many people are so conditioned by this constant “noise” that they find it difficult to turn off the hyper-world. How many people can turn off their electronic devices for a day without feeling anxious?

Whether you are a photographer or not, give your mind room to wander, slow down the unnecessary external stimulation and take the time to observe and interact with your environment.

Uprooted Series (in camera double exposure on film)

Looking at the World at a Slight Angle

John Banville in his book April in Spain uses the phrase “looking at the world at a slight angle.” It resonated with me to the extent that I jotted it on a small scrap of paper and ruminated about how many of my best images were created when things were viewed at a slight angle. This does not mean that you walk around with your head cocked to one side to change your angle of view but that your skills of perception are sensitive to something unique, maybe an unusual juxtaposition, or “something never seen before”—a challenge that I assigned my photo students. Of course, this concept of “looking at the world at a slight angle” is not something that can be easily turned off and on.

As I have previously written in essays, I believe the unconscious plays a major role in this ability to see at a slight angle. As a photographer, the term I use when my vision blends with the deep layers inside my brain is the “period of intensive perception.” This is where I experience being in a state of mind that is momentarily removed from reality and my visual sensitivity reaches a new level. Everything seems to slow down and there is an increased level of clarity. I see things that I did not see moments earlier. This is when creativity is elevated which results in some of my best work. Unfortunately, it is elusive. It is easy to talk and write about but most difficult to execute.

Introduction

This is a reiteration of Sleeping Mind Photography-a blog I maintained for six years. It was an active site until 2020 at which time I decided to close it. I had lost my interest and had stopped even my irregular posting routine.

So what changed. I continued to write essays and self-published collections of my photographs in books. I will be posting some of this material over the coming months. I will also select some old posts that I thought were interesting and reissue them.

This blog is not about selling or promoting anything and is not a money-making venture. I will post a few images to help add some visual interest but the blog is not intended to be a gallery to promote my work. It will be about my observations, my experience, the psychology of photography, helpful hints, and perhaps a curmudgeon gripe or two. I may make mention of a piece of equipment but this is not a review site. The blog is solely an attempt by me to organize and record my thoughts. Perhaps a reader may find inspiration or motivation from my writing.

Welcome old and new readers.

Inspiration for the Blog Title

“The machinery for dreaming planted in the human brain was not planted for nothing. That faculty, in alliance with the mystery of darkness, is the one great tube through which man communicates with the shadowy. And the dreaming organ, in connection with the heart, the eye, and the ear, composes the magnificent apparatus which forces the infinite into the chambers of the human brain, and throws dark reflections from eternities below all life upon the mirrors of that mysterious camera obscura–the sleeping mind.” -Thomas De Quincey