The Ecological Approach to the Visual Perception of Pictures*

Having rejected the picture theory of natural perception we can make a start on picture perception. To see the environment is to extract information from the ambient array of light. What is it, then, to see a picture of something? The information in ambient light does not consist of forms and colors but of invariants. Is it implied that the information in a picture does not consist of forms and colors but of invariants? That sounds very odd, for we suppose that a picture is entirely composed of forms and colors. The kind of vision we get from pictures is harder to understand than the kind we get from ambient light, not easier. It should be considered at the end of a treatise on perception, not at the beginning. It cannot be omitted, for pictures are an essential part of human life as much as words. They are deeply puzzling and endlessly interesting. What are pictures and what do they do for us?