
Ask yourself: How much time do you spend just observing your surroundings? Driving or navigating while walking on busy streets doesn’t count. And how much time do you spend with your eyes glued to some type of screen? Most of your impressions of the world are mediated. They have been altered by someone else, who wants you to see things in a certain way — and they are usually trying to influence us for their own reasons. As a society, we seem to passively accept and even embrace this troubling condition of the electronic age.
Poet Theodore Roethke writes: “I wish I could find an event that meant as much as simple seeing.” I agree, and believe that the world itself is fascinating, deserving of our attention, and far more interesting than anything we might say about it — in any medium.
~ David Ulrich, Zen Camera: Creative Awakening with a Daily Practice in Photography