Beauty will Save Us: Finding Hope Through the Practice of Photography
Class - Photography | Registration opens 8/11/2026 9:00 AM EDT
Inspired by the famous words often attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky, this course explores a simple but profound question: Can beauty help us remain awake, compassionate, and hopeful in difficult times? This is not a class about making beautiful photographs for their own sake. It is about learning to recognize beauty where we least expect it—in ordinary places, changing light, weathered objects, quiet moments, and everyday encounters that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
Working with any camera or smartphone, participants will learn contemplative approaches to photography that cultivate attention, presence, and wonder. Through weekly explorations, guided image-making, conversation, and poetry, we'll discover that photography can become more than a creative pursuit. It can become a daily practice of noticing what is life-giving, even in a world marked by uncertainty and loss.
No previous photography experience is necessary. The emphasis is not on technical perfection but on developing a more attentive eye and a more open heart.
Together, we'll explore the possibility that beauty does not distract us from the world's suffering—it gives us the courage to meet it with greater clarity, compassion, and hope.
Timothy Auman
I am an ordained lay Buddhist, certified mindfulness teacher, and former university chaplain dedicated to the application of Taoist and Zen thought to the issues of everyday life. As a visual artist, my approach to photography focuses on learning (or perhaps we could say re-learning) how to see. My work is influenced by the Miksang (the Tibetan word for “good eye”) movement, having studied with John McQuade and Miriam Hall for many years. In contemplative photography, we focus on taking the time to actually see, to become aware of and present with what is actually happening in the phenomenal world, and then create an equivalent image with our camera. The main difference between Miksang Contemplative Photography and other forms of photography is that Miksang is based on clear perception before an overlay of thoughts, interpretations, preferences, story lines, likes and dislikes, what we think might make a good image and so forth arise. Meditation, dharma teachings and contemplation are woven into all I teach. If you want to know more about contemplative photography, please sign up for a class.