I feel that, in this day and age, a lot of us are moving through life a little too passively. Far too many people let life pass them by without ever truly being present. The cause is difficult to determine, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with the device most probably sitting in your pocket right now.

To live a life unaware is such a pity. We are all so blessed to be in the positions we find ourselves in. Countless opportunities are presented to us constantly, and there are nearly infinite different lives we could lead.

By understanding your own perspective on life and the way you absorb it, you can slowly begin to alter how conscious you are of everything around you. Capturing the beauty surrounding your life can make you ever more aware of the life that you are actually living.

Books and my perception of beauty

My idea of beauty has been most heavily influenced by three books. Each offers a kind of antithesis to the standard idea of beauty, forcing me to contend with what I had previously thought about the concept.

Man’s Search for Meaning is a psychiatrist’s account of life inside German concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. Frankl argues that even inevitable suffering can hold meaning and is a core component of the human spirit. It does not really matter what we expect from life, he suggests, but rather what life expects from us.

Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel set in apartheid South Africa and follows a village priest on a search for his son. Being able to put myself into that story, especially in a local context, had a profound impact on the way I see hardship and how one deals with it.

The first chapter of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is an analysis of the world by an overly critical man. Reading this character's harsh perspective was difficult, but arguing with his ideas cemented my belief in the necessity of capturing beauty rather than hate.

So yes, beauty is very much open to interpretation. To me, it describes anything that characterises the human experience - whether that be the moment of awe felt when looking out over an incredible vista or the simple pleasure of sitting around a fire with your best mates.

The question, then, is how to capture moments that are so unconsciously present in our lives. I'll cover four broad ways that I think are most accessible: writing, music, art, and photography.

Language in motion

Writing can capture our experiences in several forms. Journaling allows you to express your thoughts as frequently as you'd like. You might simply describe the day you have just experienced, or explore the depths of what you have been thinking and feeling. It requires little effort to begin, but staying consistent is the difficult part.

Poetry can compress an entire experience into a few carefully chosen words. In Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost personifies nature’s charm while remaining careful in highlighting her impermanence:

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Through prose, the writer can neatly express the way they see and interact with the world. Stories are an incredible way to indirectly capture life’s moments of grandeur. We are all on our own journeys, and I oftentimes find myself forgetting just how intricate everyone else’s lives are. By reading and writing stories, you can immerse yourself in another world and see beauty from a different perspective.

A life set to music

Creating music is another fantastic way of describing the human spirit. I am by no means a songwriter, but there are a few albums and songs that I think capture nearly every aspect of life.

Cold Fact by Rodriguez reflects on the grit and grace of life by exploring struggle and longing. The Beautiful Girls meditate on self-discovery and emotional growth in Learn Yourself. On the album is “La Mar (The Ocean)”, a painfully beautiful song about a father passing lessons learnt on to his son.

The South African band Shortstraw makes awesome music about the messy beauty of growing up, falling in love, and finding joy in the ordinary, which I relate to through my laid-back upbringing in the Eastern Cape. They remind us that life’s highlights often arrive through laughter, spontaneity, and the small moments.

The War on Drugs use atmospheric soundscapes throughout A Deeper Understanding to support lyrics detailing the quiet search for meaning. “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens, meanwhile, is an insanely powerful song; a timeless look at change, love, and the balance between guidance and freedom.

I certainly don't know how these artists have done it, but I appreciate that each has managed to transcribe portions of life through a couple of instruments and an hour of lyrics.

Seeing through another’s eyes

Art is an incredible medium, empowering viewers to see into the soul of an artist. It was the first way of communicating emotion that took on a visual form. Differences in colour, light, texture, and composition allow unique perspectives to be illustrated, each artist capturing beauty as they see fit.

Personally, I think Romanticism best enables an artist to express their perspective of the world. The movement emerged in the late eighteenth century partly as a counter to the rationalism of the Industrial Revolution. Emotion, nature, and individuality are celebrated through the exploration of love, freedom, and melancholy. Art is not concerned with explaining the world; rather, it attempts to make us feel her scale and bravado.

The permanence of fleeting moments

Photography is the primary way I find myself capturing life's beauty. I have loved looking back on my best memories through the lens of my camera. It's also such a pleasure to share photographs with friends and family, knowing that I helped preserve a special moment in time for them.

Documenting so many aspects of life in a natural way has been one of my most gratifying experiences. The photographs I value tend to fall into four loose groups.

Places. Landscapes allow me to preserve the incredible scenes I find myself in front of: untouched beaches in the Western Cape, stunning night skies, a solo hike in Stellies, a deep-sea fish in the Transkei. These are some of the breathtaking subjects I have been fortunate enough to capture and later reminisce over. However, one must be cautious in remembering too fondly, yearning for a moment already gone. Rather use these memories as inspiration to chase the next journey.

People. Collectively sharing memories with people you cherish is such a core human experience; to capture one is quite remarkable. These photos help me hold on to the people dear to me.

Journeys. I have had the good fortune of going on some incredible trips over the years, and my camera is always within arm’s reach. Constantly searching for scenes with an interesting composition has left my eye primed to find beauty in any manner of different situations.

Small moments. It is important not to forget them. Life is really a collection of all these little moments. Soaking in every last one of them leads to a life well lived. A camera helps me capture them, yet I remind myself to put it down and enjoy them too.

Closing

Writing, music, art, and photography all ask the same thing of us: to notice. The act of trying to capture beauty forces us to be more aware and conscious of life unfolding in front of us.

I hope you feel slightly more inspired to go out and capture life’s beauty. It is all around.