The Limits Of Visualization

Occasionally, while chatting with photographers or reading accounts of how a well-know photograph was made, I’ll encounter someone claiming that they knew what an image would look like before they released the shutter.

We can acknowledge that as people build skills, they will be better able to predict the results of certain actions in a given set of circumstances. It’s like an experienced driver visualizing the potential hazards of traveling on a slick road surface. He can predict how his car might get stuck in a ditch if he tries to take a curve too fast. As a result of this graphic mental imagery, the he takes the necessary precautions to avoid an incident. 

But prediction is not practice. If it were, photography enthusiasts wouldn’t have to take pictures at all. They wouldn’t have to buy any equipment. They could just sit on the couch visualizing images all day while feeling completely satisfied.

Photography is all but designed to capture surprising results. The world is a dynamic place. A small change in lighting can modify the look of a photograph in profound ways. A person walking into the frame unexpectedly can give the image an entirely new dimension. If a photographer of any skill level doesn’t find his results surprising from time to time, they must be playing it very safe by doing what they have always done. If that’s the case, they probably aren’t having much fun.

The magic of photography is rooted in the unexpected - a movement, a gesture, a person showing up in an unusual outfit, a passing cloud formation that will never be repeated. Photographers wake up before sunrise, hang out in congested neighborhoods, and seek challenging conditions for precisely this reason. They are looking for that next magical moment, and they know that they have to be out there to find it, even though they have no idea when or where it’s going to appear. The bigger the surprise, the more memorable the image.

Photography is not the only creative endeavor that thrives on discovery of the unexpected. Surprise is a critical element in all of the arts. 

When I write prose or poetry, I begin with an idea of what I want to say. As I work on writing down my idea, details become clearer, words and descriptions come to mind that narrate my thoughts in ways that I could not have anticipated. Sometimes, the words lead in an unexpected direction, and the final product is vastly different than what I first imagined. But even when I stay true to my original idea, I discover unexpected ways of expressing myself. The magic of any enterprise comes during its realization. 

This is why writers face the blank page again and again. Each attempt at expressing an idea is an adventure. Sometimes, it’s frustrating, but if we stick with it, our hearts and minds eventually find the right words. The rewards are magical, and the magic comes from the process.

Music is perhaps the most surprising of all of the arts, because music and sound are inherently mysterious. The tone of an instrument can inspire a musical idea; no one understands how that works. When we hear a saxophone, we’ll think of a different musical vocabulary than when we listen to a violin. An electric guitar inspires different musical ideas than a Spanish guitar. The way that human beings respond to various tones is not well understood, and yet we all have a sense for how it works.

Gershwin claimed that ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ appeared in his mind one day as a complete idea. I have no reason to question the veracity of this account, but I can guarantee that hearing the work performed by an orchestra for the first time was vastly different than imagining it in his head.

We can visualize anything. I can imagine being at the top of the Empire State Building on a warm summer evening. I have been there many times; I have a clear recollection of how it felt, how it sounded, how it smelled, and of course, what I could see. But the next time I go up to the observation deck, the experience will amaze me all over again, as it does every single time. The general experience will be similar to what I imagined and recalled, but richer, more detailed, and more satisfying. Life’s experiences are thrilling and powerful and engaging in ways that our imaginations cannot fully replicate. An artist’s imagination is no exception.