[bowzart]

I had a student once who struggled with getting the print right. One day, he came and showed me a print of which he was justly quite proud. It was a portrait of a smooth - headed bald guy, at night, in a parking lot. He was SO HAPPY with this print, and so was I because I knew how hard he had worked to achieve that level of understanding.

So I said, "That's great! The skin tone is perfect! In fact, it is so perfect that it matches precisely the value of that brushed aluminum lamp-post that is extending his head right out the top of the frame."

I DIDN'T SEE THAT!!! he said. In fact, the lamp-post appeared to be the same width as the head, exactly aligned with the head, precisely the same value and apparent texture! It was like the guy's head just kept going up until it went out of the picture. I wish I had a copy of this to show. It was amazing.

Another student photographed a deer. You know, right in the middle. Since it has been on my flickr site for a long time, and she's not objected, here it is. Bull's Eye!

The guy who runs my isp saw this, and he said "If you hit that deer right there with a bullet, it would take out it's internal organs and it would drop dead on the spot!"

Think about this. Our species didn't always have cameras, and while drawing and painting are old media, the qualities of abstract vision are a sort of an extra feature that humans can have, but don't really need. How 'bout this: Two bushmen are standing looking at a wildebeest in the wild. One says to the other "I think that would look a lot better if the wildebeest would move about four feet to the left".

We don't NEED abstract vision to survive. We need the ability to isolate from context so we can shoot things, and thus acquire something to eat. The ability to impose a frame on what's out there, to order space, is not something that came with the package but something that has evolved with us. As far as seeing and appreciating beauty, who knows? How would we know whether, once having shot and killed the wildebeest, the bushman would appreciate the light that illuminates the fur.

It is a good and open, question whether 1) we are born with this ability to actually notice things, to appreciate beauty and organize space. Perhaps this atrophies in most people as we are socialized and don't use it since our societies generally assign no value to it. OR 2) those of us who have these qualities or even value them in others arrive at that through processes of learning be it through training or accidental life exposures. Or, maybe I'm forgetting something; could there be other possibilities?