The Familiar

Choosing something familiar for this assignment was a difficult task for me.  Because I am not at home, nothing is really familiar to me here in Nashville.  The reason I ended up choosing this swing as my subject is that I see it everyday when i walk out the front doors of my dorm; it's the only thing that seems familiar to me here because something about it reminds me of my home in Kentucky.  The three pictures are shot from three different perspectives.  I chose these specific angles because they show the swing in ways I don't normally look at it but still convey its simple beauty.  As I was taking these photographs, I saw the colorful variety of the flowers, the abstract shape of the tree, the bright green color of the bushes, and the way the bugs crawled on the ground surrounding the swing.  It occurred to me that even the most simplest of scenes can be the most stunning.

In order to see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at. - Freeman Patterson

In Photography and the Art of Seeing, Patterson, the author, states "In order to see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at".  This sentence intrigued me because I had never heard it before.  It really made me think about the accuracy of the statement.  As adults we tend to label the familiar.  Something we see everyday becomes just a building, just a flower, or just a an old tree; we don’t really stop to see it for is, we see only its label.  

Preoccupation with self is the greatest barrier to seeing, and the hardest one to break. -Freeman Patterson

In Freeman Patterson’s book, Photography and the Art of Seeing, Patterson wrote, "Preoccupation with self is the greatest barrier to seeing, and the hardest one to break".  This sentence stood out to me because it is so true.  I know that I tend to focus on things that seem important at the time, but in the process I miss the simple beauties that are all around me.  I hadn't realized how much I had been just looking at things and not really seeing them.  Patterson sees the world in a different way than I do.  After reading his views, I have become more aware of the simple beauties in the world around me.

My Self-Portrait

I'm Here

Hey I'm Rachel Wilson and I go to Lipscomb University!!!!  And these are my pictures