ABSTRACT
Direct perception matures with age and improves with practice. The perceiving of microphysical objects and events is inadequate to the extent that the eye cannot be brought close enough and the visual solid angles are too small for good vision. There are two quite different kinds of visual cognition, the direct perception of the surfaces around us together with their utilities, and the perception of man-made markings on surfaces together with the kinds of awareness that can be mediated by such marks. The photographic camera is, of course, also a passive optical instrument. But when used by an information-giver it can be selective as much as a drawing or painting can be. Some examples are the photographic transparency made with X-rays, the “snooperscope,” the spectroscope, the image-enhancing devices of photographic engineering, the sound spectrograph and, at a far extreme of indirectness, the cloud-chamber. The apprehension of what is specified is not direct as in scrutinizing, listening, feeling and tasting.
