Sounds like a deep subject I know, we all have times when for some reason be it known or unknown a moment captures more than our attention. There might be a personal association with a subject, a place a time of year when we feel more alive than normal. In photography and I believe it is especially true with nature photography we long for such times when something puts us into a state of heightened awareness. Those times can come and go as fast as the light upon the land when all that is left are thoughts burned into our minds in search of meanings for what we just experienced. Visually we have made a connection with something that seems greater than our self, but when the moments pass what are we left with? Why do some moments have the power to suspend in our minds for a lifetime while others are quickly forgotten. Is it good to have questions that seem to have no answers? For myself it is a crucial element for a photograph to be more than a picture. To have such questions of awareness, moments, places and experiences that we will seek answers to our entire life.
A recent article by Ellen Vincent that appeared in Health Care Design online made a connection between humans today and our ancestors. The assigned article claimed that we (humans) possess an archetypal preference for those environments or habitats that helped us survive while we were hunters and gatherers. Apparently we humans spent more time in the hunter and gatherer stage than any other developmental stage in history and are biologically hardwired to prefer the environments that helped us survive (back then). Could it be that we are moved by nature not from our experiences since we have been born but from the evolution of what we once were and where we came from? We strive in today’s world to become bigger, better, more efficient, to develop technologies that allow us to control more and more of our lives. We become concerned about the planet we live on and how it’s changes will effect our future. We work hard to attempt to control the natural environment in ways we have never done and have no idea what their effects will be down the road. We are a people of constant attempts of moving forward always trying to change, alter and hopefully make better what we already have. All the time possibly buried deep in our phsycy we are destined to revert back to beginnings when we hunted for survival and gathered what we could in attempts to live again tomorrow. We have come a long way at an incredible pace, lets not forget where we came from.
© Brad Mangas
INteresting concept to me. But, I do question whether we need to work so hard in our attempt to control nature rather than coexist with it. There are times I tell my parents they conceived me a few years to late. I am pulled more towards the life of the early pioneers than the fast past life of luxury we consider a necessity. I think nature heals, refreshes the soul of man.
Thanks Monte for your comments, your right about mans somewhat obsession with controlling nature a coexistence seems such an obvious approach. Man may have grown in intelligence over the centuries to the point were his own conceitment will be the downfall of future endeavors. I also think there are many of us that yearn for the pioneer lifestyle of simple priorities and existence.