One of my colleagues has a history as an art teacher and at the first recap, he always starts with a story on looking, seeing and thinking. Many people who look, do not see, and many people who look and see, do not think.
An example he gives is a painting by Turner in an art gallery. Beautiful colours and if you don’t know the story behind, you might think, what a pretty picture. Nice warm colours of a setting sun over a seascape with a ship in it. Only when you read the little sign next to the painting, you realise that it is not pretty at all, but about a slave ship dumping its cargo (i.e. slaves) overboard and the red colours actually refer to the blood of the slaves. Looking, seeing and thinking…
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When I took these pictures, I had his story in mind. I wanted to make a pretty picture of flowers near a grave in the graveyard of Grytviken, on South Georgia. A pretty picture, until you realise Dandelions are not a native species to South Georgia and are actually an invasive species that easily spread over the islands, outcompeting native flowers. Sometimes it pays off to know a bit more about the area before you look at (a picture of) it.
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