*Whether art and beauty can really make man better and **stronger is an open question; but one thing is certain: **that like the starry firmament they remind us of light, of *order and harmony, and of “meaning” amid chaos.

—Hermann Hesse

I won’t presume to know what is meaningful to you—in photography or in any other domain. Certainly, I won’t presume to tell you what should be meaningful to you, even if it’s very meaningful to me. I can only suggest that you make it your highest priority to seek out, articulate, and examine the things that are meaningful to you, then pursue them to them relentlessly: make them the foundations of your attitudes about and approaches to anything you do and believe. The reason: a life that doesn’t feel meaningful to the person who lives it—even if for no one else—is a wasted life.

“Waste” may seem a strong word to use, but I chose it deliberately for that reason, for its jarring effect and for the sense of urgency it may inspire given the obvious but (to many) uncomfortable fact that our lives are finite and short. Beyond meeting our existential needs, whatever time and other resources we have at our disposal that are we don’t use in meaningful ways are—in the starkest sense of the term—wasted.

Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard used the analogy of a ship’s helmsman to illustrate the need for urgency in making meaningful life choices. He wrote:

If you imagine a helmsman in his ship when it is just about to tack, then he may be able to say, ‘I can either do this or that’, but unless he is a pretty poor helmsman he will also be aware that the ship is still maintaining its normal headway, and so there is only an instant when it is immaterial whether he does this or that. Similarly with a human being; if he forgets to take that headway into account, the moment eventually comes when there is no longer any question of an either/or, not because he has chosen but because he has refrained from choice.

I should mention that “meaningful” choices and activities don’t necessarily need to be demanding, difficult, time-consuming, or risky. In the simplest sense, any choice is meaningful if considered and decided consciously against all alternatives and deemed the most appropriate. True, meaningful activities may sometimes be extremely difficult and require great courage. But in other times, even the decision to rest, to deviate from routines and expectations, to close your eyes and soak in the sunshine, listen to great music, immerse yourself in a good book, or spend time with friends, may well be the most meaningful and appropriate use of your time if the alternatives are by comparison tedious, unpleasant, or anxiety-inducing, and without obvious benefit.

Meaningful activities don’t necessarily have to yield their greatest rewards immediately. They may be used toward securing resources—income, free time, knowledge, healing, etc.—that may pay dividends in making future experiences more meaningful. These activities, even if challenging, boring, or risky, so long as they are conducive to future meaning may still feel meaningful as paths toward desirable rewards: as means to meaningful ends, rather than as mere distractions from boredom or as pointless labors.

What aspects of photography do you consider as most meaningful? Is it the experience out of which you made a photograph? Immersing yourself in the process of making a photograph? Challenging yourself creatively or expressively? Socializing with fellow photographers? Beholding the beauty of a photograph you’ve made? Compliments, awards, or financial rewards earned for a photograph you’ve made? Owning or using photographic equipment? Discussing and debating some aspect of photography? Using your photographs to support some worthy goal? Finding temporary respite or distraction from other, less enjoyable aspects of life? I suspect these are easy questions for most photographers to answer. But here’s a more difficult one: how well do your answers to these questions align with the way you actually pursue your photography?

What are you waiting for? Time keeps passing, opportunities you have now may not be open to you later, and odds are the longer you wait to make a change, the harder it will be to break old habits and to start down a new course.

Paul Strand wrote, “and I say to you, before you give your time, and you will have to give much, to photography, find out in yourselves how much it means to you.” Note that he didn’t suggest finding out if photography means anything to you, but how much. This subtle but important characterization acknowledges that even things that may be meaningful are not all meaningful to the same degree. With this in mind, I think Strand’s point can be taken a step further: once you find out how much photography means—or can mean—to you, don’t stop there. Ask yourself this: how can photography be most meaningful to you.

Given the finality and scarcity of resources, opportunities, time, cognitive capacities, and physical strength available to you to invest in photography—or in anything else—it makes sense to strive to gain the greatest return on your investment. Also, as in other scenarios, it is often the case that the more you invest, the greater the return will be.

The future will come. Things will change. Your resources and opportunities will not last forever. If you come to realize that the manner you approach your photography (or any other discretionary pursuit) right now falls short being the most meaningful, or if you realize that you may gain greater meaning by investing the same scarce resources in something other than photography, then answer me this: why are you wasting your time?

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