Learning to See

One of the biggest challenges in photography isn’t the technology – it’s our ability to really see. At least that’s my experience.

David Hockney once said that most people wander through the world without really taking the time to look. Another artist, David Anderson, who painted trees, put it another way: “Nobody really knows a tree until they have painted it.”

Taking photographs has become so easy with today’s automated technology that, in many ways, the camera replaces our need to see for ourselves. We let the camera do the looking. We collect images almost automatically, then review them afterwards like we’re examining the contents of a fishing net to see what we’ve caught.

Drawing and painting are very different. To draw or paint well, you have to study what’s in front of you. You need to understand the shapes, tones, structure and relationships before you can interpret them. Without that careful observation, very little can be achieved.

I’ve found that practising drawing has improved my photography. I’m becoming much more aware of tonal values, structure and composition. It’s also taught me how important it is to strip a scene back to its essential elements instead of trying to include everything.

So my recommendation is to spend time looking before you press the shutter. Better still, try drawing or painting alongside your photography. I don’t expect to become a great artist – but the act of drawing itself will, I think, help develop one of the most valuable skills any photographer can have: the ability to really see.

What you do or make once you have seen is another question altogether!