To See, Not to View

The title, what is the different?

One of my teacher once told me "to see, not to view". It once used by him to tell us the basic things to do in order to learn photography well. To view is to see something in flash, but to see itself is to identify everything you see to every detail.

3 month after he told me that, I realize that that quote has a deeper meaning. It doesn't always deal for photography, cinematography or other visual art form. It also has some meaning for life.

We often judge something only from one situation, sometimes ignoring the fact or even the other information about the same situation, meaning we ignore them. This kind of things is as the same as when we view something. We don't know anything about the detail. If we keep doing this, there are possibilities when we tell others about what we judge, and as a result will create a prejudice which often is a bad one.

For example, we would say a man who lease his apartment units is being dishonest for his price is more expensive than the other unit in the same apartment. People are telling us that he is. For they think way he run the business is tricky, but they don't understand for they are short-minded. Their short mind is the one that gives us a prejudice about that poor man, that actually is not that dishonest.

In the other hand, if we are able "to see", we would think about his business, about it is natural if he seek for profit, how acceptable his price actually is if we're able to understand it (and it is understandable). When we see things that happened, we have to think it deeply, is it what really what happened? Or what is the real background, or the purpose or the reason of a happening.

We always have to see, not to view.