Where did Ansel?

[Ornello]

Interesting: I just looked through all 4 Adams books I own and none of them have the word "previsualization" in the index, but multiple instances of "visualization".

Also, in "Examples..." he writes about Half Dome being his first "visualization" and uses the word several more times: never "previsualization". Chapter 1 of "The Negative" is called "Visualization and Image Values"....

Perhaps earlier editions use the term?

So, I have to revise my original comment: "Great photographer, great teacher, competent English teacher!" (and great musician - forgot about that )...


Cheers, Bob.

'Previsualization' occurs in Minor White's texts, not those of Adams.

[mikewhi]

Also, the root of this word, 'prevision' might have first occured in english in the 14th century with direct references in the 1600's and onward. This according to the Oxford Dictionary Of The English Language, not my personal recollection.

As for the act of previsualization, I personally experience this quite often in many walks of life including photography. I have 'previsualized' many photographic images before I tripped the shutter. Being a computer programmer, I routinely 'previsualize\visualize' data structures and algorithms in my mind before I write the code. I have done some reading on this behavior, I recall the book "The Mind's Eye" talked about it. I know there are others that experience it, I especially run into it in programmer circles as we discuss our obsessions. It's quite a powerful experience, and I'm not one to use hyperboles. When an image comes into my head, it becomes a compulsion to make it. If I don't, I almost never forget the image. I passed up a previsualized in Mexico over 10 years ago and I still recall it in detail.

Lately (in the last few years) I can see negative images in b&w, which is odd too, when you condsider the number of abstractions the mind has to go thru - 3d to 2d, color to b&w, positive to negative, upside down\left to right reversed... (see my gallery, if you dare). Sometimes, I can be standing out of position and see an image in my mind that requires to re-locate myself and re-frame in order to get it, so it isn't something I have to see on the groundglass.

So, don't think of it as pretentious. Just think of it as a trait of genius, that's all.

-Mike

BTW, this thread has prompted me to adopt my first Avatar. Note the cut away section showing the right side of the brain, a useful tool when previsualizing.

[Jeffrey A. Steinberg]

As a side note I find the term previsualize to be very curious. It is almost like saying visualizing prior to visualizing. It make me wonder if Yoge Berra helped coin this term.

I think (not sure) it was George Carlin who did a whole routine about words like this. My favorite was "pretested". Doesn't that just mean "tested?"

My new favorite is that inflamable = flamable. Look it up. Its worth a chuckle.

[mikewhi]

I think (not sure) it was George Carlin who did a whole routine about words like this. My favorite was "pretested". Doesn't that just mean "tested?"

My new favorite is that inflamable = flamable. Look it up. Its worth a chuckle.

One of my favorites is:

"Near Miss"

Isn't that a collision?

[Ole]

"Prognosis" = "Before knowing", an educated guess.

"Previsualization" = "Before seeing", another educated guess.

[mikewhi]

Previsualization is not accurately defined that way. It is a visual image formed in the brain before your visual senses transmit signals to the brain to form an image of that seen by your eyes. It is literally an image in the brain, not an 'educated guess'. I'm sure you've experienced it, haven't you?

-Mike

[Bob F.]

OK... The act of imagining a future event is "visualization". The word "previsualization" is not a valid word: it is semantic nonsense. If it means anything, it means "before the point of visualisation" which makes no sense in the context of imagining the eventual print that is intended.

Just treat it as a technical term rather than an English one....

Cheers, Bob.

[dr bob]

OK... The act of imagining a future event is "visualization". The word "previsualization" is not a valid word: it is semantic nonsense. If it means anything, it means "before the point of visualisation" which makes no sense in the context of imagining the eventual print that is intended.

Just treat it as a technical term rather than an English one....

Cheers, Bob.

Maybe it was the need for one-upsmanship as it existed when “previsualization” was first coined. In Gov.(military) work, the projects with the most syllables, wins! E.g., “fuel cells” – twollable; “su-per-con-duc-tiv-I-ty”, seven syllables! Guess who won?

[mikewhi]

OK... The act of imagining a future event is "visualization". The word "previsualization" is not a valid word: it is semantic nonsense. If it means anything, it means "before the point of visualisation" which makes no sense in the context of imagining the eventual print that is intended.

Just treat it as a technical term rather than an English one....

Cheers, Bob.

The act of 'seeing' a future event is not 'visualization', it is 'prevision' as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary. And since 'prevision' is the root of 'previsualization', then 'previsualizaiton' is seeing a future event. In this application, 'previsualization' is the act of seeing a finished print before it is made.

Previsualization is an English term for the simple fact that it's in the OED. And since it existed at least 400 years ago, AA and Minor White certainly did not invent it. Based on White's personal philosophy and the connection of 'prevision' with the spiritual\supernatural I would certainly suspect that White brought the term into photography, but that's just a guess. EW, in his daybooks, most certainly describes the process of 'prevision' in that he saw in his mind a print complete and finished before he tripped the shutter, but he did not coin this particular phrase. I would suspect that White did, just to put a term to something that he and other past photographers had experienced for years.

-Mike
"Right Brain"

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Last time I read a revised edition of The Negative (from the '60s), Adams mentions that he was embarrassed by the redundancy of the 'previsualization' term, after someone pointed it to him.

It's a fathomable error, considering that seeing a finished picture could be an instance of 'visualization', whereas imagining that picture is a pre-visualization. However I think the term 'visualization' is meant to refer to the "mind's eye" rather than the actual eye, so you have {vision; visualization} in order of abstraction, not {visualization; previsualization}