Looking
and Seeing - The Power of Selection of the Look, Lille capitale
culturelle d'Europe. Prof. Bassam Lahoud, Lebanese American University,
September 2004
I would like to begin
with those 2 words that are related directly to the forum and in
the same time to my intervention, The Power of Selection of the
Eye.
Because the brain helps
us to see, the eye being an optical device, a sort of a lens with
iris, pupil, retina…our way of looking and seeing is related directly
to our education, culture, and experience in life. All those elements
lead us often to see things that the others don’t see and wanting
to see things that the others don’t want to see.
When we walk in the street,
we look anywhere, without really concentrating on a specific subject.
It happens often to us to be stopped by an acquaintance that would
be in front of us and that we don’t see. It could be annoying, but
most probably, at that time, we were concentrating on something
else, or just simply be elsewhere.
A man who is looking for instance at many women, would only see
one, definitely would concentrate on a part of her, maybe a detail,
that could be the element that attracts him most.
The movement of the subject
is also an important element that would attract the look of the
person and could change his vision.
Speaking of education,
of culture, and of experience, a child less than 5 years old, would
react in relation to the look of a person, in a different way than
an adolescent, an adult, or an aged one.
The fact of looking at certain parts of those subjects, would push
them to make a movement towards the part where they looked at, and
this depending on the education they received, their culture, and
their experience in life, and to give the possibility to the one
who is looking to select what he could see, also depending on those
3 criteria mentioned above.
The human being reacts
differently to landscape, and to architecture, but he comes back
always to the same elements, Education, Culture, Experience.
He will find himself in front of an inanimate subject, but alive,
alive thru the instant that we share either with someone, or by
the way of looking at this landscape of architecture.
We keep it alive thru our framing, our selection of detail, in relation
of course with the lighting, the balance of volumes, the contrast…
I speak often about the “NATURAL FRAME”, element that personalizes
a point of view, a selection of the look.
The look in photography,
is related directly to the photographer, and the instant seen and
fixed eternally in a cliché, is seen only him when he takes
it.
The difference between
the camera and the eye is precisely this power of selection.
The eye selects what it wants to see, because of its relation with
the brain, but the camera needs many lenses to reach this selection.
When we take a photo of a person, we have this tendency to see only
this one and to ignore the background and other elements that could
come with the picture.
I always give the example of a portrait with an electrical pole
or a tree in the background that would be exactly behind the head
seeing as a unicorn.
The eye selects what
it wants to see, but the camera, thru the different focal lenses,
could technically show us an enlarged detail or could get things
closer by using the telephotos or macro lenses…or a scene that a
normal lens could not select, like the use of wide angles and fish
eyes.
The psychological effect of the look and the camera on the human
being is an important element in photography. The relation between
the photographer and the subject is basic to succeed his photography.
We must know that many people would feel bad in front of a camera,
feeling penetrated in their intimacy, that would make them fragile,
and would refuse to pose. Others, because of a loss of trust, would
also react the same way. The photographer must know how to convince
by his approach and his way of looking, so to relax the subject.
We end getting into the intimacy of the people with our way of looking
at them, and talking to them, and finally fix their character, showing
their weak or strong point, and penetrate their inside.
The photography of landscape
and architecture is related directly to this power of selection
of the look, the “NATURAL FRAME” being one of the important elements
of the picture, and in the same time to the photographic instant
linked to the lighting and colors.
Photography in Black
and white or in colors is not related directly to my presentation,
but it could be also an element in the selection of the look, because
those factors would influence our way of looking thru the camera.
The vision of a picture in black and white would be different from
the one win color. It would be a topic to be discussed separately.
The eye or the camera,
whatever, the selection of the look is related to our education,
culture and experience.
I am insisting on those
elements, but for me, those are so important that they are influencing
our creativity, our way of looking at things, and of course defining
our artistic character, that would lead us at a certain point to
a certain “VOYEURISM”, a sort of obsession of the look, and definitely
an influence of the look on the subject you look at.
We end getting into the intimacy of people and get out what does
not get out normally.
The photographer is in
fact the only fixed element in a photo, because we discover his
look thru his picture.
The photographer and the photo unite in the eternity of the instant
and become “one”
I spoke about
the power of selection of the look in photography, but the fact
of having a double formation of photography and architecture, led
me to integrate in architecture my look of photographer, and in
photography my look of architect, and to create a sort of “voyeurism”
thru the lightings and the openings in architecture and in photography.
-
Man
and Heritage in Lebanon by Bassam Lahoud
This exhibition
shows the relation between the human being and its surroundings
and heritage. It is a part of a whole exhibition of 220 pictures
taken between 1961 and 2001 entitled INSTANT-ANNEES, and it is a
sort of photographic autobiography.
These pictures show a large part of Lebanon, in all its cultural
diversity.
The instant in photography stops the time and tells a story that
would probably never happen again, and it is a power in itself to
succeed to fix that moment.
A way of hunting images, and decisive moments.
This work is a promenade thru Lebanon and a contact with its inhabitants,
who, for a moment of pose, became the main actors of this exhibition.
Craftsmen, workers, children and old ones, families, people from
all millieux and ages, were present at these photographic “rendez-vous”.
Posing in front of the camera, or taken suddenly, they were all
“naturally natural”.
To conclude, the photographer who is always behind the camera, is
in fact the only fixed element of his photos, since it is his LOOK
that we are discovering.
The photo and the photographer unit in the eternity of the instant
and become “one”.
►► Some
of the artist's artwork
Contact: blahhoud@lau.edu.lb
Tel/Fax: 961 9 547256 - Mobile: 961 3 788889
Amchit Jbeil Liban
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