Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/01/31
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When I discuss "seeing" in my design classes I like to bring the words: "intention and purpose"
into the discussion, and the exercises.
Meaning - seeing with the intention of photographing suggests a different way of seeing than
seeing with the intention of drawing, or seeing with the intention of designing. While all these
different seeing-intentions have overlapping concerns they also have distincly different concerns.
When one discusses purpose, different sorts of issues arise. So one could say something along
the lines of, "I intended to photograph the colors for the purpose of pure abstraction." or "I
intended to photograph the colors for the purpose of highlighting the subject." etc. Asking folks
to define their intention and purpose related to creating visual images seems to train the eyes to
see in new ways.
Most people do not "see" the world photographically, or as draghtsmen(or women), or as
painters, or as designers, etc. One has to begin to see the world in terms of composition, color,
form, line, contrast, shape, content, etc.. Seeing a color world in black and white requires a
different intent-focus than seeing a color world in fujichroma or in pastel or watercolor or
whatever. And in all cases "purpose" remains an interesting exploration.
Martin Howard1/31/03
>Do you know of any exercises that help develop a photographers eye?
>They would need to be relatively focussed ideas: "shoot pictures and
>compare to others" doesn't quite cut the mustard.
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