How We See

"Seeing is an act of perception. It helps us to ascertain, experience, learn, and understand. It is an individual experience that is conditioned by the traditions and standards of the culture in which we live. Our western culture has always been dependent upon literacy to function. It is necessary to be able to read in order to decipher messages that have been put into a written code or language. When one begins to deal with pictures, another set of skills is needed to interpret the coded information. One must learn to become visually literate. All literacy is based upon the quality of the reader's stored information. The more accessible information a person has on file, the wider the range of possible responses that the person has to any situation that arises. ... ... What we don't know or recognize tends to make us nervous and uneasy. The hostility manifests itself in the form of rejection, not only of the work, but of any new ideas as well. Looking at a picture is not the same as looking out a window. It requires thinking, sorting, analyzing, and decision making. It is a developed system of thought that can be taught and learned. Western society has not placed a high value upon learning the visual language. For many people art is simply something that is supposed to be pretty and recognizable. ... The value system of our culture reflects the scientific mode of thought; achievements have to be measured in terms of words and numbers. The educational system has been primarily interested in teaching the twenty-six symbols of our alphabet and the numerals 0 through 9... Education should be a process, not a product. ... Public education has ignored visual literacy and the price that has been paid is that many people do not have the skills necessary to understand all the messages that surround them in their environment. They lack the necessary data to go through a visual decision-making process. They have become "objects" that can easily be manipulated. They simply react to situation by either accepting them or rejecting them. They don't question anything. They have been removed from the process. The picture maker is an active participant in this decision-making process. ... As both a photographer and viewer of photographs, it is important to know that there is not fixed way of perceiving a subject, only different ways that a subject can be experienced. ... When looking at other photographs, especially ones that are unfamiliar or that you don't understand, attempt to envision the mental process that the photographer used to arrive at the final image." Exploring Color Photography by Robert Hirsch