Rollo May’s The Courage to Create (1975) represents one of the most influential existential-psychological explorations of creative life. Its central argument - that all creativity emerges from acts of courage against anxiety, uncertainty, and the limits of self - is uniquely relevant to the photographic philosophy and Conscious Intelligence (CI) framework developed by South African photographer and educator Vernon Chalmers. This paper examines how Chalmers’ photographic practice, pedagogy, and theoretical work embody May’s creative-existential principles. Through analysis of Chalmers’ approach to Birds-in-Flight (BIF) photography, his philosophy of presence, perceptual awareness, and iterative discipline, the paper argues that Chalmers operationalizes May’s existential creativity in a contemporary photographic and cognitive context. The convergence of May’s courage-centred creativity and Chalmers’ photographic thought shows how artistic creation becomes a mode of existential inquiry, self-transcendence, and meaning-making in modern digital ecosystems. The essay concludes that Chalmers’ work exemplifies May’s call for artists to challenge chaos with conscious intention and to transform experience through courageous engagement with reality.
IntroductionRollo May’s existential psychology has profoundly shaped contemporary understandings of creativity as a human act of courage, rather than merely a technical or aesthetic endeavour. In The Courage to Create, May (1975) argues that all genuine creativity arises from the tension between existential anxiety and the individual’s will to affirm meaning. Creativity becomes the capacity to engage with the unknown, confront internal and external resistance, and bring something new into being through an authentic act of expression.
Within modern photography, few contemporary theorists embody this existential stance as fully as Vernon Chalmers. Known for his deep engagement with Birds in Flight (BIF) photography, high-performance photographic training, and the philosophical development of Conscious Intelligence (CI), Chalmers situates photography as a lived, introspective, and often courageous process. His work emphasises awareness, intentionality, disciplined perception, emotional resonance, and a form of existential responsibility toward one’s creative environment.
This essay examines the intersections between Chalmers’ photographic philosophy and May’s conceptualization of creativity as courage. By analysing Chalmers’ photographic practice, teaching methodology, and theoretical contributions, the essay argues that Chalmers operationalizes May’s creative existentialism, transforming it into a contemporary praxis situated in the embodied, technologically mediated world of photographic performance.
Rollo May’s Existential Framework of CreativityMay’s theory of creativity rests on the argument that creation always involves risk: the risk of failure, misunderstanding, exposure, or confronting the boundaries of one’s own potential. According to May (1975), creativity manifests through three core components: existential courage, encounter, and constructive imagination.
1. Existential Courage
May positions courage as the foundational psychological condition from which creative action arises. Courage, for May (1975), is not fearlessness, but rather the willingness to act despite fear. Creativity demands vulnerability - the exposure of one’s inner world to the uncertainties of external judgment.
2. Encounter
Creative work requires authentic encounter with one’s subject, one’s environment, and oneself. This encounter is not passive observation but a direct and transformative engagement with reality (May, 1975). The encounter forms the relational bridge where subjectivity and world co-create meaning.
3. Constructive Imagination
Creativity involves a “passionate encounter” that transforms raw experience into new forms, structures, or expressions (May, 1975). This transformation arises through imaginative synthesisa - reconfiguration of the familiar into something fresh and meaningful.
These concepts serve as the philosophical backdrop for understanding Chalmers’ photographic ethos.
Vernon Chalmers’ Photographic PhilosophyVernon Chalmers’ photography - especially his specialization in Birds in Flight - reflects a commitment to perceptual refinement, disciplined technical mastery, and introspective awareness. But beyond technique, Chalmers articulates a philosophy of photography grounded in presence, self-understanding, and experiential authenticity.
1. Presence and Perceptual Responsibility
Chalmers frequently emphasizes a photographer’s responsibility to be perceptually present with the environment, subjects, and moment-to-moment dynamics of light, movement, and emotion. This presence aligns with May’s idea of encounter: the photographer is not a distant observer but a conscious participant in a living, dynamic field of phenomena.
2. The Photographic Moment as Existential Choice
Each shutter release represents a choice - a deliberate act of creation performed amid uncertainty. Chalmers frames this act not as a mechanical operation but as a conscious decision grounded in awareness, technical intention, and emotional resonance. This mirrors May’s belief that creativity requires choosing amid ambiguity (May, 1975).
3. Conscious Intelligence (CI)
The Courage to Create in Chalmers’ Birds in Flight PhotographyChalmers’ CI framework expands photography into a broader philosophical inquiry into perception, cognition, emotion, and meaning. CI situates creativity within a reflective, self-aware process of experience interpretation and environmental engagement. In this sense, CI becomes a contemporary analogue to May’s existential psychology: a model of how human consciousness actualizes creativity through purposeful interaction with reality.
Birds in Flight (BIF) photography embodies May’s existential themes in particularly vivid ways. It requires a complex blend of technical skill, anticipatory attention, and emotional resilience. Chalmers treats BIF photography not merely as an aesthetic pursuit but as a form of existential practice - an arena where courage, presence, and self-transcendence unfold.
1. Engagement with the Unpredictable
May conceptualizes creativity as an encounter with uncertainty, which is central to BIF work. Birds move unpredictably; the environment constantly changes; and moments of photographic possibility appear and vanish rapidly. Chalmers’ approach emphasizes the importance of embracing uncertainty rather than resisting it - a stance consistent with May’s existential courage (May, 1975).
2. Technical Discipline as Creative Grounding
For May, creativity requires structure; it is not chaotic spontaneity but disciplined engagement with a craft. Chalmers exemplifies this through his rigorous training methods, detailed analyses of autofocus systems, and careful calibration of technique. His discipline provides the stable framework within which creative freedom and courage can emerge - echoing May’s insistence on structure and form as “the sine qua non of creativity” (May, 1975, p. 83).
3. Patience, Failure, and the Courage to Continue
May’s Encounter and Chalmers’ Philosophy of PresenceMay argues that creativity demands the courage to fail repeatedly. Chalmers’ reflections on BIF photography often highlight missed shots, technical mistakes, and the importance of returning with renewed focus. This iterative resilience embodies what May (1975) calls the “courage to be,” in which the creator continues despite imperfection.
A central theme in The Courage to Create is the concept of “encounter” - the deep meeting between creator and subject. May (1975) describes encounter as a transformative union between the observer and the observed, in which both are changed.
Chalmers’ photographic thought aligns with this principle through:
1. Immersive Attention
Chalmers frequently frames photography as a meditative or mindful process. Presence becomes both a perceptual skill and an existential attitude - one that allows the photographer to access deeper layers of experience. This aligns with May’s belief that creativity requires “intensified awareness” (May, 1975, p. 44).
2. Ethical Encounter with Nature
Chalmers’ work often emphasizes respect for wildlife and the environment, reflecting May’s notion that authentic encounter involves care, responsibility, and reciprocity.
3. Transformation Through Engagement
May holds that encounter changes the creator. Chalmers’ writing on personal development through photography echoes this idea: the photographer evolves through each act of engagement with motion, light, and natural rhythms.
Imagination, Identity, and Creative MeaningMay (1975) argues that creativity reshapes identity through imaginative expression. Chalmers’ CI framework similarly highlights how perception, memory, and interpretation co-construct the photographer’s sense of self and meaning.
1. Photographic Imagination
Chalmers sees imagination not as fantasy but as perceptual possibility - a capacity to see potential images before they exist. This form of imagination corresponds to what May describes as the “visionary dimension of creativity” (1975, p. 89).
2. Creativity as Self-Expansion
Both May and Chalmers view creativity as a form of personal growth. May argues that creative acts expand the individual’s world and deepen existential authenticity; Chalmers articulates similar ideas when describing how iterative photography refines awareness and shapes the internal experience of the photographer.
3. Meaning-Making Through Experience
Conscious Intelligence (CI) as a Contemporary Extension of May’s IdeasFor May and Chalmers, meaning is not imposed but emerges through engagement. The creative act becomes a bridge between internal and external worlds.
Chalmers’ CI theory represents a modern counterpart to May’s existential psychology, adapted for a technologically mediated era. Several parallels emerge:
1. Awareness as the Foundation of Creativity
May sees creativity as rooted in heightened awareness. CI formalizes this into a structured model of perceptual and cognitive engagement.
2. Courage as Cognitive Agency
While May speaks of psychological courage, CI frames agency within the dynamics of conscious attention, clarity of intention, and self-directed perception.
3. Creativity Within Systems
May wrote before the digital age, but his ideas adapt naturally to Chalmers’ understanding of photography as a system of technology, environment, cognition, and emotion.
CI therefore becomes a modern operationalization of May’s insights.
Vernon Chalmers’ Pedagogy and the Courage to CreateAs an educator, Chalmers demonstrates May’s belief that creativity can be nurtured through supportive relational environments. May (1975) stresses that creativity flourishes when individuals feel sufficiently safe to take risks.
1. Encouraging Experimentation
Chalmers’ workshops and writing encourage students to explore beyond technical comfort zones - mirroring May’s call for courageous experimentation.
2. Reducing Anxiety Through Mastery
By demystifying technical complexity, Chalmers reduces the anxiety associated with photographic learning, enabling students to access creative spontaneity.
3. Cultivating Reflective Photographers
Discussion: Photography as Existential Creative PracticeChalmers encourages reflection, journaling, and self-awareness, aligning with May’s view that creativity demands a deepened relationship with one’s inner world.
The relationship between Chalmers and May reveals a shared understanding of creativity as:
- courageous
- intentional
- structured yet exploratory
- self-revealing
- relationally grounded
Chalmers extends May’s work into an ecological, technological, and experiential domain. His photography becomes not simply a craft but a philosophical practice - one that requires confronting uncertainty, embracing vulnerability, and cultivating presence.
Both thinkers position creativity as a form of existential authenticity: a way of being fully alive and meaningfully engaged with reality.
ConclusionRollo May’s The Courage to Create offers a timeless framework for understanding creativity as a courageous encounter with the unknown. Vernon Chalmers exemplifies and extends this framework through his photographic practice, educational work, and Conscious Intelligence theory. By placing awareness, presence, discipline, and meaningful engagement at the centre of photography, Chalmers operationalizes May’s insights for a contemporary creative world shaped by technology, motion, and perceptual complexity.
Their shared philosophical ground demonstrates that creativity - whether in existential psychology or in Birds-in-Flight photography—is fundamentally an act of courage. It is the willingness to step into uncertainty, to perceive deeply, and to transform experience into a form that expands human understanding. Chalmers’ work not only embodies May’s ideas but also contributes a modern lens through which creative courage can be understood, practiced, and lived." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)
ReferencesMay, R. (1975). The courage to create. W. W. Norton.
Chalmers, V. (Various years). Selected writings on photography, perception, and Conscious Intelligence. Vernon Chalmers Photography.
