Reading 6: The Photographer's Eye

In reading The Photographer’s Eye, I felt that I was back at the beginning of my photography practice. It went over parts of photographing that are essential and therefore become the base of the process. Since I am already aware of these aspects, I didn’t feel that I was being told anything new. However, there was a quote that I felt was significant in relation to being a photographer. Ivan’s wrote, “At first the public had talked a great deal about what it called photographic distortion…[But] it was not long before men began to think photographically, and thus to see for themselves things that it had previously taken the photograph to reveal to their astonished and protesting eyes. Just as nature had once imitated art, so now it began to imitate the picture made by the camera.” This quote sums up some thoughts I’ve had on being an artist from the beginning. Though one can receive training for art, I believe there is a natural sense for image making inside of artists. It’s a natural skill to be able to look at the real world and imagine pictures and crop images in your head. What one person may see as a normal tree another person may see as a photograph manipulated to show a different side of this common object. Certainly, as a photographer you begin to see the world in new ways with help of your imagination.