From his book ‘The Mind’s Eye’ - Henry Cartier Bresson
“Photography is, for me. a spontaneous impulse coming from an attentive eye, which captures the moment and its eternity. ”
AN ATTENTIVE EYE
I often laugh to myself when someone says to me, “Oh you have such a good eye.” If only they knew how literally true their statement is. But wait, it’s not as it sounds. I fully appreciate their kindly sentiments and am always gracious in thanking them for the compliment - I know it is well meant and focuses on their perception of my ability to compose an image rather than any physical or visual efficiency of my eyes.
I, of course, know differently as I really do have a left-eye dominance that has been totally lopsided all of my life. I was born with an eye closed and experienced operations and many childhood years of eye training, patches, and wearing of little round spectacles. I always relied heavily on my other senses and a perception of what was happening around me. I loved ball games as a youngster, so nowhere did this perception shine through better than when playing football and table tennis - to be able to just play was a joy, let alone be good at both. If only my opponents had known my weakness of not seeing the ball when played to my right.
I relied heavily on ‘my perception’ of where the ball was.
THE LAST WORD
It is my belief that perception plays a bigger part in our lives than we truly realise, no matter what we are doing. As photographers we make images and we enjoy the process of using the camera. It is good to learn the technical aspects as well as the fundamentals of composition, understanding of light, tonality and colour. But ultimately the joy is in the meditational process of ‘actually doing’ our art form whilst concentrating on and using our perception and consciousness. I believe we are then more likely to feel fulfilled.
I reckon old Cartier-Bresson knew a thing or two, eh?
AB
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