"The relationship between art, photography, and philosophy has long invited deep reflection on the meaning of existence and the ways in which human beings engage with the world. Among contemporary photographers and educators in South Africa, Vernon Chalmers has emerged as a figure whose work integrates the technical mastery of digital photography with a profound philosophical sensibility. His practice goes beyond image-making to probe the existential conditions of being, drawing connections between the visible world and the inner dimensions of human experience. The notion of “Navigating the Colour of Being” captures this duality: it reflects both the chromatic richness of photography and the metaphorical navigation of human existence through its many hues, moods, and complexities.
This essay explores Vernon Chalmers’s concept of “Navigating the Colour of Being” as a philosophical and artistic journey. It investigates how Chalmers’s work in photography - particularly in birds-in-flight, seascapes, and creative teaching - serves as a lens through which the existential dynamics of colour, perception, and meaning unfold. Through a synthesis of existentialist thought, phenomenology, and the lived practice of photography, this analysis will show how Chalmers uses colour both literally and metaphorically to navigate questions of identity, freedom, purpose, and self-realisation.
Vernon Chalmers Adding Colour to Existential Photography
The Philosophical Foundations of Colour and Being- Colour as Ontological Metaphor
Colour is not merely an aesthetic dimension of the visual world but also an ontological metaphor for being itself. Merleau-Ponty (1962) highlighted the phenomenological importance of perception: colour is not an isolated attribute but an embodied experience of the world. In this sense, navigating the “colour of being” implies a continual negotiation of the layers of existence, much like how colours combine, contrast, or fade into one another in the shifting light of nature.
For Chalmers, colour is not restricted to visual saturation on a digital sensor but becomes a lived metaphor for existential variation. Just as colour ranges from vivid brilliance to subdued monochrome, so too does human being oscillate between moments of clarity, joy, melancholy, or ambiguity. Photography becomes a vehicle for capturing not only external reality but also the internal “hues” of human experience.
- Existential Resonance
The existentialist tradition, particularly represented by Sartre (2007) and Heidegger (1962), offers a compelling framework for interpreting Chalmers’s philosophy. Sartre’s insistence that existence precedes essence suggests that being is not predetermined but constantly navigated through choice and engagement. Heidegger’s notion of being-in-the-world further underscores the inseparability of human existence from the world it perceives and inhabits.
- In this framework, the “colour of being” symbolises the multiplicity of existential choices, moods, and orientations. Navigating it means accepting responsibility for one’s freedom, while simultaneously acknowledging the constraints of facticity. For Chalmers, the act of photographing - whether freezing a bird mid-flight or observing the subtle tonalities of a seascape - is not only an artistic endeavour but also a mode of existential engagement.
- The Camera as Compass
- In Chalmers’s practice, the camera functions as both instrument and compass. It is a means of navigating not only the external world but also the internal terrain of being. The act of looking through the viewfinder, selecting a frame, and pressing the shutter becomes a process of orienting oneself in relation to existence. Photography thus operates as both a literal and metaphorical navigation of colour and being.
His meticulous attention to birds-in-flight photography illustrates this navigational dimension. Birds, symbols of freedom and transcendence, embody existential aspirations toward authenticity and liberation. Capturing them mid-flight requires not only technical precision but also an attunement to the rhythm of nature and the unpredictable trajectories of existence. In this sense, photographing birds becomes a metaphor for navigating the uncertainties of being - tracking motion, anticipating direction, and capturing fleeting moments of beauty.
- Colour and Temporality
Photography is inherently bound to temporality. Each image captures a moment that can never be repeated, preserving the ephemeral as permanent. The colours recorded in an image reflect the temporal conditions of light, weather, and circumstance. For Chalmers, these chromatic nuances embody the existential temporality of being itself. Just as the sun sets into hues of amber and violet, human life unfolds in a spectrum of moods, stages, and transitions (Barthes, 1981).
The seascapes of Chalmers often capture this temporal fluidity. The shifting blues, greys, and golds of the ocean surface reveal the transient interplay of light and water. Here, colour becomes not merely aesthetic but also ontological: it marks the passage of time, the impermanence of existence, and the continual transformation of being.
- Knowledge as Shared Navigation
Beyond his photographic output, Chalmers is recognised as an educator who guides students in mastering both the technical and creative aspects of digital photography. Teaching, in this context, becomes another form of “navigating the colour of being.” It is not simply about transmitting knowledge but about helping others orient themselves in relation to the world of photography and, by extension, to their own existential journeys.
Chalmers’s pedagogy mirrors Freire’s (2000) notion of education as a practice of freedom. Instead of imposing rigid dogmas, he encourages learners to discover their own voices, styles, and ways of seeing. In guiding others through the “colours” of photographic technique - exposure, composition, post-processing - he simultaneously guides them through the existential challenge of expressing individuality and authenticity.
- Colour as Dialogue
Colour in Chalmers’s teaching is not merely technical but dialogical. Each student perceives and interprets colour differently, depending on their background, sensibility, and emotional orientation. Chalmers fosters this diversity, recognising that navigating the colour of being is a deeply personal journey. His workshops, therefore, become spaces of philosophical dialogue as much as technical training - places where the multiplicity of being is reflected in the multiplicity of colour.
- Birds-in-Flight: Freedom and Transcendence
Among Chalmers’s most celebrated contributions is his dedication to birds-in-flight photography along the South African coastline. These images embody existential motifs of freedom, flight, and transcendence. Birds in motion remind viewers of the fluidity of existence, the tension between constraint and liberation, and the beauty of being-in-motion.
The colours of the birds themselves - subtle whites of gulls, iridescent hues of starlings, or dark silhouettes against the evening sky - reinforce this existential aesthetic. They suggest that being is always relational: shaped by contrast, context, and perspective. To capture these colours requires patience, presence, and a deep attunement to the rhythm of life, qualities that resonate with the existential demand for authentic engagement.
- Seascapes: Depth and Temporality
Chalmers’s seascapes complement his avian subjects by turning attention to the elemental force of water. Oceans represent depth, mystery, and the infinite - a recurring metaphor in existential thought. The colours of the sea, shifting with weather and light, reflect the moods of being itself: calm, storm, transition, renewal.
Through seascape photography, Chalmers highlights the fluid boundaries between permanence and impermanence. The waves crash and retreat, never identical, yet always part of the same continuum. Colour becomes the language through which these transitions are made visible, echoing Heidegger’s (1962) claim that human existence is always a being-toward-time.
- Creative Abstractions: Interior Colour
Beyond representational photography, Chalmers has also explored more abstract visual expressions. These works often play with colour in ways that transcend the literal, creating a space where interior states of being can be visualised. Abstraction allows for a navigation of inner landscapes, translating emotions and moods into chromatic patterns. Here, the “colour of being” becomes most explicitly a metaphor for existential interiority.
- Photography as Responsibility
Navigating the colour of being also entails an ethical responsibility. To photograph is to bear witness—to capture and preserve aspects of the world that might otherwise go unnoticed. In the existentialist sense, this responsibility parallels the weight of freedom: each photographic choice affirms a perspective, a framing, a disclosure of being (Sartre, 2007).
For Chalmers, the ethics of seeing involves respect for both subject and context. Whether photographing a bird in motion or teaching a beginner to adjust aperture, the underlying ethic is one of care, attentiveness, and authenticity. Colour here is not superficial but integral: to misrepresent or manipulate it irresponsibly would distort the truth of being that the photograph seeks to reveal.
- Ecology and Being
Chalmers’s emphasis on coastal birds and seascapes also raises ecological dimensions of the colour of being. By foregrounding the beauty and fragility of natural environments, his work implicitly invites reflection on human responsibility toward the non-human world. In this sense, navigating the colour of being is not only a personal journey but also a collective one—an invitation to care for the ecological conditions that make such colours possible (Leopold, 1949/2020).
Chalmers’s idea of “navigating the colour of being” integrates three dimensions: philosophy, practice, and purpose. Philosophically, it resonates with existentialist and phenomenological insights into being, perception, and freedom. Practically, it manifests in his photographic and pedagogical methods, which foreground colour as both aesthetic and metaphorical. Purposefully, it expresses a commitment to authenticity, responsibility, and the nurturing of others’ creative journeys.
This integration underscores that for Chalmers, photography is not merely a technical pursuit but a way of living philosophically. Each image becomes a meditation on existence; each workshop, a dialogue on authenticity; each act of seeing, a navigation of the colours of being.
ConclusionVernon Chalmers’s concept of “Navigating the Colour of Being” offers a profound synthesis of art, philosophy, and pedagogy. Rooted in the chromatic richness of photography, it extends into the existential navigation of life itself. Colour here functions not only as aesthetic quality but also as metaphor for the multiplicity of existence, the shifting moods of being, and the choices that shape human freedom.
Through his birds-in-flight photography, Chalmers captures the existential motifs of freedom and transcendence. Through his seascapes, he reflects the temporality and fluidity of existence. Through his teaching, he guides others in their own navigations of colour and being, fostering authenticity and creative expression. Ultimately, Chalmers’s work reminds us that photography is more than image-making: it is a mode of philosophical engagement, a compass for orienting ourselves within the spectrum of being.
By navigating the colour of being, Chalmers illuminates not only the visible hues of the world but also the invisible depths of human existence. His work invites us all to see more deeply, to live more authentically, and to embrace the infinite palette of life itself." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)
ReferencesBarthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography (R. Howard, Trans.). Hill and Wang.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed., M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Continuum. (Original work published 1970)
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1927)
Leopold, A. (2020). A Sand County almanac. Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1949)
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Sartre, J.-P. (2007). Being and nothingness (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1943)
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