A Philosophical Analysis: Ten Existential Photography Quotes by Vernon Chalmers
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| Common Waxbill : Table Bay Nature Reserve, Woodbridge Island |
"This essay examines Vernon Chalmers’s photographic philosophy by analysing ten of his most significant quotes through an existential and phenomenological framework. Each quote is interpreted as an articulation of Chalmers’s lived philosophy of image-making — a practice grounded in perception, temporality, and meaning. Drawing upon the works of Viktor Frankl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, this paper explores how Chalmers’s statements on photography illuminate his understanding of being, freedom, and authenticity. His reflections reveal photography not merely as visual representation, but as an existential act of presence, perception, and ethical engagement with the world.
Introduction
Vernon Chalmers’s statements express a philosophy that bridges photographic craft and existential awareness. His aphorisms on perception, patience, and intuition evoke a deeply reflective mode of seeing. This continuation expands the inquiry by focusing on ten representative quotes from Chalmers’s published writings, workshops, and online reflections. Each quote is analyzed philosophically in relation to existential thinkers who similarly sought to understand the conditions of meaning and presence.
Through these interpretations, Chalmers’s photography emerges as a practice of existential phenomenology: an art of perceiving the world as it discloses itself through light, time, and attention. His words articulate a response to the question Heidegger posed — What does it mean to dwell poetically on the earth? — and situate the camera as a medium for dwelling, reflection, and self-understanding.
1. “Trust your intuition, focus and the camera in your hands. Forget about that ‘perfect shot,’ work towards an ideal exposure and enjoy a special moment.”This foundational statement (Chalmers, n.d.) reflects Chalmers’s prioritization of process over perfection. His encouragement to “forget about that perfect shot” parallels Heidegger’s (1962) critique of technological enframing (Gestell), wherein human beings risk reducing the world to an object of control. By trusting intuition and enjoying the moment, Chalmers resists the instrumental logic of mastery and reorients photography toward being-with rather than dominating.
In Frankl’s (1959) logotherapeutic sense, this is a turn toward meaning through experience — finding fulfillment in the act of photographing rather than in its measurable success. The “ideal exposure” becomes a metaphor for existential balance: light and shadow as conditions of human understanding.
2. “Human perception through the viewfinder is more important than the science or technology in my hands.”This quote positions Chalmers firmly within a phenomenological lineage. Merleau-Ponty (1962) emphasized that perception is the primary mode of engaging the world; technology cannot substitute for embodied vision. Chalmers’s insistence that perception matters more than the camera asserts the photographer’s body as an expressive field of consciousness.
In Sartrean terms, this is an affirmation of freedom through intentionality — the capacity to direct consciousness toward being (Sartre, 1943). The viewfinder becomes not a barrier but a threshold where human perception and world encounter one another. Chalmers thus turns the act of seeing into an existential dialogue.
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| Arum Lily : Kirstenbosch Garden, Cape Town |
3. “Patience is the quiet companion of the existential wait.”
Here Chalmers transforms a technical virtue — patience — into a metaphysical stance. Waiting, for him, is not passive; it is ontological readiness. Heidegger (1962) spoke of Gelassenheit — letting-be — as the essence of genuine openness to Being. Chalmers’s “existential wait” embodies this letting-be: the photographer does not chase the image but waits for its revelation.
Frankl (1959) might interpret this patience as tragic optimism — the courage to endure uncertainty while remaining attuned to meaning. The “quiet companion” is an inner steadiness that aligns perception with time, mirroring the meditative rhythm of his bird and landscape photography.
4. “In its curve, I glimpse the quiet nature of becoming. No striving. Just presence.”This poetic reflection distills Chalmers’s existential aesthetics. The “curve” — perhaps of a bird’s wing or a coastal horizon — becomes a microcosm of Heraclitean flux and Heideggerian becoming. “No striving” echoes Sartre’s (1943) rejection of bad faith, the inauthentic clinging to fixed identities or outcomes.
In Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) language, Chalmers’s seeing is embodied and pre-reflective; he perceives the world as movement, not object. The still photograph paradoxically reveals life’s continuous unfolding — becoming rather than being-done. Through presence, the photographer attunes himself to impermanence.
5. “The camera becomes an extension of perceptual consciousness rather than a barrier.”This quote connects directly to Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the body-subject — the idea that perception is not a detached observation but an embodied extension of being. For Chalmers, the camera integrates with the body’s intentionality, amplifying rather than obstructing awareness.
He thereby reverses common critiques of technology as alienating: when used reflectively, technology can extend human perception instead of fragmenting it. Sartre might view this as an authentic synthesis of being-for-itself (the conscious subject) and being-in-itself (the object world), united through creative intention.
6. “Photography teaches the humility of waiting for light.”This aphorism embodies the ethics of patience in Chalmers’s philosophy. Light, in his writings, symbolizes not only exposure but revelation — a Heideggerian metaphor for truth as unconcealment (aletheia). Waiting for light means allowing truth to disclose itself rather than forcing it.
Frankl (1959) would read humility here as the surrender of ego in service of meaning; Merleau-Ponty (1962) would interpret it as participation in the world’s visible unfolding. Chalmers’s humility is not self-negation but an attunement to the rhythms of nature, echoing his ecological ethics.
7. “The photograph is never taken — it is received.”This striking statement situates Chalmers within gift phenomenology. The photograph is not a conquest but a gift, received from the world. Heidegger’s Ereignis — the event of disclosure — resonates here: Being grants itself through appearance. The photographer’s role is receptive, not possessive.
Sartre (1943) might describe this as an authentic relationship with the Other; the world is not consumed but encountered. For Frankl, it parallels gratitude — recognizing meaning as something given rather than manufactured. Thus, Chalmers’s act of photographing becomes a spiritual exchange between perceiver and presence.
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| Citrus Swallowtail Butterfly : Kirstenbosch Garden, Cape Town |
8. “Each photograph is a conversation between self and being.”
This quote explicitly links photography to dialogical ontology. In Heidegger’s (1971) view, language is the house of Being; Chalmers extends this to visual language. His “conversation” is phenomenological: the self discloses itself through encountering what is photographed.
Sartre’s (1943) concept of the look (le regard) adds complexity — the photographed subject also “looks back,” shaping the photographer’s self-awareness. Chalmers thus conceives the camera as a medium of reciprocity, where seeing becomes self-revelation.
In Frankl’s logotherapeutic frame, this conversation is meaning-oriented: the image testifies to a dialogue between existence and essence, suffering and beauty.
9. “The quiet discipline of observation is a form of freedom.”Freedom, for Sartre (1943), is not the absence of constraint but the awareness of choice in each moment. Chalmers’s “quiet discipline” describes precisely that: a freedom exercised through focus, attentiveness, and ethical restraint. The disciplined observer is free because they are present to choice, not enslaved by distraction or compulsion.
Heidegger (1962) might interpret this as authentic temporality: the photographer shapes time by consciously inhabiting it. In practical terms, Chalmers’s bird photography exemplifies this — the still observer, camera ready, waiting for flight, choosing when to release the shutter. The freedom is not in control, but in readiness.
10. “Photography is not about capturing time — it is about meeting time.”This final quote epitomizes Chalmers’s existential temporality. To “meet time” recalls Heidegger’s (1962) notion of being-toward-time, where authentic existence involves confronting temporality rather than fleeing from it. Chalmers’s images do not freeze time; they acknowledge its flow.
Merleau-Ponty (1962) would view this as perceptual temporality — each photograph crystallizes a lived moment within duration. For Frankl, meeting time implies responsibility: to respond meaningfully to the given instant.
Thus, Chalmers redefines photography as an ethical dialogue with transience — a momentary reconciliation between the human and the temporal.
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| Peregrine Falcon Above Arnhem Milnerton |
Synthesis: The Existential Structure of Chalmers’s Quotes
Across these ten statements, a coherent philosophical pattern emerges. Chalmers’s thought intertwines four existential dimensions:
- Presence and Perception:
Photography as awareness — seeing the world without preconception, aligning with Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body.
- Patience and Temporality:
Waiting and time as spaces for authenticity — echoing Heidegger’s meditations on being-toward-time.
- Freedom and Responsibility:
The ethical act of photographing — resonant with Sartre’s notion that freedom entails responsibility for meaning.
- Meaning and Gratitude:
The reception of the photograph as a gift — consistent with Frankl’s affirmation of meaning even within limitation.
Together, these elements define what Chalmers calls Applied Existential Photography — a lived practice where art, psychology, and ontology converge. The quotes collectively form an ethical-aesthetic guide: a reminder that photography’s ultimate subject is not the external world but being itself.
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| Wildflower : Kirstenbosch Garden, Cape Town |
Vernon Chalmers’s reflections on photography transcend mere technical advice; they constitute a mature philosophical outlook grounded in existential awareness. Each quote reveals an aspect of his dialogue with Being: the humility of waiting, the discipline of observation, the freedom of perception, and the gratitude of receiving. His integration of existential and phenomenological insights situates photography as both a creative and therapeutic act — a means of rediscovering meaning through presence.
When interpreted alongside thinkers such as Frankl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, Chalmers’s words illustrate how a photographer’s philosophy can extend into the moral and spiritual dimensions of life. To photograph, in his view, is to participate in the world’s unfolding — to meet time, to receive light, and to become present.
Through this existential lens, Chalmers invites photographers and thinkers alike to reconsider their relationship with perception, technology, and selfhood. His quotes remind us that every photograph, like every human encounter, is a silent conversation between consciousness and existence." (Source: ChatGPT 2025)
ReferencesChalmers, V. (n.d.). Vernon Chalmers Photography Training. Vernon Chalmers Photography. Retrieved from https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/
Chalmers, V. (2024, October 31). Photography as Existential Motivation. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2024/10/vernon-chalmers-photography-as.html
Chalmers, V. (2025, October 1). Vernon Chalmers as Colour Existential Photographer. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2025/10/vernon-chalmers-as-colour-existential.html
Chalmers, V. (2025, October 2). Vernon Chalmers Existential Photographic Practice. Vernon Chalmers Photography. https://www.vernonchalmers.photography/2025/10/vernon-chalmers-existential.html
Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, Language, Thought (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Sartre, J.-P. (1943). Being and Nothingness (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Philosophical Library.