Frame – © John Neel
Visual literacy is not that common. In fact, it is extremely rare. Photography is no exception.
To own a camera doesn’t make you a photographer or a critic. To simply look at an image doesn’t mean you understand it. To merely like an image doesn’t mean you understand it.
An image requires a reading. The viewer is supposed to study an image. A great image is one that has something to reveal. You as a viewer need to learn to see an image as well as read what an image is showing you. And you need to learn to respond to an image.
Unfortunately, it seems that artists are only understood by other artists. Most people don’t get art at all – at least not enough to change their ways. Life is the same old story it has always been. Until the rest of the world sees the NOW as a mirror of the past, the world will not change. Until we can steer the future into something good, we will continue down the same path we’ve been on for the past few centuries.
The people of this planet need a massive and in-depth briefing on the arts as well as its meaning in the real world. The arts are important to understanding our world. The sooner that we can educate the masses, the better we might understand our future and ourselves.
The bigot and the denier have yet to meet the artist. In many respects it may seem that the artist that has failed them. Not that art should change. Rather the system needs to embrace the arts. Without the full understanding of the arts, the human race will forever wallow in its own self-destructive ignorance.
I think that most images are seen simply on a superficial level. Unfortunately, it seems that even artists only see what they want to see. I don’t want a pat on the back or a simple like on social media. I want people to see what is there to see in the image. The world needs to look deeper into the images we already have. Artists need to be true to what the world needs to understand.
The world needs more understanding of the arts and less attention to business as usual.
Art is among other things, political. It is a voice that needs to be heard (seen). Art is a way to see the world in a different way. Artists are the eyes of humanity. They show us what we would probably not see on our own.
Unfortunately, we are caught in an enormous explosion of visual noise. Most of it is meaningless confusion. It is visual language reduced to Babel. It is important to learn how to separate the good stuff from the hyped and the superficial. Visual literacy is a way to move us forward.
What you had for breakfast or that fancy coffee doesn’t really count for much in the scheme of things. Nor do the casual images you might take as records of your trip. At least not to most of the people out there that need to see the world as an artist might see it.
Somehow, we need change the way the world looks at images, makes images, sees itself and inspire the way we might move forward with the communication that photography (the arts) is meant to be. The only way to do that I think, is to show people the reality we are in and the things we need to change. All we artists ask of the world is to have an open mind and a positive will to change.
Before change can happen, we also need the world to see what artists and photographers have been saying all along.
Art is the story of man and his/her world
Voices from a Future Child – A look ahead in time
Accepting the good, the bad and the ugly in Photography
The Other Half of a Photograph
Seeing the World as Sacred – As Miracle
I cover many photographic topics and techniques in my book. – Great Photography book for any creative Photographer.
I am currently working on a new book about photography, which I will announce when it comes closer to the publishing date.
Rethinking Digital Photography – John Neel
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