Zen Camera Or The Un-Making Of The Photographer

Zen belongs to the tradition of Yoga and philosophical Taoism in offering pragmatic suggestions on how to see what exists outside of the confusion of our desires and illusions. In Japan, this philosophy matured in the 13th century through the writings of the monk Dogen. The present article extends the reasons and methods of Dogen to an aesthetic of camera work. Zen philosophy claims that if we follow its physical and mental discipline, then we will wake up to existence or Being without self-illusion. For the mature man the achievement of such perception may answer the problem of why photograph and why make pictures within the awareness of evolving consciousness.