A Beginner’s Journey To Seeing

Below is an excerpt from the book by Judith Farber, on Amazon (Kindle and paperback): The Art of Seeing In Street Photography

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Much of what we ‘see’ is influenced from what we we read, are taught by our parents and who we hang with. Learning how to see our surroundings from a place of openness and a meaningful point of view without words, is more challenging. Once we learn that there exists a way of seeing then we can expand our vision to the art of seeing.

Photography enables us to explore a deeper visual awareness of what we are normally oblivious to. It takes us on a journey that often parallels our day to day point of view. One might say there is a common link amongst great photographers of having a deep level of awareness and creating a vision. Dorothea Lange stated it best, “a camera is an instrument that teaches us to see without a camera.”

Learning how to create exciting photographs challenges us to discover an in depth view of our surroundings, a tool for exploring our world in more detail. Think of a child just beginning to see. Their eyes are pure and unburdened, everything is new. Getting bogged down by technique right away, often gets in the way. If you enjoy taking pictures, then you will certainly want to learn the technical aspects necessary to produce even better images. But first grasp how to see…retraining our eye, learn to speak with pictures and drawing with light. The most important aspect of composing images is to create one that you want to view again and again, with each time seeing something new.

A Great Photograph
A great photograph reveals something extraordinary from the ordinary simply by the way it is visualized by the photographer. The camera is life’s voyeur, merging the hidden observer with the subject. This could release that part of our self into one of less thinking and less caring of feeling foolish, to simply re-viewing life as a child. We’ve become used to seeing the world from our comfortable vantage point, our personal perspective. Try shooting the bizarre, change your perspective, change the angle of the camera, change your vantage point. Be open to the challenge of trial and error. If the results are less than you might expect, remember, there will always be another photographic situation. Photography, after all, is not just merely a means of reproduction, it is also art.

Enjoy the process!

© 2018 judith farber