Contemplative Creativity Returns with a three-session exploration of Contemplative Photography!
Join us on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 6pm PST, via Zoom for session two. If you haven’t already, please register here.
“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”
― Henri Cartier-Bresson
Second Encounter
In the second group practice we will be building from the material shared in our first session. If you missed it, you can view the presentation here. The lesson video from our last group practice is viewable from the October blog post.
We will focus on the practice of sitting in contemplative view of images we or others have made, the practice of Visio Divina.
Visio Divina
Visio divina is a form of divine seeing in which we prayerfully invite God to speak to our hearts as we look at an image. While lectio divina is a traditional way of reading a text with the ear of the heart, in visio divina, lectio’s visual cousin, we look at an image with the eye of the heart. As we gaze, present to an image without any particular agenda, we allow it to speak to us in words or wordlessly with a divine voice. (Lindsay Boyer)
Exercises for our second group practice:
- You are invited to dedicate a time each week for this practice of contemplative photography.
- Take as many photos as you would like.
- Choose three photos that you consider the best that expresses your contemplative practice of “seeing” in this way.
- Email Berto these three photos several days before our next session so he can create a slideshow.
- Indicate which one of these three you consider the one that expresses this contemplative seeing in the clearest way. This one will be shared with another participant.
Contemplative Creativity meets the the second Wednesday of each month at 6pm PT, via Zoom.
If you haven’t already, please register at our Eventbrite page – here.
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.