Digital Photography and Seeing
Brick, by Paddy D
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people
how to see without a camera” Dorothea Lange
The first assignment for my first photography course (back in 2008) was about ‘seeing’.
I had to take two photographs which showed letters of the alphabet (without resorting to the obvious i.e. signs and notices). And this was my first introduction to the way that I see differently, and see more, if I’m prompted to do so. I saw the letter ‘O’ (three times) in the brick which lives on our back doorstep (it stops the empty milk bottles blowing over in the wind). I’d never paid much attention to the brick before, let alone seen it well enough to describe it. And I saw the letter ‘S’ in the wavy lines of bedding plants in the gardens of Roundhay Park.
For the first time I was experiencing that sense of visual wonderment you get when you visit somewhere new and unfamiliar – but I was experiencing it somewhere old and familiar. Suddenly I was making visual connections and making them explicitly. When I looked around me with my fresh 'seeing' eyes, items which were previously overlooked, forgettable and commonplace acquired an almost magical aura; and I wanted to celebrate them.
Ram Wood,
Roundhay Park
Just as Dorothea Lange asserts, the camera teaches me to see; the physical act of carrying it helps me to pay attention – in the woodlands, for example, it prompts me to see shapes, textures, beams of light and silhouettes. I’m more observant, more aware of my surroundings, more engaged with the present moment (and it’s all the greater when I’m doing a photography assignment).
I ‘see’ more and, as a result, the whole experience is more rewarding and enjoyable.
That’s what photography has done for me.