Donna Woo Photography
Vancouver-based Photographer. Storyteller
Info
Photographs, content and website layout by Donna Woo
Artist based in Vancouver, BC, Canada
Photographs shot on iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, LG G5, Olympus OE-M5
Photographs shot in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States
Artist can be contacted at donnawoophotography@gmail.com
About
Hello,
Thank you for visiting this website. I hope you enjoy my photographs and stories. I'm not a great writer but I do love telling stories and sharing my thoughts and philosophies. I believe I'm a pretty good photographer but let me tell you why I want to share my photos with you. My journey of photography - discovering, experimenting, not knowing what I was doing, abandoning, rediscovering, learning, loving, reflecting - started 20 years ago and it took me over 15 years for me to realize what kind of photography I love and why I do what I do.
The majority of my photos are not of spectacular events, objects or places. I don't tend to capture anything too grand. Instead, my photography is about the simple things. It could be a set of staircase, a shop window, a tree, a wall, laundry, a station platform, a reflection, a cup, a window, garbage, clouds, a stranger sitting on a bench. And this is why I do what I do. I wholeheartedly believe that beauty lies in the simplest, most ordinary, most mundane things. We just need to look for them, or be willing to see them. By changing our perspective even just by a tiny bit, we can see something quite different from what we are used to seeing. This also is my philosophy in life: by changing our perspective, our view of a person, a thing, an idea, a problem, a situation, an action, a reaction, a decision may yield a whole new interpretation or impression.
By seeing the world around us differently, we not only allow ourselves to understand others and ourselves better, we also give us the tool to be kinder, to be more compassionate. I think a lot of judgment, discrimination, segregation, contempt, hatred in this world stem from misunderstanding, misperception and miscommunication. We see someone or something through our own lens, with our own values, experiences, beliefs, cultures, identities, egos, moods, etc, and we view them as unacceptable, unreasonable, self-centred, weird, mean, stupid, wrong. This is why we were taught to 'put ourselves in someone else's shoes' because if we didn't walking the same road they took or are taking, we wouldn't understand why they would do, think, say what they do, think or say. Our conclusion after walking in their shoes might still be the same, you may still not agree with them, but at least you have a better understanding of them and have a better idea on where they came from. That may also open up a path for mutual understanding and communication, even empathy.
I hope that by demonstrating this way of seeing life and everything outside of my own being, one photograph at a time, I can inspire others to see what I see, see how I see. Not necessarily what and how I see, but also be able to look at the world around us in a different light, and take note of even the little, simple things and the beauties they have to offer. We live in a day and age where bigger is better, bolder is cooler, exaggeration gets you more likes, extravagance gets you more followers, contouring and facelifts get you the look you want. I think it would be a nice change to admire and appreciate people and things that are more natural, less fake, more minimalist, less excessive.