Unbridled Perception

The founders of the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography bring their practice to Asia with a pioneering workshop in Japan.

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In the two centuries since inventor Nicéphore Niépce first captured a simple view from the window of his chateau at Le Gras, photography has come to enrich and even dominate human experience. Regardless of whether images are displayed on giant billboards, in household frames or virtual albums, almost every exposure is strategized in some way. Much of the medium, bar rare unbridled instances, presents constructed and refined depictions that seek to sell an object, service, or even an idea of oneself.

Miksang is an alternative philosophy of photography that eschews manipulative sales motives and egotistical goals, instead focusing inward on perception and a sensory journey enhanced by holding a camera. A stripped-down, Buddhism-influenced approach, Miksang takes its name from the Tibetan word meaning “Good Eye.” As a practice it can offer reprise from the relentless need to rush, a fresh recognition of everyday beauty, and the exchange of raw, real moments.

Over the last 35 years professional photographer Michael Wood and Julie DuBose have been cultivating and codifying Miksang into a discipline. In early May the pair concluded a ten-day workshop for an international group of participants in Kyoto, the first time Miksang had been taught in Asia. Throughout the month, unique photographs from their respective archives intrigued visitors to The Terminal Kyoto, a gracefully restored machiya townhouse, as part of the KG+ exhibition, “Shitsurai—Offerings II.”

I sat down with this unassuming duo one morning at the kitchen table of their interim home nearby the Heian Shrine to find out more about their practice.

—Elle Murrell

ELLE MURRELL: Michael and Julie, how did Miksang come into your lives?