Just Looking. . .(and Seeing)

 Bottoms Up! Berry College campus, Rome, Georgia, 1981.

If you've followed this blog for a while, you have surely noticed that I keep coming back to a singular theme -- noticing things.

Photography is both an art and a tool. You can do all kinds of things with photography, and as a long-time commercial photographer I've been involved in many of those uses. Yet, with all due respect for its other aspects and uses, the photography that most interests me is just looking: the art of observing and exploring the things I see as I go through life, and documenting them to share with others or simply to revisit for my own enjoyment.

 The very great Elliott Erwitt was an extremely successful commercial photographer, but it's his personal work for which he will be remembered. In that regard, we share the same philosophy:

"Photography is simply a function of noticing things."

“It's just seeing - at least the photography I care about. You either see or you don't see. The rest is academic. Anyone can learn how to develop.”

In this sense, the observant photographer is like a little boy who finds something interesting and wants to tell everyone about it. He runs to his friends shouting "Hey, look what I found!" 

Others may have different ideas, of course, but to me, that's the art at the heart of photography.

Hey! Look what I found!

 

Cockeyed Spider.

 

(The photograph of the two bottoms-up swans was made in 1981 with an Olympus OM film camera and Kodak Ektachrome film. I don't have a date or location for the hay spider, but it was photographed on film.) 

Signed copies of the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are now available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com. Or, you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: Travel    photography    Elliott Erwitt    cameras    Olympus OM    Kodak    Ektachrome