Contemplative Creativity Returns with a three-session exploration of Contemplative Photography! Join us on Wednesday, October 13 at 6pm PDT, via Zoom. Register here.
Mary [Magdalene] said, “Lord, I saw you today in a vision. He answered me, ‘Blessed are you for not wavering at seeing me. For where the mind [νοῦς] is, there is the treasure.’”
Gospel of Mary Magdalene 10,10-11.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in Aurora Leigh,
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes…”
In this Contemplative Photography session, we’ll explore the ways in which we can see in “every common bush” the presence of the divine; how we can use photography as a contemplative practice.
Practice guidelines:
Photography can be an aggressive practice: to shoot…to take… to capture… a photo. You are invited to turn it around and making it a gentle instrument of receiving of an image, to discover in what we see the luminous and liminal presence of the divine, without attachments or grasping.
In our first session you will learn this approach to photography through sharing of some simple practices and teachings and then you will be invited, between sessions one and two, to practice on your own.
Materials to send and have with you at our first group practice:
- A photo you that has moved you visually. It may be easier to use a photo someone else took (famous or not,) because it should be free of any non-visual attachment. All experience, no story.
Please email it before the session to Rev. Berto.
If you don’t have it at hand during the session, be ready to share a description of it with the group. - A camera. It does not have to be a fancy one, just one that you feel comfortable with it and feel able to obtain decent photos with. Your mobile phone camera can capture great images!
Contemplative Creativity meets the the second Wednesday of each month at 6pm PDT, via Zoom.
Begins Wednesday, October 13, 2021.
Register at our Eventbrite page – here.
See sample images from previous Contemplative Photography retreats.
Our Guide:
Berto Gándara-Perea – is an Episcopal priest and lives with his husband, a psychotherapist and also a priest, with their amazing three -legged dog Ava in beautiful Orcas Island, Washington. He is currently the rector at Emmanuel church on Orcas. He is also a novice in the Communion of the Mystic Rose. Berto is passionate about contemplative practices and photography, in that order! He started with photography with the first iPhone back in 2007. His passion soon led him to get some better tools in camera and in teachers to guide him in the craft and art of photography. He studied at PhotoManhattan and then at the International Center for Photography. He then approached photography from a Buddhist perspective through Miksang workshops in France with Helen Vink and in Boulder, CO with Michael Wood and Julie DuBose; as well as Vision Quest Photo Workshops with Douglas Beasley in the Badlands, South Dakota and Yunnan Province, China. He has also participated in a photo critique workshop with renown photographer and teacher Bruce Barnbaum. We encourage you to look up these great teachers and experiences! You can check out Berto’s photography website at: https://bertogandara.net.