Random: The ambiguous nature of seeing

I love seeing different things in my images than what is shown on the surface. And that’s what this photo is about. It’s just a knot in a tree, but it’s not, is it?

That’s not new to art. A lot of 20th century art, especially the pop artists, such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, explore this idea. It’s an idea that has it’s roots in the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Without getting deeply into philosophy or specifically drawing from Wittgentstein, in my mind, when anyone views an image we bring our own experience and knowledge to seeing the image. While many of us might see the same thing, because many of us have common experience, not everyone will see the same thing. More to the point, no two people will have the exact same reaction to an image, because no two people are the same with the same experiences.

What a viewer sees and experiences in an image is unique to that person.