Impermanence as a world view

(untitled) (c) D Harris

                                                                     
Impermanence as a world view is either denied or frightening to most people.  As a core concept of Buddhist thought, it posits that every manifest thing is in a process of change, and that nothing in and of itself, is enduring. Everything that is compound, arises from conditions, continues for a duration, declines and ultimately disperses.  All conditioned things depend on other causes and conditions for their arising, duration and cessation. Part of this view originates from observing nature.

The implication naturally is that if all things are impermanent, then the self must be impermanent too. Thoughts in the mind, which give rise to the sense of self, the “I”, arise, continue for a duration, subside and cease. Observing this process is the basis of meditation in its classical sense. "Who am I?" "What is this ‘I’"? In the process of meditating on who I am, I become aware of a differentiation between awareness and thought, awareness and a body, awareness and an emotion. In each case, the two are not one. What, then, is aware?

If I am not my thoughts, the Cartesian view “I think, therefore I am” is absurd. Not only is the cart before the horse, it predisposes a rational world view devoid of a reference point other than logical reasoning. This is not borne out by observing nature or through meditation. In the shining light of the Buddhist view, it exemplifies the rigid, classical reasoning of Western philosophy and its disturbed existential malaise.

What does all this have to do with photography? A lot of contemporary art photography has far too much emphasis on intellectual concept, and the negation of rules, such as those of composition. The reach of art of photography is in danger of becoming what Edmond Capon described as “...the pale horizons of so much conceptual art to which little but the vaguest, most superficial and indulgent, fleeting thought has been given lazy spontaneity...” (Edmond Capon, I Blame Duchamp: My Life's Adventures in Art. Lantern, Camberwell, Victoria, 2009). Being anti-art, as a reaction against modernism, has become formulaic. Applied from the outside, rather than intuited.

The Western reliance on rational philosophy is inherent in its arts. Western aesthetic traced back to ancient Greece shows a system of principles based more on geometry and symmetry than on nature. Photographic composition centres on the rectangular frame and the rule of thirds, where the viewfinder is divided by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. The main subject is placed at one of the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines.  Both of these ‘rules’ have their origins in the Golden Ratio (or Mean), which comes from an ancient Greek formula for establishing a pleasing aesthetic. The rectangle is also called the Golden Rectangle. It is similar in shape to the 35mm negative or frame.

In learning photography, we can rely heavily on these ‘training wheels’. Disregarding them for the pure sake of rebellion is to still be swayed heavily by their influence. At some point, photography needs to cross the artificial, intellectual line and become intuitive.

One of the ways of doing this is to look at other systems of aesthetics. Traditional aesthetics in Chinese and Japanese art stem from the Taoist and Buddhist worldview of impermanence.

The Japanese aesthetic, mono no aware, is based on impermanence. It is more positive than Western existential angst. The best summation (though rather wordy) of this phrase I have read is by Makoto Ueda, quoted in Donald Richie’s excellent, short A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics (Stone Bridge Press, California, 2007, p. 55):

“A deep, empathetic appreciation of the ephemeral beauty manifest in nature and human life, and therefore usually tinged with a hint of sadness [though] under certain circumstances it can be accompanied by admiration, awe, or even joy.”

Or, as Dogen put it as only a Zen master could:

To what shall

I liken the world?

Dewdrops,

Reflected in moonlight,

Shaken from a crane’s bill.

The value of impermanence as a world view is acknowledgment of the fact “I am”, and gratitude of “I am” today. Felt intuitively, awareness illuminates, puts the horse in front of the cart, and gives a sense of meaning and connectedness. It is a satisfying aesthetic for photographing too. The photographic haiku of Masao Yamamoto captures this wonderfully.

Darren J Harris

Text and images (c) Darren J Harris