Re: [Leica] Our existential pleasures

[LP6@aol.com]

Bruce Feldman of Warsaw, Poland writes:

<<   "The mind compensates for deficiencies in the medium.  The mind must do
that.  It needs to do that.  It is not happy *unless* it is doing that."   >>

Since I'm a photographer who also studies values this thread interests me.  

In effect, the mind loves to be a mind;  much as an eye loves to be an eye,
the ear loves to be an ear and a hand loves to be a hand!   

In the case of the mind however, we encounter something very unique; namely,
the relentless pursuit of meaning!  And, too, in the case of mind, we have the
interesting situation of when it doesn't "know"  (something) it guesses in
order to find meaning (closure?). Such guessing must satisfy the dual
existential criteria of  maintaining the sense of the "familiar self" and
"adequate, competent self".  

All images are abstractions (don't forget...the master game of mind is
abstraction it is an abstraction machine!) and we quickly fill in the gaps,
round the edges of  rough perceptions in order to "see" a good where we want
to see good!   We don't see with our eyes, we see with our mind and we see
what we want to see. (The scientific method and  precision languages mange to
keep us from falling off the deep edget most of the time!)    

We all struggle (with varying degress of consciousness) to experience the good
in our lives.  For some the good may be the perfect crime; but, for others,
the good have to do with photography; or, a any job well done, etc. 

We can press forward (prospectively) to create a good image (photograph) that
fullfills our concept (definition and feeling) of what is good; or, we may
look backward (retrospectively) to create a good perception of an image or
painting before us by filling in the gaps and rounding out it to a favorable
abstraction for ourselves.  

Thus, concept fullfillment (making and getting the good things in life for
ourselves) is a very plastic and elastic mental phenomena (cognitive
processing); but a phenomena that is disciplined by the dual existential
demands of maintenance of a sense of the adequate, competent self,  and
maintenance of the sense of the familiar self!   This dual existential
imperative is born of the habit we all have, for better or worse, of valuing
the self  (ourselves) ; which in turn colors our valuation of  the world and
our construction of good and beauty in our lives.  Yes, the way we value
ourselves in turn influences our valuation of imaging opportunities and our
general struggle to make a good photograph.      

Guess I've said enough on this subject!   Who created this thread to begin
with?    

Leon
LP6@aol.com