The Importance of Impermanence
Usually, when we think of impermanence we think of the impermanence of life, which inevitably moves us to consider death, and before we’ve had chance to find any curious wonder in it we’ve locked the notion away for more maudlin moments like divorce or mid-life medical exams.
The fact is, impermanence is a vital ingredient for a happy life and yet most of us barely consider it.
Take air for example. Air is the ultimate abundance. No one gets jazzy about air because there’s tons of the stuff about and while it’s of paramount importance we accept the continued supply as a reason to pay it no heed. Get a little careless while scuba diving however and suddenly air gets us all sentimental. Just think how invigorating that first gulp would be once the impermanence of air became viscerally apparent. Joni Mitchel wasn’t lying when she said “you don’t know what you got til it’s gone”
So while near-death experiences can be great for realigning those appreciative priorities it’s probably not worth seeking them out so readily for the obvious reason that near death and actual death often attend the same social functions. Fortunately, there is another, more risk-averse solution you can enjoy in the form of glorious photography.
Ever the accommodating soul, photography can shake free that thankful feeling impermanence brings and all for the price of a little time and willing.
Here’s how:
Photography, as will become imminently clear, is all about impermanence. It is the beating heart of every image ever taken from a landscape to a portrait and every snapshot in between. Impermanence is poetry to the medley of light, space and time we call moments and scripts it like a farewell love letter of a relationship that can never be repeated.
Taking up that camera helps us to see that impermanence is something to be valued and explored. It’s a guidebook to the treasures of a finite existence and brings out of the monotony the moments we should hold more dear.
For those that are on board then the poster child of impermanence, the big hitter is the humble sunrise. Every day we have one yet every one a unique arrangement. Whilst they call it the golden ‘hour’ in photo circles, snap just a handful of landscapes and you’ll soon see that quite often it’s more a golden second than a whole hour. Once that sun emerges, even at the silence of dawn a dance begins, and I don’t mean one of those awkward ‘hands above the hip’ back and forths you did at high school. I mean a full-on tango of light and magic. Two minutes too late to a sunrise and that spring mist will get eviscerated quicker that you can say graduated filter and all you are left with is a slightly wet field and the bitter taste of lost potential. Fear not however as loss and gain are two sides of the same coin and teach the same lesson. One certainly feels more preferable of course because catch that landscape at the right time and it becomes a song written just for you, what’s more, with photography, you can share it too.
Landscapes aren’t the only avenue for this of course. You can apply it to any moment you feel fitting. Chasing those originalities, whatever they may be all mould the mind to appreciate the rare occurrences and limit the things we take for granted. But…
Like an omnipresent Mr Miyagi, photography has an ulterior motive.
Each landscape, each portrait or family snap is a “wax on, wax off” exercise in genuine appreciation. Once perfected the true nature of photography’s plan is revealed.
The best moments don’t require the camera!
Yeah it’s great to get a snap (or a hundred) but sometimes moments are best just appreciated for what they are. Watching them go, knowing they’ll never be repeated, not even wrapped up in digital code makes them all the more special. It makes you truly present to each flicker of existence and even though life will be filled with millions of moments, they shouldn’t be taken for granted because the right ones can define all the rest.
