Thiophene_Guy
A walk in the woods
“Off-focus: focus on the wrong thing or nothing at all.”
If you follow the advice columns and the popular books and the “listicles” and all the chatter, you’ve heard that we’re always supposed to know just what we’re looking at, at all times. You’ve heard all about the idea that the very worth of a photo — its meaning, its impact on the viewer — hinges somehow on that clarity. But maybe there’s more to the story.
This image might violate a rule of visual focus, but in doing so, it challenges our notion of presence. In this soft view, we’re invited to pull from the jumble of our own sensory memories, gathered on days when the breeze blew and the sun snuck down and the squirrels scrumbled for black walnuts along the path.
Do we depend too much on seeing the crisp edges of leaves? Would that simple companionship be sweeter if we could see the creases of the jeans? Is there more poetry in merely seeing, or in perceiving?
This photo was taken for our community’s (newly published!) Summer 2015 Big Project, “Utata Breaks the Rules.” Please click on in and take a leisurely stroll through the work; you’ll find plenty more visual poetry like this!
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Jenn Wilson and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
