External and Internal Perception

“All that is perceived, whatever it is and whatever its effect may be on a particular individual, has but one ultimate purpose. That is to clarify the distinction between the external that is SEEN and the internal that SEES.”

-T.K.V. Desikachar

Desikachar, T.K.V. . "The Heart of Yoga" Inner Traditions International. Rochester, Vermont. 1995

I have been struggling a bit with just exactly what it is I am trying to say with my work. I have moved from Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, to pain and pleasure, light and dark, then to legacy and family memory. This project has naturally led me into many different directions. I think I have settled on a main idea, a central concept. I used this quote in my critique last Semester. I have come back to it because it relates to what I have been thinking about and trying to show with this work.
Most of my photographs are familiar subjects in familiar environments in familiar situations.
Everyone can relate in some way to a woman on her wedding day, giving birth, sitting with her husband at a dinner table and holding her child. These photographs are of everyday life.
What is interesting about this work is that each viewer will perceive these situations differently. One person may look at the wedding photographs and feel that the person in the photo is happy, another may sense nervousness, another may sense tension, another may feel excitement. Everyone will make their own observations about the situation and person in each photograph.
What people don't know is what was actually being felt by the subject in the picture.
This illustrates "...the distinction between the external that is SEEN and the internal that SEES.”
We, the external observers have no idea how the subject felt at the time or what they were thinking. The only one who knows this information is the individual, the internal that sees.
My Grandmother, who is in most if not all of my photographs, is viewing the world through her own eyes in the photographs. That internal, individual person is experiencing what the viewer can only see from the outside.
This idea of the internal and external perception has been my main interest throughout this project. I am having a rather difficult time figuring out how to convey this idea. This quote does help to explain my thoughts though.
While looking at the images I have posted, start to think about what you feel and see. Then try to imagine what the person in the photograph was thinking and feeling. There is really no way of knowing. These thoughts and feelings are hidden and secret. I think this is one of the points of this work.