On the original question posted, can we learn to see, I answer yes, we can and must, if we are to thrive in this world. In terms of seeing the types of relationships that make a good photo (and here input your own set of criteria: dark and light, new and old, social meaning, textural contrasts, line, shape, form, whatever works for you...,) it is definitely a learned skill. I have been a painter and a teacher for all of my adult life and I have (I hope) never stopped learning to see in new ways. Kids teach me all the time.
Just think about the first time you made a print. You may have been focused on the details of the image, on the expression on your sitter's face, or on the grain, or on the composition of the work. Later on, you find that there is a richness in the darks of somebody else's work that you haven't yet achieved - a fact that you had not seen before. Now you look for it and are newly sensitized to the paper type you use, the developer and the processing you do. This leads to all sorts of newly acquired sensitivities in assessing your work. As has been said, we see what we are looking for. We have to learn what to look for.
As for talent, the ability to fine tune both perception and craft to the point of being perhaps uniquely able to communicate through your work - no, I don't think that can be taught. What talent we have, however, is at the mercy of the limitations we place on it by failing to learn. |