Seeing is what all photographers do.
The act of seeing is a declaration. Photographers choose to see in order to discover, reveal, surprise, experience and to show.
We see because others don’t - documentary and street photographers especially so. In the age of camera phones, we choose to see something other than our own image.
The idea that most of us move through the world from one experience to another without reflection, or discovering the meaning that comes with it, endlessly fascinates me.
I see people in the grocery, post office, restaurant, ski area all seemingly oblivious to their own existence. Or at least that’s what I like to imagine.
'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.' — Ferris Bueller
Ferris is right and my chosen profession, hobby, passion is to simply choose to stop and look around every once in a while.
This is not the domain of a select few, of course, but of everyone with a camera phone, security camera, or even, an electronic doorbell.
We can all do. But only some of us actually do.
What do I have to say that others don’t?
I don’t know. Probably not much. But to be a photographer is to make the choice to see and let the chips fall where they may.
What I do know. My pictures, like the millions of others made with a cell phone, will not last. They will disappear in the ether of the internet or the cloud or be gobbled up by AI.
My choice to see is a desperate gamble. It’s a willingness to risk succumbing to the spiral of irrelevance and yet still, here I am hoping for the best and enjoying the ride.
Over time it gets more and more difficult, of course, and challenges me. If I don’t see, choose not to, ignore what it sits plainly in front of me? That’s purpose abandoned, it seems to me. Meaning rendered meaningless.
No one forced me to be a photographer, I remind myself. It was a deliberate choice, long considered as I left college and wondered what was worth doing.
Life always gets in the way. Routine overcomes curiosity. Responsibilities butts in front of adventure. Boredom sets in.
But that’s what life is supposed to do! Through it all, I must persist — to look, to explore, to witness. I must, as this collection of images implies, Never Stop Seeing.
— Sean
