#nofilter - hungry for reality
Every so now and then a picture comes by, usually on social media like Instagram, tagged 'no filter'. An expression of pure photography, of a real presentation of life as we experience it and of good photographers craftsmanship.
The desire
In an era where raw reality seems to be harder to find and is overthrown by some form of cosmetic makeup the desire for 'truth' is - at least for some - greater than ever. So, hashtag no-filter. Truth. Raw. Pure. #nofilter
This desire is a real need in my opinion in society today. And has always been I guess. With the ease of brushing up the perception other people can get from us via the digital airways these days, the amount of brushed up, made up, 'truths' is bigger than ever and so the need for the counter act of letting the truth be known by expressing it is unfiltered.
A filtered life
Sometimes I think about my own teenage years in comparison to todays teenagers (like my own children). Where I had to work on making the perception of me being acceptable by my peers (or at least I thought so) these days teenagers have not only the real-time perception but also a digital one they must take care of. And often these two collide and create friction between reality and what is desired perception.
To some extend we all go through life with filters. We learn to adapt to people around us giving them a filtered perception of what we think they might like. In this way we can feel beautiful, accepted and secured. Those are basic needs we all embody as a human being.
For some of us the filters we apply to our lives are so many and big we need an Ogre in a movie to help us realise we have become like onions.
A filtered life is a hidden life
Layers of filters cover up our true identity. Until the point comes we burn out of all the work involved in keeping up these appearances.
Passionless, without any zest for life, life-less almost, we drop into a state of no energy. Completely lost sight of the real picture behind the filters. Lost the connection to who we are underneath all the layered appearances.
It is a dark place where the light of life seems to be nothing more than a small wake. So dark we have tried to hide it from the world and from ourselves in the process.
I have been there...
Broken and in pain, in confusion of who is me? I have seen many others be there in one form or another.
Some go really deep, burned out, depressed and alone.
Some peel back the layers one by one in a less dramatic process.
The thing is, we all go through the process of these reality checks every now and then. It is life desiring to be lived, truth eager to be seen. It is light penetrating the darkness created by all the covers we put over ourselves.
and I still am there...
Yes, it is a process of becoming who I am. And it is a process that probably won't be completed soon. However I have intended to embrace the process of letting me be me and smash the filters I have put on over the years. Trash them, trample them and shatter them.
Allowing me to be me, embracing me #nofilter.
I for one am one who have a desire for truth, reality. Euh, truth be told: sometimes this desire is behind some filters 😊.
It will probably be a journey that will continue till I die. The day all filters will be truly gone.
If you read this I hope you join me into the no-filter movement, wether it is in the digital space or in the other space we call reality 😉.