Opinion: why seeing the world through a lens is the best way of all

Travel photographer Nori Jemil can regularly be found somewhere remote, eye to the viewfinder, waiting for the perfect moment to snap the shutter. But that doesn’t mean she’s lost in her own little world. Seeing the world through a lens, she says, is the best way of all.

At a recent exhibition of my photography I was asked if I ever put down my camera to “see with my own eyes” – a phrase that’s become part of a popular criticism of the Instagram-obsessed travellers.

It’s not a surprising question in this age of smartphones and digital photography, where anyone can pick up a camera and spend hours staring down their own lens. But I am still taken aback that someone could think that photographing a landscape – composing an image, observing the light and waiting for the right moment – is anything other than the highest, most concentrated form of looking.

I suppose for many, photography can be just about taking a snap and moving on. But for me, the best photographs – and travel experiences – happen when you stay still, really look around you, and bed down into the landscape.

Nori Jemil

Lying on the ground to get a different angle or zooming into the macro to check every detail gives photographers a more intense focus on what’s around them. And staying still really pays off. I can’t count the number of times I’ve encountered something unexpected, or been approached by locals who’ve either become photographic subjects or a source of really useful information just by standing still and waiting with my camera.

It’s not the only time it’s been suggested to me that I’m not fully immersed in my travels. While trekking in South America I was left behind by my companion, who later proposed that a photographer’s attention is always fixated on getting images at the expense of the ‘experience’.

The modern digital image tells a powerful sensory story

But I remember him trotting off into the distance, listening to a podcast with his eyes fixed firmly on the horizon, missing every nuance of the leaves and flowers, every changing moment as the clouds scudded across the sky. I’m certain he can’t describe the Peruvian hillside and the people on it in as much detail as I still can.

Many even cite the ever-growing popularity of digital photography as ruining travel – the ubiquitous selfie stick and the inundation of digital photos as we try to capture the world in pixels. But when I go over my photo archives I am immediately back in a destination and, depending on how widely and well I shot, I can recount a travel story based solely on the smells, sounds and colours that are cued only by a 2D image.

A character in a Turgenev novel says, "The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book”, and the modern digital image tells a similarly powerful, sensory story.

Nori Jemil

Not really looking? Bah, what tosh!

What’s more, a photographer’s way of seeing turns on its head the recent digital detoxing trends. The “put down your device and just take it all in” advice is all well and good, but what’s more mindful than scrutinising your surroundings, waiting patiently for the perfect landscape being totally immersed in the environment around you through photography?

Photographers are often more attuned to their environment, to the subtle changes in atmosphere, light and colour, so I try not to get vexed when people suggest we should put down our cameras and actually look.

For me, the experience of photographing a new or well-loved location is an act that transcends everyday vision. Not really looking? Bah, what tosh. I’m seeing with even bigger eyes, thanks to the technology of my camera and my own focused gaze.

Read more opinion:

In defence of the travel selfie

It's OK to go to the same place evey year

Travel is not a competition sport