What's most vital is right in front of me, by Stephen Wilkes
Meditative Story
WaitWhat
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Wilkes has a unique approach to photography that requires a sustained focus to capture subtle changes in light and perspective. The same could be said of the way he cared for his mother, whose resilience and love belied the trauma she experienced as a refugee from the second world war. Though it often falls on young Stephen to manage her spells, he is able to transcend his family’s haunted past by turning his gaze outward when the darkness threatens to consume him, transforming it into art.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Taking photographs demands attention. |
| 0:04.0 | Keeps me in the moment. |
| 0:08.0 | When I take a picture, I'm completely immersed in the moment. |
| 0:13.0 | I don't just look. |
| 0:16.0 | I see. |
| 0:19.0 | I engage with the world so complex. I see. |
| 0:28.6 | I engage with the world so completely as to mute whatever story I'm otherwise telling myself. |
| 0:44.6 | But if I listen to the voice in my head, the voice that tells me I'm less than, strange or incapable, I'll miss something vital and magical right in front of me. Photographer Stephen Wilkes is perhaps best known for creating evocative composite images |
| 1:00.0 | that capture the passage of time within a single frame. |
| 1:04.0 | A unique approach that requires patient, sustained observation, and a sensitivity to subtle changes in light and perspective. |
| 1:14.0 | Stephen's early passion for photography unlock something in him, |
| 1:18.1 | helping him transcend the ghosts of his family's past by teaching him to turn his gaze |
| 1:22.8 | outward when powerful emotions threaten to consume him. |
| 1:27.7 | In this series, we combine immersive first-person stories and breathtaking music |
| 1:32.6 | with the science-backed benefits of mindfulness practice. |
| 1:37.2 | From Wait-Twart and Thrive Global, this is Meditative Story. |
| 1:44.7 | I'm Rohan, and I'll be your guide. The body relaxed. The body relaxed. |
| 2:08.6 | The body breathing. |
| 2:12.6 | Your senses open, your mind open, |
| 2:18.3 | meeting the world. |
| 2:25.3 | I tilt my head up to take a look at a grand brick building. |
| 2:36.0 | Huge columns tower above me. |
... |
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