The
art of seeing is something that every photographer artist has developed over a
period of time. It is not so much what
you are looking at in a scene, but how you see the scene. What makes up the scene, the lines, shapes,
form or is it the light?
You
keep looking at the space around you, a reflection in a mirror, a bowl sitting
on a table or it can be anything that stops you and makes you take another
look.
Everything
is suspended for that precise moment as if you are seeing these objects for the
first time. I think the key to seeing is
to suspend your preconceptions and try to see like a child. Everything is new and begging you to explore
the objects or subjects around you.
the
image of the figure in the mirror was a result of passing this bathroom and
noticing the mirror in the bathroom at the end of the hall...while the original
shot was interesting, I decided to move closer with a wide angle lens creating
this sort of distorted image with the window blinds twisted to the left and the
shadowy figure reflected in the mirror.
The
everyday objects that surround you can take on a new perspective when you
really examine their shape and light that defines them. You are seeing something for the first time
and there is a sort of ecstasy you feel as you examine it and capture it in
your camera’s sensor. This moment
transcends your normal consciousness and I like to call it the ecstasy of
seeing. Of course the final image and
what you want the viewer to see in your image depends on a combination of your
artistic and camera skills.
after
finishing my breakfast I noticed the empty dish and bowl at the end of the
table and the juxtaposition of these items in relation to the side of the table
and the chair. It created a simple
design of lines and circles playing against each with a white wall background.
I
realize that I may be over intellectualizing this process. It is true we all approach this process in
different ways. And what and how we see
may be more related to our psychological makeup than a learned formula. Therefore, what I am describing is how I
approach this act of seeing. I basically
see the scene as a whole and then dissect it into its separate parts...choosing
which parts excite my eyes. It can be
the simplicity of the lines or simply the light falling on the subject that
seems to extract it from the scene.
