a little differently
Oct 11, 2001
last night i read a photography book by diane arbus. she was dead by the
time that the book was published. the words were written by her family.
they described her technique as capturing the "art of seeing". her best known works had embodied irony, emotion, judgements, and composition. decisions. these photographs didn't posess those qualities. these photographs made no judgements. "the art of seeing"
so that's what i was thinking about at 2am driving to the grocery store to buy some cereal. it's a tough concept to get my feeble mind around. "the art of seeing" being conscious of what your eyes are doing - and what they're feeding your brain. feeling the subject with your eyes.. it's tones, it's textures.. the contours, the visual nature of the thing.
and "seeing" itself, the quality beyond just making sure we don't bump into things. the process. it's about the process, not the subject.
so that got me thinking in analogy as i often do. if there is an art to "seeing", it's probably close to the art of "being". the art of experiencing.... the art of living. where the destination is secondary to the ride. it's all about the ride. it's nothing but the ride, really.
i think a lot of my generation is in a rush to "grow up". a rush to achieve a degree / a job / a spouse / children / material success, and not necessarily in that order either. those are the big black dots on the timeline. "goal-oriented", i believe is the word they use. generation-y. they are more concerned with the destination than the ride. so they work 80 hours a week at internet startups, pump themselves up on all sorts of amphetamines and narcotics, sacrifice their health, their relationships. "goal-oriented". i cringe every time i hear the phrase.
there is an infinite number of little dots in between those big black ones, and i plan on appreciating them all a whole lot more.
so yeah - i'm looking at things a little differently today.