THE ART OF STILLNESS

I never look for a photograph.

The photograph finds me and says “I’m here!”

And I say “Yes, I see you. I hear you.”

- Ruth Bernard

My photographs are a quest for silence, a pause button in our hectic and overstimulated society, a pictorial downtime. I draw inspiration from Eastern philosophies like Taoism and Zen Buddhism, where emptiness and the beauty of imperfection, decay, and transience are fundamental aesthetic principles.

The sea is a favorite subject. We see the sea as something calming. When I gaze over the vast expanse of water, I clear my mind and drift away in thought. The sea is a blank canvas without stimuli, onto which I project my imagination, and shape an ideal world, painting my own inner landscape, and feeding my Fernweh.

Years ago I saw a documentary about the famous American photographer Minor White (1908-1976). What fascinated me most, apart from his legendary black and white images, was the way in which he prepared himself on location, before a shooting. He would sit on a stone for minutes or even half an hour, absorbing the landscape around him, breathing in the surroundings. Sometimes with his eyes closed. His mind was not pre-occupied with photography, with possible compositions, etc. He was merely observing, with an open mind, unbiased and with his full attention. And that is the essence of all good photography.

In his book The Zen of Creativity John Daido Loori, a Buddhist monk and photographer, describes one of Minor White’s workshops that he attended, White gave his students assignments such as:

Venture into the landscape without expectations. Let your subject find you. When you approach it, you will feel resonance, a sense of recognition. […] Sit with your subject and wait for your presence to be acknowledged. Don’t try to make a photograph, but let your intuition indicate the right moment to release the shutter. If, after you’ve made an exposure, you feel a sense of completion, bow and let go of the subject and your connection to it.

Taking a photograph is sometimes compared to a Haiku: a moment of elevated and mindful consciousness that enables you to see and experience the value and beauty of everyday and common things, of unexpected details, of the world as it is, nothing more and nothing less. This meditative attitude is at the core of Zen-inspired photography, in which the artist has but a very modest role; like White’s students who thank the object for the photographic and creative opportunities.

One of the core principles of Zen (and Taoist, its precursor) philosophy is minimalism, and this minimalism resonates in my photography. I find inspiration in the Japanese aesthetics of Ma (what is commonly known as “negative space”, although I would prefer the term “positive space”), Wabi-Sabi (the beauty of imperfection and transience), and Yugen (mysterious and dark). People are absent. A small - and futile, I fear - antidote against the billions of selfies.

I also keep my gallery modest, adding maybe 5 or 10 images a year and removing the same amount.

In the essays on the left I offer some aspects of Zen Buddhism and Zen aesthetics that have inspired me.

Good light and inspirations!

Gee Hurkmans

Dedemsvaart, September 2024