seeing

Daughter (family from Amdo), Tibet, 1993

How do we see? Seeing can be so many things: observation, reflection, surprise, understanding, wonder, appreciation, but also ignorance, imposition or idealization. Seeing well means seeing honestly, but that can be hard to know, not least when we come from the outside. And how do our subjects see us? Building a connection, a level of trust, is one reason I use a camera with a waist level view finder, leaving my face open to be seen as well as to see.