I want to talk about a practice of seeing called mundane photography. Mundane photography is meditative work with a camera.
There are billions of cameras on the planet. Having a camera is no longer a luxury for most people. True luxury is the ability to see.
Have you ever noticed how expensive things — a sumptuous hand-knotted Persian rug, a velvet Jacquard haute couture opera coat — don’t seem to be all that different from inexpensive things? They aren’t necessarily more comfortable. But, there is a difference: Expensive things tend to be more richly textured and ornately detailed. The most expensive music — classical music — is also the music that we consider to be the most richly detailed.
Expensive things are designed for people who have the privilege of seeing. If you are traumatized, if you are in a war or seeking asylum, homeless or living in an oppressive home, if you are struggling with PTSD or depression or anxiety, you may struggle to notice beautiful details of the world around you. Dissociation puts the world at a distance. Depression creates a hall of mirrors. Hypervigilance gives rise to tunnel vision.
If you wander through a slum anywhere in the world, you will see all kinds of rich detail. Cracking paint, roofs of tarpaulin and bungee cords, rusting fences, laundry drying in the street, people everywhere, plants…
