A significant portion of human communication is the capability of sight. Especially the times we comprehend things visually before hearing a related sound. For most people, it doesn’t take much to visually perceive things, even with peripheral vision. I wrote about peripheral vision a bit in my Panorama newsletter.
I’d like to take you on my journey exploring eye to eye contact—as shared with strangers I’ve passed on the streets of the city.
A major principle of street photography when out on the streets of the city is stealth. Be Unobtrusive. Be discreet so as not to alter the natural flow of a person or event. From time to time it doesn’t work out that way. Often enough, my presence is the ingredient that alters the dynamics. Ultimately it means my stealth doesn’t always work.
This is where Seeing You See Me comes in. Those times when someone sees me and/or the camera at the moment of exposure. Most are passive glances, some are reactive. They’re all intriguing in unique ways.
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These exchanges are always spontaneous with countless “reactions” I think to be a sociologist’s dream thesis. Most encounters last for a second or so. Importantly, the reactions from preteens are inquisitively authentic and intriguing.
I think the look on some of the faces is of surprise. Possibly thinking interrogative questions—primarily how, why, and what. Where and when being the time and place of the photograph.
Eyes of determination, fortitude, resilience, care, sympathy, empathy. Believing the eyes to be “the window to the soul,” what motivating factors drive the souls of those in this photograph?
I thought these two photographs would be a good place to end this newsletter. From one perspective, on the left shows the depths someone can go in order to satisfy an urge. On the right, it seems this person is not okay with or not sure what’s happening.
Not in any of these photographs, do we know for sure what they’re thinking. Remember that whatever your thinking is about them, is just your reflection talking back to you.
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I appreciate you taking time in your day to read this newsletter through.
Til next time…
Kenneth
I love that instant of seeing me... thanks for this Kenneth!
I like the theories of projection, perception and determination. It’s very Freudian and the definition of identity, right? If I don’t define you I can’t identify myself. I think. I could very well be wrong.