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The Discipline of Seeing |
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"Discipline connects to both rigor and practice - the rigor of getting things right and the practice that trains the mind." I've been making a living in photography for over fifty years, and I'm still discovering what it can teach us about seeing and thinking creatively. Making a living at photography is very different from taking pictures - one demands that every decision you make actually works. When I started as a commercial photographer, I worked primarily with large format cameras and transparency film. Everything had to be perfect in the camera - color temperature, placement, composition, exposure. But it wasn't just the camera. It was understanding how different films rendered light, choosing the right lens for the job, knowing how optics shaped what you captured. There were no zoom lenses for the cameras I used, so I had to select the camera location first, set up the tripod, then compose the image. Each decision mattered. There was no safety net. You couldn't fix it later. This discipline forced a particular kind of thinking: complete, anticipatory, precise. Before I pressed the shutter, I had to see the finished image in my mind and understand every element that would bring it into being. That constraint was one of the greatest creative teachers I've ever had. Then digital photography arrived. We gained immediate results but lost that rigorous pre-visualization - the need to get it right because you couldn't see what you had until the film was processed. The waiting was part of the discipline. You had to be certain before you pressed the shutter because there was no instant feedback loop. Each evolution has changed not just how we make images, but how we think about making them. And here's what I've learned: photography's greatest gift isn't just the images it produces - though those matter deeply. It's what the practice teaches us about seeing possibilities, making choices within constraints, and training our minds to work creatively. The technology changes, but that fundamental discipline - learning to see, really see - remains at the center of photography as both craft and creative practice. |
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