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Farewell, photography
What we don’t see
A man who had seen me at work during one of my numerous photographic wanderings shared this fine observation: “You are photographing what we don’t see”
The immortals
“Your key to immortality,” Richard Underwood, NASA’s chief of photography in the 1960s said to Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong, “is in the quality of the photographs and nothing else.” via @aperturefnd #hasselblad #nasa #photography #moonlanding50th pic.twitter.com/IYYRYcU6wH
— Portraits in a City (@portraitsincity) July 19, 2019
Cosmology of Light
Light is to a photographer the substance that gives shape to the world.”
The story has it that on the first day, the Divine created all matter. He then wanted to create light, so he could sit back and admire the work he had just accomplished.
Light is what makes our world visible. It outlines rocky capes, bathes valleys, and sparkles at the tip of waves. It lends its warmth to autumn, and gets pale in the winter. It wakes us up in the morning, and takes us back to sleep at night.
I sometimes find myself in proper awe of these celestial spectacles. I am reminded that light isn’t of a terrestrial nature, it is a cosmic force. It reaches us all the way from a star, that fireball hanging in the sky a hundred fifty million kilometers away. Without its warmth and clarity, life wouldn’t be possible on Earth, and of course, there would be no photography.
Over the course of my adventures, I have familiarized myself with its many moods, and made it into an ally. Light is the muse, the source, the carrier, and the one from which, when it disappears, I await the return.
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A life’s work
“Photography is a way of learning to read your culture.” — Joel Meyerowitz
It started to dawn on me that everything I had photographed up until that point was just some sort of preparation to provide me with the insight to make those pictures. And that was my life’s work.”
Christopher Anderson, Magnum photographer and New York Times contributor
Pushes and pulls
A person’s work can only reflect their own personal drives, hesitations and fears — all of the different internal pulls that will balance each other to form an individual’s own approach to life. For me, the best things in life involve sharing. As a mere mortal I am not completely selfless, but ultimately, my goal is to leave behind images that will survive my own ephemerality. I wish for these images to be meaningful enough in themselves to be able to connect with the people of the future.
You are taking a real picture in real time no matter how conceptual it is. ”
Annie Leibovitz, from Taschen’s “Annie’s Album” interview
Analog callings
In today’s virtualized world, light-sensitive film has in itself become somewhat of a myth. It is a fragile object, a mysterious anachronism seemingly endowed with time-traveling powers.
The extra-long lasting flavor
Most of the time, taking photographs on analog film won’t be your wisest, most practical choice. Although the negative is a real, physical object, its qualities are mostly intangible; could this only be a fascination for a certain mystique?
Personally, I simply have more love for the analog rendering of film. One thing is for certain, film doesn’t speak of things that are happening right now. Film is the anti-instantaneous, the extra-long lasting flavor.
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