Friday, August 08, 2008

On Photos

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Yesterday's photo, looking so peaceful, is an illusion. The rock you are seeing is the rock I saw as I was traveling through the cut with at least one car in front, stopped taking photos and another coming up behind us.

Why do we take those photos and study them so intently when each photo is but a snippet of an entirely bigger picture? Photos show only what a photographer wishes you to see and yet as that photographer, why is it that I still study the images so intently? I know that each image is but a fragment of the whole. I know the camera sees things differently than the human eye. I know that the choice of shutter speed and aperture can change the image and yet I still study the photo, looking for something. Is it a truth about myself? Is it a higher truth?

Even those photos of loved ones, we study the eyes and the mouth, looking for something. Some snippet of the real person. Every once in awhile, a photographer is able to capture an essence, the soul of a person or place. Perhaps that is what we are all searching out. Our soul and an affirmation of a higher Being.

Enough rambling. I've much to do with little time remaining.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bonnie,
Have you read Year of the Fog by Michelle Richmond? It is a novel, but the theme of photography is throughout the book, almost in a mystical way. She opens with the quote, "the light of memory, or rather the light that memory lends to things, is the palest light of all......" I think you would really enjoy this book. She (the main character) talks about photos that capture the moment with some degree of accuracy, but she is always struck with the inadequacies, the story the photo fails to tell. I am babbling I know, but throughout the novel, the main character and her views/thoughts on photography/cameras/memories just reminded me of your posts.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer.

XXXXX

Anonymous said...

I posted some thoughts along these lines last Winter. Why is it some see only a rock where others see heaven? The old cliche "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is the truth.

Bonnie said...

eileen, I have read that book and it has/had me thinking about photos a lot. And why I take them. Thanks. Only one week left for me.

Fletch, I had meant to comment on your post when first I saw it. I find that I'm still unable to bring to words why some seem to find something photogenic in almost anything, even a rock while others just see the rock.