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A few unnecessary words about the pictures

11/4/2013

1 Comment

 
Hello folks! Once I may actually succeed in making this background white, but for now, please accept my apologies if your eyes hurt (hopefully not from the photos).

A friend recently said that he couldn't really see why I took most of my pictures, what was the point. After all, many of them are quite ordinary scenes, people in the street, some boring buildings or a construction site. So I thought maybe an explanation or a kind of an apology, is in order.

Reflecting how photography has evolved for me, I realized that what it currently means to me is simply learning to see. Whether seeing a majestic sunset, to see all of its aspects and how they interplay, so that the awesome colours, the play of light and shadow, as well as the balance of forms can all be seen, captured and conveyed in a finished image. Or simply seeing a lonely old man in a slice of urban environment, further isolated by the photographic frame, a slice of a unique world, a glimpse of a life lived, a mysterious microcosm, and finding something special, something universal in this ordinary scene, is what I attempt to do.

It is great to capture a special moment, something that is rare and immediately appealing, something that tells a compelling story, like a tender kiss against a stark backdrop of suits hurrying to work. I like such photography and every now and then a moment like this presents itself like in the Friendship picture, but such moments are rare and more often it is the ordinary that I try to see the special in and convey in an image. It is special to lie on the ground and observe a little bug or get close to a flower and learn its story. It is special to take a portrait of a person that captures a little bit of their timeless essence or the unaffected smile of a child, capturing a little of that freedom that we wistfully recall as a distant memory.

I hope you see some of this reflected in the images. It pays to linger sometimes. The image is silent and our eyes dart from one thing to another all too quickly.
Pausing may help hear this silent song.

In the meantime, I am going to be posting new photos here rather than the old facebook. please check in!

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1 Comment
petr
11/17/2013 13:12:12

Wow.. Any new rants

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For images from "A Glimpse of the People of Melbourne"  for personal use, please donate a minimum of $AUS 20 per image to one of the following charities and send the invoice together with the name of the image you wish to be sent to me. You' will then receive a full resolution jpeg file. Salvos here, St Vinnies here, Melboune City Mission here. For other images, please contact me, both digital file and hard prints are available.