Commentary # 25 ~ Thanksgiving 2008
Previous Commentaries
back to the main page



The Gift of Vision

November / Thanksgiving 2008


- by Craig Wassel


Photographers are often said to be able to see things that some cannot - to spot something a little beyond the ordinary, envision how it will look in two dimensions and confined by four more of less straight borders, and give that "thing" or subject a treatment that causes a viewer to pause. As a photographer, whether or not I have this ability or what amount of it I may have is not foremost in my mind for this commentary.

It's not even so much what is on my mind, but rather who is on my mind as I write this. One of my 5 year old son's friends - and that friend's family - have been through a tough time. Earlier this year, little Johnathan suffered an eye injury in an unlikely but unfortunately real accident at a birthday party. He was struck in that eye with a pinata stick. Johnathan and his family have traversed periods of promise and endured countless frustrations as he has gone through one operation and procedure after another to save that eye's vision. In early September, it looked as though the worst was behind them, and it was just a matter of a long recovery that would ultimately result in near full sight.

Early October, however, delivered disappointment and one final twist of fate. Complications set in that originally looked to have been avoided, and the inevitable result is that he will lose the vision in that eye. Now it has come down to trying to save just the eye, and avoid replacing it with a glass eye.

I wish everyone reading this could meet Johnathan because he would quickly melt any sadness you feel having read this. Unless you spent a great deal of time with him, you would probably not pick up on his vision loss. He does not let you know, but it's not because he is hiding anything. He is just a trooper, and is not spending any of his days feeling sorry for himself. He just wants to get on with his life, play with his friends, and have fun. He did not lose a hand, an arm, or a leg. He still had his other eye, and he can still really do anything he wants to do.

I am not trying to make Johnathan into a hero, but maybe he is anyway. The resiliency and adaptability of kids is astonishing, and one of their trademarks. Certainly it would have been better if the accident never happened, and there is absolutely no doubt that his mom and dad hurt for their son more than he hurts for himself.

Think about this happy little boy for a moment, though. Why is he not more affected by this? I think it's because he is still in those wonder years where the harsher world has not tried to teach him about limitations that really do not exist, and life is still one great big magical adventure for him. Do we photographers (and non-photographers alike ) have something we can learn from Johnathan? I think maybe we do.

One of the greatest compliments I have ever received is when a friend of mine looked at one of my photographs and said, "You see the world much differently than the rest of us". I was totally flattered, but there is a flip-side to this. Although some might say or have said that I take better photographs than most or that I have "an eye" or "a vision", I am forever mindful of how many photographers out there are far, far better than I am. It is often intimidating, bewildering, and even discouraging for me.

Maybe - just maybe - when I don't pick up a camera because I tell myself I don't feel "inspired", it is really because I am listening to doubt and believing in my limitations instead of in possibilities. Maybe the excitement of discovery is what I need to re-learn from Johnathan and to remember.

And in this 2008 Season of Giving Thanks, I once more stop to think about one of the most amazing parts of the body - the eye - and its ability to show us limitless combinations of colors, shades, hues, ambient and reflected light, depth, and so much more. No matter how far technology advances, it will never produce a camera that can take in what the human eye can. To me, vision inside of life itself is miraculous, and I am thankful that Johnathan still has vision in one good eye.

And, I am thankful that I have all my vision. To be clear, I don't mean "photographic" vision. I mean the simple miracle of going out on a crisp October day and seeing the full spectrum of autumn colors set against a deep blue sky. Fall is far and away my favorite season, and like a little kid at Christmas I often wish it could be this way every single day. Then I stop to realize that it comes for just two short weeks a year for a reason: the pagentry of fall should be a reminder to each of us that vision is a gift, and a priceless and irreplaceable one that should not be taken for granted or wasted.



" . . There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are . . "

~ Ernst Haas ~








To Subscribe to These Commentaries, Click Below:

Subscribe







Autumn Pagentry





" . . . he is still in those wonder years where the harsher world has not tried to teach him about limitations that really do not exist, and life is still one great big magical adventure for him. Do we photographers (and non-photographers alike ) have something we can learn from Johnathan? I think maybe we do . . . "




© All content Copyright 1978-2012 Craig Wassel Photography ©