Do you ever consider how the things you see around you effect your thoughts? Before coming to Howard and taking media studies classes, I didn’t. Most of us go through our daily lives seeing thousands of images a day and our brain quickly stores them in a vault in the back of our mind for us to think about or use later. Subconsciously, those images influence the way we live our daily lives from the things we say, do, or buy to how we receive other images. Vision means the power of seeing with your eyes.

Vision is the most prominent sense for how sighted people perceive the world and as a result, it is integral to the way we intake information. The things we see and how they appear process differently for everyone. What stood out the most to me in class was how even when I am staring at something like an image full of dozens of people, my brain is trained to focus on one specific element or area of that photo which is different for everybody. This photo of Dr. King surrounded by his audience is an excellent example of seeing so many things at once and your brain fixating on something particular to you. In this photo my brain automatically sees the woman with the hat on standing next to King with her head cocked to the side. As I view this image of the woman and her facial expression, everything else in the photo seems to be out of focus. This picture is more than likely seen in a very different light for others.

This also brings me to emotion and expression. Being able to see and read people’s facial expressions and body language is an important part of human connection. As a journalist, it is important to not lose sight of that human connection when in the field. Whether it is interviewing, capturing photos, or recording, it is our job to actively engage with the way sight effects our message. Working on the photo project this weekend and trying to capture emotions like interest and awkwardness taught me that to see is to be attentive. You cannot simply look for things happening around you, you have to actively observe and pay attention to detail.

I asked a few of my classmates, “what does vision mean to you?” I got one particular response that sums up what I have learned in my Visual Communications class so far. Privilege. Being able to view the various colors and shaped of the world and everything that inhabits it is something never to be taken for granted. It is common to describe eyes as the window into one’s soul. I would describe eyes as the window into the world.