civilized ku # 94 ~ even more on seeing
Monday, August 18, 2008 at 01:02PM 
;)
Abandoned Keesville mill on the Au Sable
River • click to embiggenThere were some great comments on the recent ku # 531 ~ on seeing entry. If you haven't read them, you should.
One comment in particular from Joe Reifer really caught my attention:
Just because a lot of people appear to be zombies, doesn't mean they actually are zombies, or that we should be judgmental about them being zombies.
I tend to disagree with Joe's defense of non-seeing zombies.
When I write about "seeing", I most often mean seeing, photography-wise which means seeing that addresses not only the referent - the obvious visual subject - but the connoted as well. The connoted - the implied / the message / the meaning or what ever you choose to call that which is not visible to the eye - is the stuff that is beneath/beyond the surface of the picture. What many have labeled making visible that which is invisible.
Consider my recent Shore Light work. On the surface of things, the body of work contains many pictures that, individually, can hold their weight on a gallery wall. They are striking illustrations / observations of the place called Stone Harbor, NJ. Many might consider them to be perfect documents in as much as they convey a very clear and accurate visual description of that place.
Amazing as it might seem to me, and as I mentioned previously, much of what I offer to be seen in my pictures - just the purely visual, the surface of things - in fact, goes unseen by many, if not most. In and of itself, this is not a crime .... BUT ... consider this:
I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it. And by seeing we also begin to understand ourselves (my emphasis) ~ Anonymous
That said, my question about "seeing" is this - if most can not even see the surface of things with any real clarity, how in the hell are they going to begin to understand anything, much less themselves or, collectively, "ourselves"? Understanding means getting beneath the surface of things, digging deep, getting beyond the obvious. To accomplish that, one must be fully awake and aware - eyes and mind wide open - to the world that surrounds you.
IMO, most people are zombies of sorts. They traverse the landscape never seeing - literally and figuratively - the land through which they move. The blight - literally and figuratively - that is urban decay, urban / suburban sprawl, and environmental ravagement is apparently quite literally invisible to the zombies. How else does one explain the existence, much less the tolerance, of such ubiquitous ugliness?
Although, in fact, I don't think that the zombies don't see it. I think they just block it out. Which also explains the allure and preference for "pretty" pictures that have no real "depth" but are merely visual vehicles that facilitate not thinking about the real.
In response to Joe's statement I would have to venture that if it walks like a zombie (the semblance of life) and quacks like a zombie (mute and will-less), it probably is a zombie.
And, to go one step further, let's actually make it a crime - most zombies are given those rote qualities so that some force can use them for evil purposes. Think about that notion for a moment .....
Reader Comments (6)
I found this piece on NPR recently very applicable:
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/08/what-is-real/
If everybody paid attention to interpreting visual stimuli through photography, then being a photographer would be boring. Everyone would be doing it. Even the zombies.
You can't make them pay attention. Zombie like pretty picture? Bad zombie!
Maybe the photographers are the freaks and the zombie way of life is superior. Give zombies a chance.
p.s. Zombies are people too. See? http://eatbrains.com/
Rumor has it that GW Bush is a people too
Joe, thanks for the link. It's good to know that someone out there is trying to keep us safe from the zombie plague. But I beg to differ w/ you - zombies are NOT people! They're mutated blood sucking scum! To be avoided/annihilated at all costs! Oh I hope this new Positransic Beam Generator works out for me, otherwise...
It is true that most people look and few people see but not seeing is neither a sin or a crime though perhaps it is unfortunate. I like to make images and I do tend to look at the world with a photographer's eye but I am not sure how well or purely I see the world. I would venture to say that pure seeing happens when thinking doesn't. What I mean is, when you look at something without labeling, without prejudices, without pre-conceived ideas, without filters than perhaps you see things as they truly are. Any other time you're just looking. There have been moments where I have looked upon a scene and struck by awe, found myself mindless for a second or two before my mind kicked in with something banal like "Oh wow... check out the colour on those hills". And no sooner do I name what I see that the wonder disappears and the scene looks ordinary again.
In any case I am not sure that seeing can be taught. At best I would suggest it can be pointed to or alluded to and those who "see" should be grateful to have such an ability. I might be wrong of course but let me tell you about a person I once met who by your definition would be classified as a zombie in that he does not "see" the world in the manner that you describe but what he can do is hear rhythms and melodies in a city at peak-hour as easily as in a forest at dawn. He is able to translate what he hears to musical notes as easily as you translate what you see into pixels. He doesn't publish his music or write a blog but I can tell you he would not consider anyone else who couldn't hear as he does a zombie. He is simply grateful that he should have such a gift.
Perhaps we are all products of our upbringing with memories and beliefs formed over time that cloud or filter our ability to see or hear. And if that is the case than I would suggest that it is difficult to judge another without knowing where they've come from. For those who can "see" or "hear" it may well be that it is as a result of much effort and hard work, of discipline and determination or it may just be that life conspired to making it so and that the ego thinks it did all the work. Neither can be proven but it does well to entertain the possibilities.
As for anyone with such talents as "seeing" or "hearing" it is not their responsibility to change the world but simply to appreciate and understand their good fortune. If they do enrich the lives of some people around them then that's a bonus.
Just my thoughts or perhaps I'm just a zombie with seeing envy :)