I have 'seen' this old abandoned milk house many times driving by in my truck going up to the quarry . It stands all on its own in an empty field, set back from the road, with no lane leading up to it. The structure has a always attracted my attention. Yesterday I stopped and hopped the fence to look at it more closely.
I raced around taking photos of the charming little building from all sides with my iPhone. I got back in the truck and sped off.
In my rush I realized I never really stopped and actually looked at what I was taking photos of. In my imagination I thought I would somehow see it better later on my laptop screen .
Though I took some nice photos of the stonework I am a bit disappointed, mostly with myself.
It is a sad thing to discover one's power of observation has become almost totally dependant on studying photos, essentially seeing things second hand.
I have a whole laptop of reproduced images of real things that I only let myself look at superficially in favour of having got a good shot with my camera. It seems I hardly ever 'take in' what I'm looking at any more. It's a bad habit to get into. I hate the disconnectedness of it all - the loss of subjectivity.
In future, being able to really appreciate good stonework will have to involve a lot more responding to it personally, in 'real time', when I am there.
