Zen mind beginners mind

‘Zen mind beginners mind’ by Shunryu Suzuki is a wonderful book. What does it have to do with photography? I can’t be sure to be honest. However philosophy books of any kind really resonate with my photography practice.

I started down the road of taking photography seriously in 1996. That’s 30 years ago, and it’s interests me to think that the more i know, the more I find out that I don’t know. Being comfortable with that is hard and forces a surrender of ego, expectation and attachment to the result. I just make the picture and move on, sniffing out the next opportunity.

‘Zen mind beginners mind’ is a way to describe the act of photography. Not the camera or film or technique, but the act itself. The looking helps to empty the mind, allows you to fully immerse yourself in what you are seeing. Having a purpose like photography can contain and align the mind’s thought patterns. That’s what it does for me, that’s why I love it - the Zen type state it puts me in.

© Christian Pearson