I’ve noticed that with or without a camera, I see the world as if through a lens. I can see through a 300mm telephoto or a 15mm wide angle. I can saturate or silhouette. I can freeze life with a “click” in my head. And I don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that after all these years of finding angles and noticing light, it’s the way I view the world now.
And I wonder if this is true with other professions. Does a novelist pull-up next to someone at a stop light, look over, and instead of just seeing another car, think, “She gripped the wheel not at 10 and 2..not at 8 and 4, but at 11 and 1. She leaned forward, as if trying to gain an extra inch. Slightly biting her lower lip, late for something, the extra minute lost at this light was costly. As the light turned green, she put her foot to the floor, and promptly stalled.”
Do architects look at a house ripe for an addition and add it in their minds? Complete with skylights and rose covered trellis? Can interior designers walk into a room without re-arranging the furniture and painting the walls in their heads? Was the sun square for the cubists? Is a train whistle more symphonic to a musician?
Probably, yeah. Lucky us.
At the gym I looked across the room, and through the glass saw late afternoon sun slanting across the water of the pool. I waited as someone swam into it, and in my head came the “Click…click…click” as they passed through.
Sunday I was sitting near the lobby at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Looking up, I saw a group of people standing at a railing above a sculpture. When all but one left, it was time, “Click…”
This isn’t work, it’s isn’t even conscious. I think it’s just the way I see after decades of practice.
Which makes me realize that I have to be careful what I practice. If I practice being optimistic, patient and compassionate my picture of the world should be a very good one.
If I practice the opposite, my images of the world may not be worth sharing.
You have to be careful what you click on.