May 26, 2011
Am I Looking, Am I Seeing?
I walk to lunch, I’m checking email.
I wait to cross a street and lookup the weather on my phone.
I stand in line to order, I’m answering someone on Facebook.
I wait for my food to arrive, I read an article.
I walk back to work, reading my iPad.
My head is always down.
Am I looking, am I seeing?
If I do not look, I do not see. If I do not see, I receive no inspiration.
Is my head down too much?
You have described me – several years BP, i.e. before photography. The best thing I learned from my best photography teacher was to look around.
Both a blessing and a curse… pretty much what can be said of all our new technology. I love my iPad as well, but I leave it resting securely at home when I venture out to take photographs. The solitude of being “unconnected” is welcome and empowers the task at hand.
It’s a tough balance, isn’t it? I so enjoy the connectivity of new technology, but try to be sensitive to time and place. Honestly, sometimes it is pure fun to use the camera in the cellphone, with a clever app, upload to facebook or flickr. It’s just another way to enjoy photography, and does keep me looking around. Thanks, Cole, for another thought provoking blog post.
Modern technology is both a blessing and a curse, depending on our self-discipline.
Yes. Our computer of a brain always wants to be active…doing something. And in our busy lives we willingly comply. It is when we look up and see with our hearts that we experience the joys of creativity and freedom.
Maybe down is the new up.
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
Dragging behind you the silent reproach
Of a million tear stained eyes
Don’t be surprised, when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet
(pink floyd)
The Thin Ice.
Thanks Nima, something to ponder.
I’ve seen your Trees.
Great ART.
Both the images and the video.
I hope your mood is better now.
I know that you doesn’t express yourself for the public ovation, but please accept that your art helps a lot for others. Your talent is great value for the visitors.
Thank you!
+ As a good medicine: I like to kill all electrical device around me.
I think having your eyes open is more important than the direction.
Except of course when crossing the street.
Eyes wide shut?
Eyes wide shut? … only if its raining, you’re stuck inside and there is nothing to shoot.
To quote a photographer whos work I admire “It is my belief that there are great images everywhere, if only we can see them.”
To add to or clarify what I have been saying, I think even though photography is a visual medium I dont think inspitation needs to come from a visual source.
It could be a line from the novel fountain head, the lyrics from Don Mcleans Vincent or the smell of an art gallery.
We just need to be aware of how we feed our visions appetite because we are what we eat.
I like the analogy, and it’s true in so many areas of life: we are what we consume.
Great post, Cole. Unfortunately it seems we’ve suffered from this lack of attentiveness and material distraction for a while before our cell phones and iPads arrived!
“The World is Too Much With Us” – William Wordsworth (written in 1807)
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn