{"id":1324,"date":"2020-11-01T11:08:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T11:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cornerstone.photography\/blog\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2024-02-21T11:20:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T11:20:03","slug":"the-gong-fu-of-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstone.photography\/the-gong-fu-of-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gong Fu of Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography: Skill through hard work<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>

I have been pondering the meaning of this post on and off for the better part of a decade and thought it was about time that I tried to put my thoughts down on virtual paper. What this blog post is not: This is not about Kung Fu martial arts, it is not even about martial arts in general… it is about the original meaning of g\u014dngfu and how it relates to learning the craft of photography<\/p>\n

Obviously, with my passion for Martial Arts and my Photography, there will be an quite a lot of cross over. My Martial Arts flavours my approach to photography and my photography helps me see my martial arts in a new light.<\/p><\/div>\"Image\"<\/span>

So what do I mean by the Gong Fu of Photography? Well lets break down the words and explore their meaning.<\/p>\n<\/span>\n

Gong Fu – as explained on Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>

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In its original meaning, kung fu<\/em> can refer to any skill<\/a> achieved through hard work and practice<\/strong>, not necessarily martial<\/a>. The Chinese literal equivalent of “Chinese martial art” would be \u4e2d\u570b\u6b66\u8853 zh\u014dngguó w\u01d4shù<\/em>.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In Chinese, G\u014dngfu (\u529f\u592b) is a compound of two words, combining \u529f<\/a> (g\u014dng) meaning “work”, “achievement”, or “merit”, and \u592b<\/a> (f\u016b) which is alternately treated as being a word for “man” or as a particle or nominal suffix with diverse meanings (the same character is used to write both). A literal rendering of the first interpretation would be “achievement of man”, while the second is often described as “work and time\/effort”. Its connotation is that of an accomplishment arrived at by great effort of time and energy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>