How Photography Helps Us To Slow Down

And teaches us to notice things

Hi there, you are reading an article from the SlowPHOTOGRAPHY section of the Un-Rush The Power of Slow publication. This is all about why and how photographing is a fantastic tool for you to slow down and become more aware of your surroundings.

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How Photography Helps Us To Slow Down

And teaches us to notice a thing or two.

At the beginning of December, I guided a small group of advanced amateur photographers and a professional instructor through Venice, Italy. Photography is such a great tool for slowing down. I love hanging out with photographers doing Street, travel, or reportage photography because I learn a lot, or going through coffee table books of great photographers.

The photographers in Venice took their time, which they were supposed to do. They observe, wait, detect details, are patient, or react (quickly) to a scene or people’s actions unfolding in front of them. They slow down and forget their busy and intense jobs for a few days and get involved in their passion for photography.

Photographing makes you slow down – and teaches you valuable lessons for daily life and work:

• Training your situational awareness

• Developing patience

• Practicing anticipation

• Observing and “reading” people

• Making decisions about what you want to communicate/convey

• Thinking creatively

• Listening to your emotions and translating them into pieces of information

"I think impulse, intuition, recognition, desire, appetite, passion, emotion, and much more, are all elements that play a role in photography" – Joel Meyerowitz

A word about photography books. Photo books not only give you wonderful inspirations, stories, and incredible insights into the thinking and philosophy of inspiring and admirable photographers. The other beautiful thing about them is that they slow down your interaction with images, in a time when we take, flip through, and send photos with incredible speed. Printed images, on the other hand, allow us to concentrate without distractions. It invites us to experience what is shown and to involve more of our senses.

Diving into a photo book, you anchor yourself in the book. Turning the pages slows down time in a way that is only possible with analog. The images inside suddenly become more valuable, as they exist only for the viewer at that moment. With photography books, you can lose your sense of time and place, you escape - as if you are swallowed up by the stories and images and completely swept away.

Back to taking pictures.

Every day, you can slow yourself down by walking consciously as if you want to take pictures (with your smartphone) and NOTICE things. It’s a great way to train your situational awareness and ability to see.

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( * Full disclosure: my husband is a photographer and the hardest part of our move from the States to Europe was the unspeakable amount of photo books that weigh more than a piece of furniture.)