While in Germany, Chris and I discussed photography. I mentioned that it was an essay by John Berger that got me going years ago. The gist of the thought was that a camera can help us to pay attention to our surroundings in a way we would not otherwise. Photography is then a way of seeing.
Berger:
"The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget." Uses of Photography.
Wiki:
John Peter Berger (born November 5, 1926) is an art critic, novelist, painter and author. The best-known among his many works include the novel G., winner of the 1972 Booker Prize, and the introductory essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a significant BBC series of the same name, and often used as a college text.
Review of Berger's Selected Essays
Of course, there's no ignominy in being wrong, and Berger's way of being wrong is more interesting than most.
