On vision and vision
In art and photography, “vision” is your inner “mind’s eye”, a way of seeing that guides the artist in creation. The artist’s challenge is to discover or develop a consistency of vision that shapes what we make and share with the world. When a photographer discovers and can access that “vision”, that is what shapes their practice more than technique or style. It is the personal “vision” that turns photographs from simple “snaps” into something that conveys what we see and who we are. I struggle every day to discover my “vision” and apply it to my work.
Human vision, by contrast, is the physical act of seeing—the eyes gathering light and the brain shaping it into form and space. It is the sense that lets us move through the world, recognize detail, and respond to what unfolds before us. When this sight becomes uncertain or fragile, it can cast a long shadow over creative work, raising fears about how we will see and interpret the world in the future.
I have recently had some vision problems. I am not having any short-term issues that will affect my ability to make images, and I am working with specialists to identify the cause(s) and develop a plan to address the issue. Still, even the potential of having issues with my eyesight weighs heavily on my mind right now.
And yet, in a strange occurrence of synchronicity, I am currently reading Zen Camera by the photographer and educator David Ulrich, who lost his right, dominant eye at the age of thirty-three and continues to make images and write books on photography. And as I was writing the last sentence, I recalled a podcast, the August 1st episode of the Street Photography Magazine podcast, featuring Gigi Stoll, a freelance photographer specializing in portraits, humanitarian and fine art photography. A great deal of the podcast was about her decades-long friendship with the New York street photographer Flo Fox, who had a brilliant career despite being legally blind and having MS.
While I do not anticipate and fervently hope that my challenges will not be as daunting as David and Flo’s, I am both humbled and inspired by their courage and determination to continue making images. I hope to use their example and summon some small measure of their courage and determination.
I don't know where all of this is heading. Life is full of uncertainty. At this point, with over seventy years of experience, I would hope to be able to handle a certain level of uncertainty, but no. I suspect that impatience plays a role, why the wait, why can’t everything happen when I want or need it to?
It is time to make images and write more journal posts — I have at least two ideas percolating, funny thing about inspiration — you never know when it will strike you with, well, inspiration.
There is a gallery below of recent work on my iPhone using the Provoke app — more on that app in the next post.
