urban ku 114 ~ photography that is more than entertainment
Friday, October 5, 2007 at 09:33AM 
The walk to the 17th tee • click to embiggenFor me, photography is more than a fun hobby that provides an entertaining way to pass away idle hours. My photography springs from and is integrated with my deepest beliefs about life and living. I can no more separate one from the other than I can my eyes from my head.
I blame this on my Catholic education, first from nuns and their Mission Babies and then from Jesuits whose philosophy, at the school I attended, reads in part;
...The McQuaid Jesuit community is called to engage in an ongoing struggle to recognize and work against the obstacles that block or limit freedom including the effects of sinfulness, while developing in young men capacities such as self-discipline and discernment, that are necessary for the exercise of true freedom. Such freedom requires a genuine knowledge, love, and acceptance of self, combined with a resolve to be rid of excessive attachment to wealth, fame, health, power or even life itself. It would also include freedom from distorted perceptions of reality, warped values, rigid attitudes, or surrender to narrow ideologies. Consequently, to work toward true freedom, one must learn to recognize and deal with the influences that can promote and limit freedom – both those arising from within oneself and those resulting from the dynamics of history, social structures and culture ..."
Which is not all that different from William Cronon's philosophy re: wilderness;
"... Learning to honor the wild—learning to remember and acknowledge the autonomy of the other—means striving for critical self-consciousness in all of our actions ..."
For me, adopting either of these philosophies leads inevitably to this -
... It means the deep reflection and respect must accompany each act of use, and means too that we must always consider the possibility of non-use. It means looking at the part of nature we intend to turn toward our own ends and asking whether we can use it again and again and again—sustainably—without its being diminished in the process. It means never imagining that we can flee into a mythical wilderness to escape history and the obligation to take responsibility for our own actions that history inescapably entails ... If wildness can stop being (just) out there and start being (also) in here, if it can start being as humane as it is natural, then perhaps we can get on with the unending task of struggling to live rightly in the world—not just in the garden, not just in the wilderness, but in the home that encompasses them both." ~ William Cronon
And, from that, my photography flows.
PS it should be noted that, long ago, my notion of 'sinfulness' had digressed from many of the tenets of the Jesuits regarding 'sin', although that, by no means, absolves one from being a 'sinner' (in a more secular sense). It's amazing how often this change in attitude about 'sin' is the result of a Jesuit education. I quess it's the effect of all that 'freedom from distorted perceptions of reality, warped values, rigid attitudes, or surrender to narrow ideologies' that they preach so religiously (pun). BTW, the wife is also the product of a Jesuit education (Georgetown).
It should also be noted that the Jesuits are rather 'practical' regarding the notion of 'sinfulness' - case in point - Maggie, who attends a Jesuit university, could obtain birth control pills from the campus pharmacy as long as they are prescribed and used for the control of the physical and emotional effects of the menstrual cycle and not for contraceptive purposes. You just gotta love that kind of 'flexibility'.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Brett Kosmider wrote ; "Ironic you're showing a golf course coupled with a Cronon quote, I mean, it's no secret golf courses are probably one of the bigger consumers of water and pesticides for the vanity of perfect greens etc. Sorry I used to live in the desert and golf courses in Arizona drive me nuts. At any rate, I'm sure there's golf courses out there that try to practice "green" friendly maintenance; using less water and pesticides/fertilizers, but a golf course isn't really a model of sustainability, IMHO"
My response: Actually, I intended it to be more perverse than ironic, but, either way, I suspected that it would incite a 'golf courses are bad' response of some kind. Yours is actually quite thoughtful. Most that I have experienced are downright hostile and accusatory, as in, how can you be an conservationist and golf?
I was going to address this notion in my entry but I was afraid, as the wife put it, of filling up the internet but here goes nevertheless -
You are correct in your assessment that there are "green" golf courses and, here's a surprise, the one I belong to is a certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (More than 2,110 golf courses worldwide participate in the ACSP). What that means at my club is that irrigation is done with reclaimed water from ponds constructed on the course. Only approved pesticides are used and only in minimal amounts on the greens, not the fairways. Throughout the 2 courses, there are off-limits wetlands and wildlife habitats which makes golfing there a joy - coyotes, fox, deer, heron, hawks and variety of other wildlife sightings are commonplace. And, in my case, I always walk.
So, I would disagree with your statement that golf courses are not models of sustainability. Some are, some are not. It is eminently possible to design and build (mine was built over a 100 years ago) a 'sustainable' golf course with a minimal impact on the environment in which it is placed. It's all a matter of discernment and intent.
Reader Comments (8)
well now I don't feel so weird. I find shooting and more specifically the post processing time to be a religious/meditative process. I have my own "Church of Olympus" that I attend as often as possible.
Ironic you're showing a golf course coupled with a Cronon quote, I mean, it's no secret golf courses are probably one of the bigger consumers of water and pesticides for the vanity of perfect greens etc. Sorry I used to live in the desert and golf courses in Arizona drive me nuts. At any rate, I'm sure there's golf courses out there that try to practice "green" friendly maintenance; using less water and pesticides/fertilizers, but a golf course isn't really a model of sustainability, IMHO. Maybe I'm wrong.
Interetingly enough, the idea of "domesticating" nature (aka "parks") was in vogue around the turn of the 20th century into the 1920s. Someone you might want to look up would be Jens Jensen. His philosophies on the landscape and nature precede Cronon's views closely.
http://www.jensjensen.org/
http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/spring2001/jensjensen.html
This quote from Cronon I can relate to.
For me photographing creates an intensified way of being and seeing. It's an engagement in the world that could be called spiritual, but I won't. I suppose I hope my images can translate some of that engagement to others and maybe help lead someone to deep reflection and respect for the land around us.
When I see a golf course I can't help think about one of the things I think of about the farmland around my home: The amount of chemicals on them. The ground and surface water effected, and the effects from that.
Mark, thanks for the Audubon link, I always wondered if there was some sort of certification process golf courses could go through to get the "green" stamp of approval. You mention your course was designed 100 years ago... I am beginning to think some of our forefathers had a lot of this living-harmoniously-with-nature stuff figured out (aka Progressive thought) but somewhere along the way the pendulum swung in the other direction.
That photograph brought back so many memories of when I grew up in Massachusetts (and many hours spent on golf courses in the Fall).
Thanks for sharing,
Andy
Ooh, you tricked us with the golf course. I once met a guy here in Austin that claimed to be an organic soybean farmer. But I still sometimes think about the chemicals being poured into the environment I live in when I see a farm. Maybe some day soon we'll treat our farmland differently and I can have idilic pastural feeling when I see a farm. Or, smell one.
The only golf course that doesn't make a negative impact on the environment, is a golf course that isn't built at all. I'm glad to see there are a few courses that are being managed in a more sustainable way than the typical golf course. And just because you care about the environment, doesn't mean you can't play golf on an existing course.
Fore!
- Joe