At 01:06 PM 12/21/2002 -0500, you wrote: >From: "Gregory Fraser" > >> So I was wondering if there is some reason, of which I'm not totally >aware, to take photos. > >Greg, > >Thanks for having raised this discussion. I'm going through a similar >process of questionning after having experienced mild coronary problems >this summer - a great reminder that our time on this tiny little planet >is very short in comparison to the life of the universe. > >When you really think about it, there is not a great deal of >significance to our own presence on earth (abstracting from what >religion says about the issue, a matter of faith, not fact). Albert >Camus has written in the most humanistic and simple terms about this >feeling of being "stranger" to yourself and to the world and the fact >that there are no really satisfactory answer to your question. > >On the other hand, Minor White wrote his Introduction to "Photography in >America": > >"In photography, ... , each image, no matter how casual or complex, is >wrested from the chaos and the bewildering compexity of all that the eye >sees. Every exposure is a discovery, both in the revelation of subject >and the thoughts and emotions of the photographer himself. The ultimate >achievement is reached when all the elements of craft, content, and >intention are so perfectly balanced that the image is an entity in >spirit and form". > >I think that it is the search for this balance that is present in all >our intents leading to the activation of the camera shutter. > >When we reach this "perfect balance" (very rarely, if ever) or think >that we have (much more frequently) then we know that the question "Why >bother?" is meaningless. > >Happy day, > >Guy > Guy, Thanks for the great passage from MW. It is very provocative. I think most people will find that it speaks to them. It would be satisfying to make just a handful of pictures in a lifetime that reach such perfect balance. AZ Build a Lookaround! The Lookaround Book. http://www.panoramacamera.us
