A Tribute To My Eyeballs!

So how yum is food, right!?

You’re probably thinking, “Well, der Fred!”*  And you’d be totally right! Winner winner, chicken dinner! The smells, the tastes, the variety—it’s all so good and clearly it sustains life.

But there are other kinds of food. And something I’ve probably never said out loud but am excited to share is that things are food for our eyes! This isn’t a new concept, but it’s one I want to talk about because I think we often underestimate it.

I’m someone who’s always felt a real thrill seeing things in person. As in: my eyeballs are in the literal same place as the thing.

Back in the late ’90s, Carrie Bradshaw once said she chose Vogue over food because it “fed” her more.

I felt that in my body. I knew it to be true, but I’d never put it into words. I think by naming it and becoming more aware of it, we can let in a little extra joy just from seeing the things we love.

My eyes adore looking at things and will travel vast distances to do so. From a young age, I knew I wanted to travel—I needed to see certain things with my actual eyeballs.

I’ve crossed hemispheres on pesky (and much dreaded) planes just so my eyes could feast. Yes, a photo is great—obviously! I’m a photographer, I love photos—but my eyes need to literally be in the same place as some things to feel truly satisfied. Taking photos as well? That’s just icing on the cake.

For example: I wanted to see the Berlin Wall, so I went there. In the time between booking my flight and arriving in Berlin, the Wall came down—which was obviously amazing, but…

My eyeballs also felt the need to see such things as:

The Eiffel Tower, Strawberry Fields, Monument Valley, the Flinders Street Station ballroom, London double-decker buses, Uluru, Bondi Beach, a baseball game at Wrigley Field, Abbey Road, Shibuya Crossing, Hiroshima, Geishas, so so many art exhibitions, Central Park, the Grand Canyon, Stonehenge, Venice Beach, the Greek Islands, gondolas, the Anne Frank House, Joshua Trees, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Scottish Highlands and almost any sunrise.  To name but a few!

Sadly, my eyes still haven’t seen delights like the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China—among a million other things the world has to offer—but the Prima Donna hasn’t sung yet.

Ok, but here’s the kicker: there are also things your eyes are not fed by.

We’re living in an age of tech that’s moving at speed, and Artificial Intelligence - or A.I., as we’ve come to call it - has fully taken hold.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s an incredible tool. But the kind of A.I. imagery that gets served up in my feed? It doesn’t feel visually delicious. It doesn’t make me feel visually fed. Is it just me, or does everything look the same—and a little bit shit? There’s this general acceptance that “It’s fast and cheap, so who cares?”

But I care.

When I’m scrolling and see something that makes my eyes perk up—only to realise it’s artificially generated—I feel so disappointed. I don’t want to look at things that aren’t real.

Maybe time will prove me wrong, but this makes me want to live a much more intentional life. One with a focus on real things my eyeballs can love.

I have this urge to plant veggies, make my own clothes, shoot film again, and write blog posts.

For now, I’ll choose a glass-half-full mentality and hope this is just a phase—some A.I. growing pains we’ll eventually move through. In the meantime, I’ll keep seeking out delicious visuals for my hungry, curious eyeballs.

*A childhood saying I was recently reminded of—which is also a palindrome. You’re welcome.

My most recent must see. On a road trip to Sydney, my big sis Annette and I, came home via the coast road so we could see this building in Narooma! Just look at it!! ♥️