com.mon.place

com•mon•place

  (ˈkɒm ənˌpleɪs) 
adj.
1. ordinary; undistinguished or uninteresting
2. dull or platitudinous
n.
3. well-known, customary, or obvious remark; a trite or uninteresting saying; platitude.
4. anything common, ordinary, or uninteresting
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary


If you've been following my blog, you will already know how passionate I am about my new camera. I have been challenging myself to go on a photo-shoot once or twice each day.  It might be the lane. Or Beach Drive. Or the trees along the chip trail at Henderson.
Or something altogether different.

 On a rainy day this week, I stayed inside, looking around our house for my subject.

A gentle light was filtering into our bathroom, showing off the loose, graceful folds  of the linen shower curtain. Voilà!  I took more than 30 photographs.

 I then took a dozen more of the cushions on our couch.

I mentioned my subject matter to a few friends and imagined that I saw a slight drawing together of eye brows, a slight wrinkling on their foreheads.  My friend, Joanna, a wonderful photographer, just nodded with understanding.

Without a conscious decision, I have been practicing contemplative photography these last months.  As my friend Heshi commented: "Your picture taking excursions have turned into your own personal version of a Buddhist walking meditation."

So, it seems only natural that my subject-matter has become less adorned. Simplified. Ordinary.  Common, in its meaning of 'not rare'.

And this is why I challenge what I consider the somewhat derogatory definition of commonplace, which attaches the adjectives dull, uninteresting and platitudinous.

For me, looking through my camera's lens, the commonplace appears
beautiful.  Without embellishment, without artifice, soulfulness is visible.