Tiny Truths

This exercise required me to select a photograph that gives me pleasure and focus on it in detail for ten minutes. Focus on it in exact detail and not let my mind to free associate, then after the time was up I had to recall my experience. “Accept whatever the experience is for what it is.” After reviewing and I let my  experience become kind of a “flavor”, I was told to go about my everyday work and try to recall the experience whenever I could; frequently and visually.

The picture I chose to focus on was a picture of my family celebrating New Year. I stared at this image and focused so much on all the little details in the image and during the process I truly got lost in my experience of that night. While focusing on the detail I recalled events from that night and my mind wondered and took me back to the celebration with my family. From the picture I could imagine everyone at my house, what they were wearing and obviously what they looked like but like I said it brought me back to remember the night in more detail then seen in the photograph. I could recall the music that was playing, the food we ate, the conversations we had, and the laughs we shared.

The exercise, as read, asked to focus on the image in detail and not to let my mind free associate. I’m not quite sure what free associate means but after reminiscing in this photograph I continued with my everyday work, recalling frequently and visually the image and what came to mind while doing the first part of the exercise. While recalling the experience throughout the day, more and more detail came to mind each time.
I’m not exactly sure what the Tiny Truths exercise was really trying to get me to understand or do, but I do know that by studying something in detail can not only focus your mind on the designs or framework of the image but can open your mind to the story behind it. Even if it’s not a photograph that personally linked to you, the image and its detail can open your mind and allow your imagination to create your own story behind the image.