Photography is seeing

Photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.  I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of one’s self is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mold us, but which can also be affected by us.  A balance must be established between these two worlds — the one inside us and the one outside us.  As result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one.  And it is this world that we must communicate.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 20th century photographer

Photography is 90 percent seeing and 10 percent photographing…

John Fielder, nature photographer

I am looking at a book I bought not long ago at the used books place called "Photographing the Landscape:  The Art of Seeing."  What beautiful and eloquent scenes of  Colorado mountains, rivers, lakes, woodlands, fields, snow scenes, flowers.  This book is a true treasure and reminds me how much I relate to photographers such as Fielder (http://www.johnfielder.com).  I may not have been able to make photography my life’s work and profession, but it has been my lifelong passion,  more so now than ever since I have been taking pictures digitally..  

I believe we are kindred spirits, this photographer and I, and I have felt this way about a number of photographers over the years.  Although I concentrate of the landscapes of the South Carolina Lowcountry along and near the Atlantic Ocean and Fielder is a master at capturing the magisterial beauty of Colorado, it’s not that different at the root of it all.  It amounts to a way in which people who are passionately interested in photography "see" the world, and by this I mean using the camera as an extension of the eye and all its visual powers combined with intuition, deep feeling and emotion, and reverence for Nature.   Truly living for me involves photographing the physical world near and all around me, and of never tiring of this pursuit and avocation.   Each picture I take is an event that has great significance for it becomes, in my image, something as nearly permanent as anything I can know or create.   And as Cartier-Bresson said, I discover more about myself, and re-affirm my values and core feelings, as I perpetually discover the world around me through photography.   In one way or another this has been going on all my life, at least since my early 20s.

I have been photographing Magnolia Gardens for years now, and in every season.   This set was taken this past Saturday and, I think, illustrates as well as anything I can write here what I am thinking about now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camas/sets/72157628673901265/