Many Look, But Few Can Truly See...
By Winston D. Munnings
23 April 2008
The following statement is an excerpt from the Kodak Workshop Series: The Art OF Seeing and is used here as introduction to the illustration of images in this: Photo Essay On Seeing...
"...The problem with seeing is that it is so easy and natural that we never give it a second thought. We look. We see. What could be simpler? But behind that simple act lies a profound process that affects how we act, think, learn, and how we photograph. We learned seeing early in life. And the seeing we learned was one that would help us survive. One that would spot mother's face, charging sisters, and unlicked bowls of frosting. One that would help us avoid speeding cars and guide us down stairs. Not one that would help to photograph. At first, we paid attention to everything we saw because everything was new and interesting. Cupboard knobs, pebbles, leaves were all given their due. But eventually they became old hat and boring. So we learned to ignore. After the first few years of life, we ignored more that we saw, and our seeing became casual and uneventful. Our ways of seeing were set. Sometime later in life we put a camera to eye and began photographing. What did we photograph? We photographed what appealed to our habits of casual seeing. We photographed things we thought were supposed to be photographed because we had seen similar photographs in magazines and books. And our result were not works of art, but snapshots caught by an eye not yet trained aesthetically, an eye not yet in tune with the camera. When dissatisfied with our results, we often sought solutions in new lenses and filters or in special techniques like panning. We avoided the real solution -----ourselves. Seldom does a photograph succeed because of unusual technique or exotic equipment. It succeeds for one reason: BECAUSE THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS WELL SEEN..."
To see photographically is a learning process. It is all about learning to see differently and stretching the imagination as you attempt to see. After you have seen completely, your camera is merely a means to YOUR end as a photographer.
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