Shutter - Shield
Your Sound Behind The Shields
Sometimes the shield hurts more than a spear
Our shield sits like a restrictive shell wrapped around the core of our being. It protects us from vulnerability. Panic and fear emerge from within through still-open wounds and unfulfilled needs. This happens when we encounter some external trigger, however small, that finds its way through our shield.
The shield can be like scar tissue, protecting old wounds.
Behind the protective shield (or shell), we hide our sensitivity, unrealised hopes, dreams, talents, and creativity in the shadows. Maybe these were crushed when we were young, hidden due to a lack of time, or frozen by a fear of failure.
We use a protective shell like a superhero cloak to prevent us from feeling pain and getting wounded again. The shield conceals everything we feel unable to engage with. We are afraid to experience unmanageable over-arousal and overwhelm in our body and mind. But it can numb us to everything.
The protective shell can manifest as shutting down and isolation. It can also show up in the pursuit of perfection, a desire to please, protective humour, workaholism, self-sabotage, excessive sports, self-harm etc., or it can manifest as any addiction.
The protective cover can be switched on permanently or vary depending on the environment or social dynamic.
Let in, let out
Is it more painful to lug around an impenetrable shield, or to be occasionally struck by a spear? By taking care of our inner strengths and talents, our shield becomes lighter and easier to carry, and the spears hold less power.
Behind the shields, we often unknowingly hide the sides of our shadows that we discussed last week. With the help of shadow work, we can learn to better understand the behaviour of other people as well. We will start to see clues about their world of experience and any emotions that might be hidden under the covers.
"There is a crack, a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in", sings Leonard Cohen.
Through those cracks the light; your light, can also come out.
What is the shutter speed of your cover? How easily does the protective cover snap on?
Grow your strengths: let your own unique sound become stronger
You might find certain shields and shells appearing in your photography. It is very symbolic to think that a very short shutter speed stops the movement, letting the light "in" only for a really short time. Sometimes this is what you are after, but sometimes soft movement and plenty of light are what is needed.
The real me, the real sound?
The more you create, the more clearly you notice the formation and variation of your own style (your 'sound'). If you don’t see it yourself, other people probably notice it. Ask them what they see.
Your photos speak of the things you see and the way you see things (e.g. gloomily, happily, in fairy-tale way, frustrated, hiding, revealing). However, one should not be too quick to draw conclusions about a photographer's personality based on their photos. A photographer who takes dark and gloomy images may not otherwise be prone to gloom, and a photographer who shoots bright and vibrant photos isn't necessarily always positive, happy and feeling wonderful.
Your sound may still be hidden and waiting to be expressed. Bring it into the light and make it visible this week.
Your experience is not only told by the subject in your photo,
but also by your style,
the way that you see:
joy, light, balance, anxiety, black and white, mystic...
Photos can be hidden in a dark desk drawer
just like poems.
Is it time to slightly open the shutter and
let the light in?
Sometimes it can be challenging to identify our true self. We have different roles, even different identities in different contexts, environments, situations and moods. For example, at work role, in our family, with different circles of friends. All of them can be authentic and real, even if we act and communicate differently or when we feel more open or show only tiny bit of ourselves.
Our core values and our personality remains the same, but the way it manifests might vary. When we feel authentic, our words come from the same foundation. And this is where we can identify our genuine sound.
This feels expansive. We don’t try to adapt and fit in to the crowd by trying to be something we’re not truly, but we feel we belong to the crowd honestly and we are accepted as we are, with our unique, personal sound.
Finding your own style:
10 Top Tips to Help Define Your Personal Photographic Style
Next week we will dive deeper into exploring our story and how it sounds. In week 5 we’ll talk about boundaries; boundary is a deliberately crafted space, which allows us to be who we are and connect with others authentically and intentionally.
Does your shield work as a filter? If so, does it make things brighter or hazier? Does it let you breathe freely?
Chase Jarvis: Rise Above the Noise (1:18)
I’m a happy, warm and positive person, with a ’granny of all the hobbits’ look. Granny likes to take photos of scenery and cats. But inside me there is this mystic soul, a pocket size gentle rebel dressed in black.
My photos are mostly taken and edited by this mystic me.
My creative sound is mostly bass, but can stem from either of those sides of me.
The mystic is the one you could find sitting on the first row (beside the wall in shadows) at Andy’s gig, enjoying deeply those bittersweet sounds in my soul.
Granny on the other hand listens also a bit softer, cheesier or up-beat music, although she is a badass too.
‘Moon City’ is one of my Atlum Schema favourites and in my mind and gut I feel it has the same kind of sound that I have in my soul and in my photos. I love the delicious glueyness, darkness and depth in this song. I remember how I tried to use another song for this video, but it just didn’t work out. Don’t know how I’ll find another song to my ice photo slide show next year!
Show me YOUR sound!
Sometimes it helps to take a completely different kind of image from your normal style. Maybe you like crawling on all fours to take macro photos. To shift your mental state, try instead looking up: walk with your chest open, like a proud king of the fairy tales. Snap a sunny view of the blue sky.
Movement and the way we position our body affects our mood, but so does WHAT we look at and how we are seeing it.
PROMPTS | Part 3
Making The Protective Shield Visible
Can you recognise when the shell that protects your inner self emerges and the connection you have to a person, situation, or your own feelings is lost?
Think about where and when this seems to happen. Then imagine what material and other properties that protective shell has in that situation. How does it feel? Like concrete? A spiderweb? Or maybe it's like glass, lace, sheet metal, or custard. Is it cold? Hot? What other properties does it have?
1a. Find a material or object that matches the characteristics of your protective shield and take a photograph of it.
Be mindful as you use the light and your own sound to capture the shield and your feelings in this moment.
How does light affect this material? What kind of light (dim, bright) makes the shell stand out?
Once the shield has taken a tangible shape and you are able to physically conceptualise it in this way, you will start to notice it more consciously when it rises up within. Once you are aware of it, your psyche will start to adapt the shell in accordance with particular environments and situations.
1b. Light behind the shield
You can investigate (and share with us if you want to) if there is anything relevant behind the shield: What needs to get into the light?
Is there a hidden dream, talent, emotion or a golden shadow? Power, strength or blockage?
Describe it in a positive way to give hope to it, a path to light. Take a photo for your own album if you can find something concrete to represent what you found.
Upload your photos to the Photoyoga WhatsApp Group
Mark your photos: SHIELD
”Dear God, let me find my sound!”
Vesa-Matti Loiri
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