现在，立刻停止拍照片 / Stop Taking Photographs. Now.

A photography assignment lasting two weeks.

Starting now, take no photographs until you submit this assignment in two weeks. During this time, explore how you see through observation, recollection, writing, drawing, and organizing photographs you have already taken.

Photography can preserve a scene in an instant. This assignment asks you to linger before pressing the shutter: experience a place, notice the details of living things, and discover what stays in your memory.

As you describe, draw, or recall what you have seen, you may begin to recognize what draws your attention and what you overlook. Returning to old photographs with these discoveries may change how you judge your earlier images.

For these two weeks, we will practice four things: observation, memory, selection, and organization.

Look at the landscapes around you. This could be a street you walk along every day, a tree outside your window, a riverbank, or somewhere you happen to stop.

Give yourself time to stay and experience what is happening:

• Where does the light fall, and how does it move?
• What sounds can you hear nearby and in the distance?
• What does the air smell like? How do the wind, temperature, and humidity feel?
• What detail makes you want to keep looking?

After leaving, try to return to the place in your mind. See what you can still remember.

Observe people, animals, plants, and any living thing that interests you.

Begin with specific details: how someone moves while waiting, how a cat chooses a place to rest, or how a leaf changes over several days. Notice their postures, rhythms, and relationships with their surroundings.

You may record your observations through writing, drawing, audio, or other methods, except photography.

Be specific. Instead of stopping at “this cat is alert,” describe the actions you actually see: how its ears turn, when it raises its head, and how far it stays from people walking past.

Leave a little time each day for your mind to wander. Recall something you have seen recently that interested you.

Try to remember its details, and notice how your memory changes:

• What comes to mind first?
• Which parts have become vague?
• Is there a detail you barely noticed at the time but keep returning to?
• Why has this experience stayed with you?

If you are afraid of forgetting, write or draw it. Choose whatever length and form will help you return to that experience of looking.

Browse the photographs you have taken on your phone and computer. Select the ones you now consider your best.

Set your own criteria. Ask yourself: Why do I want to keep this photograph? What rewards repeated viewing? Does it mean something different to me today?

Then sort the photographs according to your own categories. These may emerge from subject matter, form, emotion, or relationships between images. For example:

• Similar gestures or postures;
• Recurring colors, light, or spaces;
• Feelings such as closeness, distance, or anticipation;
• The same subject photographed at different times;
• Images that create a new meaning when placed together.

Name each category and create a separate folder for it. As you work, you may revise categories, rename them, and change your selection.

Place your categorized photo folders inside one main folder, then compress it into a ZIP file.

Example folder structure:

Name_Stop_Taking_Photographs/
├── 01_Your_Category_Name/
│   ├── Photograph
│   └── Photograph
├── 02_Your_Category_Name/
│   ├── Photograph
│   └── Photograph
└── 03_Your_Category_Name/
    ├── Photograph
    └── Photograph

Choose the number of photographs and categories yourself. Before submitting, check that every selected photograph has a reason to be included and that each category reflects your judgment.

Keep the writing, drawings, and other observations you make during these two weeks for reflection and classroom discussion. Submit the ZIP file containing your organized photographs.

Even if you finish organizing your photographs early, continue observing and recalling for the full two weeks. On the final day, look at your selections once more.