Two strong remarks about photography (to me)

[golunvolo]

I guiess you are doing the same thing as dance teacher?

  Yes, in a sense, but dance have a peculiarity. As in photography you can learn proper thecnique with method, patience and practice; the talent part of it, to be "brushed up" or "find out" needs a comparable informations, practice, exposure, practice, intuition, practice, etc...and a good deal of natural talent, but
   In dance your gear is you -yes your body- it can not be bought, rent or changed, only worked upon. It is linked to your personality, mood, psyque  It makes the aritstic connection very personal and almost impossible to lie. That is the nature of the body language and everyone understands it in a deep emotional and instintive level. That´s, I think, the main difference.
   As a teacher, I´m trying to do facilitate the first in orther to bring out the later, yes.

   I hope this makes sense in english and answer somehow your question?

    Thanks Akira. Questions are difficult to come by.

[James Fitzgerald]

Wonderful discussion.

Two quotes from a photographer that has had a large influence on my work.

 “One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” – Minor White

 “…innocence of eye has a quality of its own.
    It means to see as a child sees, with freshness and acknowledgment of the wonder; it also means to see as an adult sees who has gone full circle and once again sees as a child – with freshness and an even deeper sense of wonder.” – Minor White

[Akira]

  Yes, in a sense, but dance have a peculiarity. As in photography you can learn proper thecnique with method, patience and practice; the talent part of it, to be "brushed up" or "find out" needs a comparable informations, practice, exposure, practice, intuition, practice, etc...and a good deal of natural talent, but
   In dance your gear is you -yes your body- it can not be bought, rent or changed, only worked upon. It is linked to your personality, mood, psyque  It makes the aritstic connection very personal and almost impossible to lie. That is the nature of the body language and everyone understands it in a deep emotional and instintive level. That´s, I think, the main difference.
   As a teacher, I´m trying to do facilitate the first in orther to bring out the later, yes.

   I hope this makes sense in english and answer somehow your question?

    Thanks Akira. Questions are difficult to come by.

Paco, thank you for taking time to answer my question that seemed casual but was actually very complicated to answer.

But your effort is surely well paid off here.  That makes perfect sense.

[Jack Dahlgren]

I believe most child have it, unless they are cocooned in a strict environment. Most loose it in teenage years because of trying to be adults... As a teacher of Architecture, it's part of my job to get them back to that state (mostly by hand drawing but photography can help too, as reading ! ).
Many of my students (circa 24 years old) tell me that now they are themselves surprised of "seeing" so many details while walking their usual trip to our school.

"Seeing" is one thing, "framing" (or communicating the observation) is another. The two must be learnt at the same length of time !
I, usually, ask them to re-read "The little Prince" by Saint Exupéry, then to apply it to their trip and draw the results... It's not very different of a "story-board" in which the said details would appear as a "key" to the story 

Jacques,

As an architect I’m always looking at things in as many different ways as I can, climbing and bending, looking up, down and backward. But I’m not sure if that is because I chose architecture or architecture chose me. In architecture school and in practice I’ve met many architects who only look straight ahead.

Anyway, I’m glad to have cameras which can help share what I’ve seen, or share what I’ve created from what I’ve seen. Like you I find some purpose in that sort of sharing.

[Jacques Pochoy]

Jacques,

As an architect I’m always looking at things in as many different ways as I can, climbing and bending, looking up, down and backward. But I’m not sure if that is because I chose architecture or architecture chose me. In architecture school and in practice I’ve met many architects who only look straight ahead.

Anyway, I’m glad to have cameras which can help share what I’ve seen, or share what I’ve created from what I’ve seen. Like you I find some purpose in that sort of sharing.

We also have those sort of architects who believe that churning full ahead will get them to fame... And, alas, it happens, as we live in a "star system"! Though my teaching of all those small tidbits, or how many details you can find in a few square meters of street, how it holds up in ones memory ( à la Gordon Cullen ), then, how it provides you with "depth of field", allowing each user/viewer to find it's own place in the "frame" ! Then you add a bit of "speed" (Paul Virilio) and a sensibility to exposure (ASA/ISO aka weather or crowd or even local culture) and you have the recipe for a good project (or a great picture  )!

Like Airy who manages to do his thousand and one trips with each time a different story, or Akira who plays between the inanimate and the living with subtlety, most of us try to be like the pilot stranded in the desert in "The little Prince", we stop defining the sheep precisely and put it in a crate (with holes in it so it can breathe), so that all can have the sheep they dream of...

[Airy]

nicely put

[Akira]

Apparently Jacques concluded the discussion nicely.