Photography and ba - is there a shared space for emerging relationships?

Treetops, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Rocks in snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Three icicles, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

First, about these images. Today was mostly sunny, but during the night and morning we got a bit of fresh snow, which covered the ground in places where the old snow had melted away. But the sunshine started the melting process again during the day.

I took a lot of photographs today, about 300, but only a dozen were any good. And most of those were of the children playing outside.

I'm getting good in knowing when to take a photograph [of children] and capture the moment. Of course, having a fast-responding camera (the LX3) also helps.

The images here continue on the same tracks I have been following the last few weeks: black and white, strong contrast, plenty of color (naturally not in the same image).

Now, let us return to the title of this posting. For quite a few years I have been interested in knowledge transfer and knowledge management, for example in the SECI model. I have organized a lot of training event during my work career, and I have a dozen years of experience in management.

Yesterday I started to pay attention to a concept called ba. This is of course not a new thing, but not something I have found relevant previously, until pointed out in a MBA thesis by a colleague.

Here is an attempt at a definition of ba: "Ba can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships. This space can be physical (eg. office, dispersed business space), virtual (e.g., email, teleconference), mental (eg. shared experiences, ideas, ideals) or any combination of them. Ba provides a platform for advancing individual and/or collective knowledge."

The ba concept arises from the Japanese work culture, which is much less individualistic than the western one. However, here in Finland we tend to be a bit more "eastern" than in many other European countries, and thus the concept isn't too far away from the reality of workplaces here.

But what is the connection of ba with photography? Well, the acquisition and transfer of skills, especially those skills (tacit knowledge) which are hard to put into words but which can be transferred by observing a skilled practioner in action. "We can know more than we can tell" (M Polanyi).

Ba is a way of overcoming the obstacle of not being able to put into words the things you know. So, in a way it is an attempt at overcoming the claim of Wittgenstein, "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen."

Today I realized that perhaps photography bloggers are building a ba of their own - either to acquire skills which are hard to transfer verbally but which can be approached by practice and feedback, or to transfer tacit knowledge to others and perhaps understand the unknown by themselves at the same time.

I have a great many candidates for such photography bas: Mark Hobson, Andreas Manessinger, Paul Lester, and a multitude of others. Each of them has taught me a great deal of things I didn't even realize can exist before noticing them happening in practice.

Have I completely misunderstood the ba concept when applying it to a loosely coupled community of individual photography bloggers? In blogging there is not necessarily a feeling of "here and now", as the ba concept seems to imply. But still, I have a feeling that blogs can support the creation of new knowledge.

An interesting thing to speculate is whether the following concepts linked to ba have a relevance here: love, care, trust and commitment.