World Photography Day – Through the Lens: Seeing the World Around COMMpla

We spend a lot of time looking at the world through screens. However, there is a subtle and meaningful difference between seeing something and noticing it.

To celebrate World Photography Day, through the photographs of Anastasija Grinuk – our video and photography production specialist – we take a closer look at that difference, and at the stories that can emerge when we simply pay attention.

For Anastasija, that difference is often where the camera comes in. She works more with video than photography, but the instinct behind both is much the same: looking for something real.
“I love filming people in moments when they don’t notice the camera,” she says. “When I can capture genuine emotions and catch something more.” Indeed, a good frame does more than simply look good: it tells a story, a story that sometimes is already there: in a cyclist passing by, someone pausing by the river, a car crossing the frame, a familiar city carrying on around them.

More than meets the eye

The same person, the same place, even the same moment can become something completely different depending on who is behind the camera.

“Every frame, rather than just be a flat image for social media, is something that makes you stop for a moment and feel the atmosphere that was captured,” she explains.
It can be the light, the angle, the mood, the message you want to convey. Small choices that change what a photograph says, even when the subject remains the same.

“Give ten people a camera and ask them to photograph the same person, and you would probably end up with ten completely different images. More importantly, you would end up with ten different stories”.

When we forget the camera is there

There is something particular about photographing people at work: a posed group photo can tell you who is in the room, while a candid moment can tell you something about the people themselves.
That is why the moments when nobody is really thinking about the camera are often the ones worth keeping.

For Anastasija, being observant is part of that process, and it is not necessarily something reserved for people who work with cameras. She believes it is a skill anyone can develop, through visual awareness, curiosity and simply paying more attention to what is happening around them.
“Not just observing people, but also different stages of life that we might otherwise miss when we’re rushing through it.”

Indeed, one only has to look at a room full of people mid-discussion, focused on everything except the lens, to see what she means.

Looking at innovation differently

Over time – Anastasija says – that attention changes the way you look at things. You start noticing details you might once have walked past, you develop a stronger visual sensibility, your eye becomes more trained. Sometimes, that means seeing something in people that they do not see in themselves. Most people are surprisingly critical of the way they look in photographs. “I’m not photogenic. I never look good in pictures.”
Her answer is usually strong and simple: “You just haven’t had a good photographer yet.”
There is something revealing in that answer. Photography is not only about finding the right subject, but it is also about finding the right way to look at it.

Overall, the same applies when the subject is technology. At COMMpla, innovation is something we talk about every day, but technology can easily become abstract: platforms, research, systems, algorithms, projects. A camera can make it tangible again, and even a robot in a frame can be a glimpse into the people, ideas and experiments behind it. The way it is photographed can make us focus on different things: the technology itself, the people interacting with it, or simply the sense of curiosity that surrounds it.

Beyond the frame

More in general, not every story Anastasija tells through a camera is connected to work. Her favourite photograph, in fact, has nothing to do with COMMpla.

Seen from above, a concrete pier stretches out against the deep blue of the sea: at its centre, tiny, a figure lies on a red towel, the aerial perspective transforming an ordinary gesture (lying in the sun) into something almost cinematic. And perhaps that is fitting, since the way we see the world at work does not stay at work.

The same curiosity that makes someone notice a fleeting expression, a moment of concentration or an unexpected detail in a room can follow them everywhere. Photography, in that sense, is less about having a camera than about having a reason to look, to stop for a moment, and to notice the small things happening around us while everyone else is moving on.

Davide Moschella | Communication, Dissemination & Outreach Specialist