The thought of “Slow Seeing” is a very interesting concept that Rebecca Solnit brings up. When I first read the article I had the questions, “Is that seeing something slowly? Or just taking your time to see what exactly you are looking at?” I have the understanding now that “Slow Seeing” is soaking up one’s surroundings, noticing all the details one might miss at a glimpse, and letting the images you see sink in. This way of looking at images is completely different than what the average person does, which is spend little time looking at an image (more time if they think it is beautiful) and then carry on with their day.

I chose to set up my camera looking out of the window in my room. I am very fortunate to be able to wake up to this view of the marsh every morning and I wanted to capture this vista at different times of the day, starting at sunrise and ending at midnight. Through this project “Slow Seeing,” I did realize how the sun moves around the porch and the house, meaning that at certain times of the day there will be sunlight coming through on the porch and as it gets later the sunlight is blocked by the roof.

For my slow seeing revisited, I wanted to capture light as it changes in the rooms in our house, gives life to and animates our plants and creates shadows in our neighborhood.

Through this assignment I noticed two things about myself – I tend to seek sunlight and I have preferred to go on walks with Clinton and my siblings either during the afternoon and evening hours.

At home, I spend more of my day on the top floor of our house. Multiple windows allow for natural light and I enjoy looking at the city skyline throughout the day. As the evening light aims directly into my room, I love spending them in my room as the sunlight sets.

The afternoons are spirited, I hear the birds singing their spring songs, the squirrels running around and Clinton tugging at his leash to sniff new patches of grass. The evening hours have a comforting low light, pink skies and puffy clouds, it almost feels like a dream.

I used to think that I had to be somewhere busy like a city in order to capture “better” moments, but have realized that slow seeing is about appreciating what we overlook, the objects, places and areas closely around us. I appreciate and will continue to observe the resilient nature I have been noticing; from sunny days to snow storms and the occasional hail mix, the spring trees continue to bloom and the grass grows its hair. All this considered, I’ll be super excited when the city reopens and I can head back to my favorite spots and shoot some more!

Recreations…

These are all photos of the street outside the window of my bedroom all at different times throughout a few days this past week. I live off the main road, so as it gets warmer, it starts getting noisy with motocycles, ambulances, people blasting music out of their cars, and I usually see a little more people moving about. But with it being quarantine, this street has been quieter than usual, and all of the same cars stay in the same place. These photos are really interesting, all images are taken at different points of time, yet the only things that seem to be changing is the light of the sky.

For this series, I decided to continue to photograph the subtle changes of light and shadow that transform my room throughout the day. I decided to place my camera on my desk and when I noticed a change in lighting or content of a potential photo, I would quickly take a picture. It’s interesting to take pictures of somewhat mundane things such as the carpet in my room yet transform them so they reflect different ideas and feelings in each picture.

For this assignment I decided to revisit some photos I have of the river where I’m staying. I used a photo of the river that I took in the morning a couple of days ago and compared it to photos of the river at different times. I first compared it to a photo of the river 2 winters ago, then to a photo taken on the same day but in the evening, and then to a photo taken about 3 weeks ago.