In Greek thought, Heraclitus held that the visible world is not made up of static things but of processes. Everything we encounter is the temporary manifestation of an underlying logos or ordering principle. Fire is never the same from one moment to the next, yet retains its identity. The world of objects is really the visible expression of an invisible dynamic.
This is why he says things like “Nature loves to hide.” and
“You cannot step into the same river twice.” The river is the continuing pattern produced by flowing water.
For Plato, every object in the physical world participates in or reflects an eternal Form. A beautiful horse is an imperfect instance of the Form of Beauty and the form precedes that object. So sad and terminal.
In Kabbalah, all manifestations in the world are products acted up and maintained by the force that drives Creation (with a capital C) the purpose being that man’s purpose in being created it to reveal the force that creates it. (a bit like Heraclitus’ Nature loves to hide,) and the purpose of Creation is for man to enjoy being in touch with the force that creates Man.
The physicist David Bohm said that what we ordinarily perceive as separate objects are not the fundamental reality. They are unfoldings or manifestations of a deeper, undivided whole. “Ultimately, the entire universe has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no fundamental status.”
Question: What effect would this view have on the photographer deciding what to photograph and how to frame it?
