Annie Dillard describes two kinds of seeing. The first kind of seeing is like taking pictures with a camera, moving from shot to shot, reading your light meter. In the second kind, you become the camera, and your body’s shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on you. To see this way, you have to let go of your control, and be open to the possibility of being transfixed. Dillard sees this way, and nearly every page of this book describes her observations. In this dreary month of February, couldn’t we all use a dose of this radiance?
Dillard, Annie. “Seeing.” Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Bantam Book, 1974, p.33.