Reflections on Seeing

[ACEkin]

I would like to share a three-part series I've published in the last three weeks. They are my reflections, but I thought some of the ideas might interest other members as well. I am sharing them for whatever they are worth. Feel free to share your comments on the articles on the site or here. There are photographs more than 50 years old among the ones I shared.

Reflections on Seeing

Seeing has been central to my photographic life. It started as “previsualization” in my early days exploring Ansel Adams’s zone system.

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Reflections on Seeing - 2

Let me walk through a few examples of how the idea of seeing shaped my photographic life. I learned about Ansel Adams in 1969 when I went to MSU. I was well into photography then, and reading a couple…

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Reflections on Seeing - 3

I would like to share a couple of more projects that captured my attention and say a few closing words on seeing photographs.

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[Dean Wilson]

Nice series. When I hear or read about the difference between, as you state "Glancing, Looking and Seeing", I am reminded of the first Sherlock Holmes story I ever read, "A Scandal in Bohemia."


Watson states: "When I hear you give your reasons," I remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours."

"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."

"Frequently."

"How often?"

"Well, some hundreds of times."

"Then how many are there?"

"How many? I don't know."

"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.