The more you look, the more you see
On walking in the city and looking for Spring
I’ve been in Philadelphia on a work trip this week. It’s always fun to visit another place, and I’ve had a good time here, but I’m ready to be back in Madison and look forward to sleeping in my bed tonight. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? There are some beautiful parks here, but for the most part, it’s a cityscape. What I’ve noticed most about being in Philly is how much of a crunchy nature guy I am — I literally feel better when I’m surrounded by flowers and trees. So much concrete gets overwhelming after a while.
Something I do on these work trips is blog my experience for Kristen. I make pictures on my walks and text them to her so she can see what I see. It’s a nice way to stay connected, and I like showing her the views I encounter along the way. I was photographing a tree the other morning and thought about how strange it must look for passers-by to encounter someone stopped in their tracks staring so intently at something so ordinary. I did that a lot this week, and it made me smile and reflect on this funny photography habit we love so much. Can you relate?
Based on the response to my Note, this sentiment resonates. Clearly, many people stop to see the quotidian details like me. That’s encouraging, especially when paying attention to anything seems harder and harder. Someone said it’s like stopping to smell the roses. They’re right! Noticing these little things is part of what I’ve come to appreciate about the transition we experience in the Spring season. If you get out and look closely — really pay attention to the minutiae we ordinarily take for granted — you see things you never noticed were there, which can yield an appreciation of how wonderful the world is. Quite literally, the more you look, the more you see. It’s obvious when you think about it.
This is what I’m looking for right now: the subtleties of Spring season photography. I’m curating a mix of these photographs for the newsletter and would love to see your work. Please email me if you have something you want to show. I’m finalizing my edit and will publish a newsletter with Spring pictures later this month.
Special thanks to Isa Rus for sharing her images with me this week. Do you know her work? Isa is one of the amazing artists I’ve discovered on Instagram over the years, and I love how she sees. Every image is a subtle observation of the beautiful experience of life. I could look at her pictures all day. They are calmly meditative and quite lovely. Color, light, poetry, it’s all there. If you haven’t yet, please check out her Instagram. You can read more about her here. She’ll appreciate your attention.
One more thing…
Here’s one from the archives about looking and attention. You might like it. That’s all for now. Please send me your Spring pictures. Have a wonderful weekend!
More people should stop and look - it would do wonders for collective mental health. Life is in the details, the in-between moments. Too much of our life is lived on autopilot - we unconsciously recognize it’s bad for us.
The area around my office (Bloomsbury, London) is unbelievably beautiful at this time of year. It has so much green space considering it's centre of the city. I'm trying to make a point to walk around more during lunchtime - to go through the parks rather than take the shortcut - and it really lifts the mood.