Ian Furniss Photography » Blog Archive » Zen And The Art of Seeing

Zen And The Art of Seeing

Yeah I know it’s a cliché, but I can’t say ‘the art of’ without thinking it so you might as well suffer reading it!

Cafe-rooftop-in-Zemun

Monday afternoon this week was spent in the company of my dearest friend and mentor Minja, walking through the streets of Zemun, stopping occasionally to rehydrate, smoking far to many cigarettes, and generally enjoying life and its beauty. One of the images I shot whilst we were out is the one you see above and it’s a kind of on-the-fly ‘grab shot’ taken whilst we were sat talking. Random moments of being anti-social are something of an occupational hazard unfortunately, but thankfully Minja understands me well (too well!) and after asking to see the image exclaimed “Why didn’t I see that?!” . I explained:

One of the things I always say about photography is that it’s ridiculously easy to learn. Compared to learning a musical instrument or something like that, it takes an instant. You can do it in an afternoon, I imagine you could do it in a couple of hours with ease. What isn’t so easy and what really takes the time to learn are the things which are part of every art and creative process, things like learning to express yourself, learning to understand, learning to see, and so on. For most of these things you don’t need a camera and the art of seeing is one of them.

It sounds obvious, but we often seem to forget that to see, you need to look. Now I could argue that you look with more than your eyes and sounds can also form an image in your mind that you can then transpose onto your camera, but for the sake of simplicity, for the moment i’ll stick with opening your eyes to see.

There are many techniques and it’s best to pick the one your comfortable with or which comes most naturally to you but two which readily come to mind are one I recall Landscape Photographer Tim Parkin mentioning where he advises closing one eye. It’s a great tip which he explains that in his blogpost ‘Finding your landscape photographs‘ so pop over for a read of that. The other comes from Gavin Gough from whom I learnt my own primary technique which is to seek out a specific ‘something‘.

With any technique, the important thing is to practice it over and over again until it becomes second nature and this is another reason I say you don’t always need a camera to improve your photography. Seeking out shape, form, or colour, is something I think is best done before you put the viewfinder to your eye.

Going back to the beginning of this post I mentioned seeing with your ears. This is something that is probably best translated as ‘be aware of your environment’. We go through life for the most part, completely unaware of what is around us. It’s why when you go away for a month, you come back, and everywhere looks slightly different. It’s the same thing when you drive home from work but can’t remember having gone through that junction or across that roundabout just outside the office. You know you got in the car, you know you got out of it, but the rest is all a bit hazy. It’s familiarity and your mind discards it as irrelevant.

Walking down the street, take a moment to stop and focus your mind on everything you hear. You can do the same and focus on all the things you can smell. Each one of these things is something that you could easily miss and therefore just as easily not include in your images. The point is, they are often the most important things.

On my first visit to Skadarlija in Belgrade I fell in love with many things. It’s a beautiful place that overwhelmed my eyes, but I remember the sound of the music floating towards me through the warm summer air. I remember the smell of a divine feast and my eager anticipation of sitting down to savour it. I remember the people sat talking and laughing, enjoying the pleasure of each others company and sharing drinks and toasts to good health and life. I remember that warm air on my skin in place of rain and thinking “Why can’t we have this in Manchester!” .

All these things are details you may want to include in an image and which tell a story, not only to you, but also to the viewer of your images. Most of the time we are aware of them, but at the same time we often ignore them. If seeing is an art, then the basis for that art is being aware, Being conscious of your surroundings. To see, you need to look, and there are many ways to do it. Try a few, but also try to use more than your eyes and always try to see the details. Does it work? Of course! This is an image I love, of yours truly, taken by Minja a little later in the afternoon. The details tell the story and the pupil had become the master!