Visual complacency

I found a wonderful bush walk near my home on my second weekend after moving to Melbourne 13 years ago.

The friends who I took on it a few weeks later had never seen it, even though they’d been here for 10 years.

How well do you think you know your city? Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt in this context, but it might foster a little complacency.

I’ve been back in my home town of Sydney over the past week. I thought I knew it like the back of my hand but I got a little disorientated. Trams and laneways have appeared. I have to take much more notice when I cross the street. And slow down so I don’t miss the next interesting laneway, that could be the source of great photos – or a good coffee. 

Apart from the humidity, I could be in Melbourne.

It’s surprising being shaken a little out of my visual complacency. It’s what people on my walkshops say too.

“I know this part of Melbourne so well, but I didn’t take any photos of the usual landmarks.”

“The photo exercises you gave us forced me to look for different things.”

“None of us took the same photos, even though we were in the same block and had exactly the same exercises.”

No matter where you are, you don’t have to go far to notice the unexpected. As Marcel Proust wrote, “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” 

Give this week’s #Facilitography exercise a go.

📷 Go for a walk around the block near your home, school or work. Every day. 

📷 Notice something new each time. A doorway, a window, a sign, a tree, a plant – anything that you haven’t really noticed before. Take a photo.  

At the end of the week, show someone who knows the area as well as you. Are they surprised? Or do they see what they expected to see? How differently do you both see the same part of your city?  

If you’d like to work together, here are 3 ways to get started:

1.    Talk to me about #Facilitography Walkshop for your organisation. Experience how to use street photography with your stakeholders and communities. Comment below and I’ll get in touch.

2.    Save money on my public #Facilitography Walkshops. Comment ‘YES’  and you’ll get first dibs at the early bird price. 

3.    Get a copy of my Insights Paper, Read the room like a street photographer.

Photo credit: M. Greaney, K. Cadigan, C. de Jongh (top L-R), S. Fothe, N. Holland, M. Cochrane (bottom L-R).