Learning How to See Without a Camera

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." -Dorothea Lange.

This week, I was thinking of topics to blog about and stumbled across the above quote (and will be reading the biography discussed in the NPR article soon!). It got me thinking about how my perceptions have changed since starting the Photography program. Though I've had a camera within arm's reach for as long as I can remember, the program has helped teach me how to see differently. Now I notice changes in light temperature, city lights that would create gorgeous starbursts at a narrow aperture, and moments around me in my daily life that would previously have gone ignored. Early on in the program I would struggle to think of a subject to photograph. Now, it's incredibly rare for a day to go by on which I do not photograph something that strikes my eye!

Enough about my journey. How have your camera and your classes changed the way you see the world around you? Have you been inspired by an historic photographer's style or a genre you previously took for granted? Share your story in the comments, and happy shooting (and seeing)!

-Friday Ambassador

Work Cited:

NPR Staff. "Dorothea Lange: Drawing Beauty Out of Desolation." NPR Author Interviews. NPR, 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 27 May 2014.