Beyond Selfies: Self-Discovery Through the Lens of Others

At the age of 12, I received my first ever Nikon D40 camera, along with a variety of different lenses. I was instantly captivated by the technology. The different mechanisms and settings filled me with a deep curiosity, while the desire to find new scenes and landscapes reawakened my spirit for exploration. With a camera in my hands, I held th e power to immortalize any moment with the simple click of a button. How magical is that? I was a child on the quest for something worthy of eternity. To this day I still feel that innocent wonder every time I look through a viewfinder at the world around me.

What I love most about photography is the awareness it brings to perception. Photography taught me that it’s not just about what you’re looking at, but also how you’re looking at it. Where is the best perspective to see from? How do you want to light your picture? Which information is most important to fit in your frame? Every time you take a picture you have to decide on the lens you choose to look through. To capture only the crisp details of a rattlesnake’s eyes requires a macro lens while fitting a full rainbow inside your frame requires a wide-angle l ens. Both scenes contain their own unique beauty, but to truly appreciate either you must adjust your lens. Sometimes you will need to zoom in to find inspiration, other times you will need to zoom out.

The implications of photography as an art form are profound. While most forms of art are creative interpretations of reality, photography declares reality itself as art. A landscape doesn’t need to be painted for it to be seen as art. The human form doesn’t need to be sculpted to be appreciated as art. When a photographer looks through the viewfinder of their camera, they accept the outer world as art. They cannot control the weather or the spontaneity of their subject, but they don’t need to. The photographer's job is not to play God, it is to see God.

“The main thing to understand is that we are imprisoned in some kind of work of art.” - Terence McKenna

Camera or not, we are all photographers. Every waking second we are focusing our eyes on different scenes, zooming in on what interests us, and storing the information we deem most important. Whether we do so consciously or not, we are creating our own unique experience of life by where we focus our attention. We are both the movie director and camera crew of our personal life. We can create horror films by focusing on horror, comedies by focusing on humor, love stories by focusing on love. The way we see the world becomes the world we experience. That is the power of perception. By challenging ourselves to look through new lenses we can learn to perceive and understand more of the underlying spiritual nature of reality. We can recognize the brushstrokes of God and appreciate all the artistic detail of our world.

“There are things known and there are things unknown and in between, there are the doors of perception.” - Aldous Huxley

In every moment our perception filters through unimaginable amounts of sensory data to construct “reality” within our minds. Much like the aperture settings on a camera, we can control how much information we open ourselves up to. We can choose to close our minds and only accept information pertaining to our basic survival needs. This might keep us alive but our picture will become dark and underexposed. Beautiful details will be lost in the shadows. We can also choose to open our filters of perception to experience more of the wonder around us. By doing so we become sensitive to information on all planes of existence. We expand our awareness and embrace the unknown. However, we must also be cautious. If we let in too much information at once our picture becomes overexposed and we can lose sight of what’s most important to us.

Taking accountability for the lens you look through is essential to living an empowered life. When you are intentional with how you perceive the outer world, it becomes easier to regulate your inner world. You stop reacting to life and start responding. You accept the world around you as it is and choose to look for the beauty in every situation. You remind yourself that you are in control of where you give your attention. By doing so you begin to take your power back. You become more intentional with what you consume because you recognize the impact that different narratives and media have on your state of mind.

Every belief you adopt affects the way you see the world. You can visualize your beliefs as a filter which all your reality is perceived through. If you believe in a world rooted in hopelessness, hatred, conflict, and competition, that’s what you will experience. You will find what you are looking for because you’re looking through the lens of your own beliefs. That is why it’s so important to be discerning with what you give your beliefs to. You wouldn’t want dirt-smudged all over your camera lens, so be careful what you allow to enter your consciousness. Even seemingly harmless beliefs can hold you back from understanding the truth of your being.

The world is being projected through our phones and televisions and draws our attention to the ugliness of the world. We are bombarded with negative news stories that leave us feeling hopeless and disempowered. These stories might seem to represent virtuous causes but their ultimate goal is to make money by capturing our attention. Mainstream media outlets no longer care about what is true, they care about what sells. Fear sells. Anxiety sells. Gossip sells. Lust sells. It is so easy to conform to these socially engineered lenses but what is the cost? When we give our belief to illusions we miss out on the beautiful vibrancy of truth. We lose touch with life itself. Ultimately we can choose to spend our lives watching shadows dance across the walls of a cave, or we can gather the courage to turn around and face the sun.

It is the responsibility of the mystics, visionaries, rebels, artists, shamans, revolutionaries, creators, adventurers, and seekers to reject the conditioning of modern life and embrace the divine. We are born of magic and we are meant to live in it. We are not here to accept world views that numb us to the miracle of life. We are here to live in a we, like children who never lose their sense of wonder. It is our duty to point our cameras away from distractions and look bravely into the light of God. To do so we must reclaim sovereignty over our own perception. We must treat our awareness as sacred and be intentional with what we choose to focus on. Wherever you give your attention, you give your power. So no matter how ugly the world appears to be, never stop looking for the beauty that’s right in front of you.

What lens are you looking through right now? Where are you placing your focus? Are you zoomed in on the details? Are you zoomed out on the big picture? Are you looking for beauty in every situation? Are you open to the magic all around you? Is your picture coming out clear or blurry? We spend our whole lives observing the world around us, but how often do we draw our attention back to the lens we are looking through?

I’m not here to tell you what to look for or how to see. I don’t have an answer for that, and I’d be skeptical of anyone who does. My only purpose in writing this article is to remind you that the choice is yours. You are not only the camera. You are also the photographer. You can choose what lens you look through. You might not be able to control the world around you but you can control how you look at it, and by doing so I believe you can change the world.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — WAYNE DYER