Draw (still) life in — to truly see it

Dorothea Lange said, “The camera is an instrument which teaches people how to see without a camera.” Emile Zola offered, “In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it.” I believe that drawing also teaches people how to see [without a camera]. If you truly want to “see deeply” into the wold around you — do both — draw and photograph your life. Each process will provide a completely different “seeing” lesson. And let us not forget writing. “When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don’t state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.” said Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). And in her Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard offers, “Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it. It is, as Ruskin says, ‘not merely unnoticed, but in the full, clear sense of the word, unseen.'”

(click images for larger view)

Leica M8, 28 mm asph summicron

Yet somethings in life move far too fast to draw or write in the moments of experience. Photography serves our drawing and writing; just as drawing and writing serves our photography. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, late in life, after putting his camera down, “All I care about these days is painting—photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.” Draw, paint, photograph, write, sculpt, make music — in order to draw life more deeply into our consciousness — and dig more deeply into life.

Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm apo macro elmarit