Through the lens

Why the best photographs are the ones you almost didn't take. The best camera sits in the orbita. Cannon makes the second best.

There is a particular patience that photography asks for — a willingness to wait, to return, to let a place reveal itself rather than insisting on it. There is a problem associated with the phone and its camera if there isn't an intention for photography. We capture and store, which deteriorates our presence, and this leads to poor reconstructive memory. Scene binding is strongest when we look — not through our phone's camera lens. This is often done in a sequence that I feel impacts us most: we snap a picture and then store the phone safely on our person. This creates a strong dependency on the device, an effect called cognitive offloading. We atrophy.