Review: “Zen Camera”

We review ‘Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography” by David Ulrich.

Andrea Miller7 February 2018

Zen Camera

Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography

By David Ulrich
Watson–Guptill 2018; 224 pp., $22 (cloth)

Whether you’re a newbie, amateur photographer, or seasoned professional, this book will help you cultivate creativity with a camera and in all areas of your life. A professor and co-director of Pacific New Media, David Ulrich has organized his book so that, much like a college semester, it takes a minimum of twelve to fifteen weeks to work through it. But the material is so rich that you could continue to circle through it for a lifetime. The first essential step is to establish a visual journaling practice, taking photos every day, which Ulrich calls a “Daily Record.” You don’t need to run out and buy a fancy camera for this, he says, as most of us have perfectly good cameras on our cellphones. So while a cellphone can be seen as a mindless distraction, it doesn’t have to be only that. It can be a tool to truly see the world and experience the joy and fulfillment of creative expression.

Andrea Miller

Andrea Miller

Andrea Miller is the deputy editor of Lion’s Roar magazine. She’s the author of Awakening My Heart: Essays, Articles, and Interviews on the Buddhist Life, as well as the picture book The Day the Buddha Woke Up.