Appearance

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”

Portrait photographs can catch me unawares.

There is little that is objectively ‘real’ in portraiture; it becomes a process of negotiation, relationship and emotional connection. We appear for each other in our images.

I needed to test a lens, but biochem students are busy people and Ella could only spare a few minutes in her social calendar for the engagement.

So, later, as I worked through the short set of humorous, jokey images, this one caught me by surprise; a different quality of presence, maybe?

Wittgenstein says of these moments:

“Consciousness in another’s face. Look at someone else’s face and see consciousness in it, and a particular shade of consciousness. You see on it, in it, joy, indifference, interest, excitement, torpor and so on. The light in people’s faces.”

When we observe faces, physical features fall away and we look into elation, sadness, concern, grief, boredom; we see directly into emotion.

It can be easy, though, even in our own households, to miss the light in each other’s faces and, as we venture out into our workplaces and public spaces, we are often reduced to seeing only ‘other people.’

Of course, just ‘switching off’ from each other can be a sensible, pragmatic way to get through our days but it’s essential to remember that our attentive looking and listening, our moments of exquisite observation, is how we bring each other to life.

So rather than living as individual selves, we can develop the capacity to evoke our collective consciousness when we pursue the choice to see each other differently. As we do, we don’t just appear to each other but we mutually appearance each other; our active attention brings us differently together into our worlds.

We can bring this kind of appearancing to our natural world too, in a way that repositions our participation and contribution. And as we reframe ourselves within the relationship to our environment and ecology, imagery can help us a way that we might fail to put into words. It feels like a vital skill for this time on our planet.

But, holding our attention on the unfolding, emerging, dynamics of appearance has its challenges and, in our conversation about the mix of perception, cognition, social science and philosophy evoked by her portrait, Ella said simply, “Hmmm… I look very ginger.”

“Golden,” I replied.

Notes:

Wittgenstein’s words on consciousness are from Zettel, (section 220) quoted in Henri Bortoft’s challenging ‘Taking Appearance Seriously’ which is a fabulous book that reconsiders how we find meaning, and the relationship between thought and words.

I’ve been enjoying leafing through ‘What Does Photography Mean to You’ edited by Grant Scott; a collection of insights and perspectives from a list of contemporary photographers. Danna Singer’s account of her work stood out for me: “…I think in the end there is something so satisfying about connection and reaching out to the other person and saying, “Hey! Do you feel this?” It’s a relationship based on love and connection.”

Finally, on seeing ourselves an integral part of nature, take a look at Louie Schwartzberg’s astonishing time-lapse photography in his compelling TED talk with powerful words of gratitude spoken by Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast.