Photography & the Art of Seeing

David Mattison is a librarian with the B.C. Provincial Archives and
Records Services Library.

Freeman Patterson is probably Canada’s most outstanding teacher of photography. Like the best of teachers, he has formulated a personal theory to his discipline and has disseminated his strategy of visual expression through the printed word and other public forums. Although Patterson’s instructional books are slim, they are thorough and concise in their treatment. His newest work presents techniques “to help you improve your visual thinking in all three ways — to observe more accurately, to develop your imagination, and to express a theme or subject more effectively with pictures.”

After discussing these topics in sections that include exercises specific to each type of technique, Patterson goes on to describe how photography differs from other visual media. He also details important attributes of visual design, such as the use of light and colour, and various principles of good design work. Each section of the book includes colour photographs with a brief commentary illustrating elements under discussion.

While Patterson eschews the use of labels, to those who do not know his work, it would be fair to describe its overall orientation as realistic landscape photography. Those who are most interested in the photography of people may find little of interest or relevance. The book is non-technical, so jargon is kept to a minimum, but Patterson does assume at least a basic working knowledge of photographic vocabulary. Highly recommended.