And I read the book The Mind's Eye by photographer Henry Cartier-Bresson.
The Mind's Eye ... .. an intriguing title, with an equally intriguing passage:
“My passion has never been for photography ”in itself,“ but for the possibility– through forgetting yourself– of recording in a fraction of a second the emotion of the subject, and the beauty of the form; that is, a geometry awakened by what’s offered. The photographic shot is one of my sketchpads.” – Henry Cartier-Bresson 1994
"... through forgetting yourself ...". What is that?
I recognize it at least when it happened, always afterwards. At the same time, I must now also think of a lecturer's statement during one of the psychosynthesis courses that I attend: "if you do not pay attention, it happens". What is actually going on at such a moment of inattention? Just by not paying attention, "through forgetting yourself", everything falls together, in a fraction of a second. And then the image appears!
A few days ago it happened to me: alone, in the middle of the beautiful Gorafe nature park, here in Andalusia, Spain. I forgot myself. Time and even place faded. The special thing is that those moments usually occur when I no longer know "it" and lose the grip on the things that I am working on. At those moments I pull myself back into the landscape, with my camera, in this case in the middle of Gorafe, and see, without expectations, what will happen. And then it happens, everything falls together: "through forgetting yourself". Magical.
So that also happened with my thought that I had to write a blog / newsletter. A thought that comes up at the same time is: "But what do I write about? One must have something to say."
Of course, there is no shortage on the latter, and that is precisely what it is. There has been so much happening in recent months that I think where should I start? The newsletter can be about the presentation of a beautiful photo assignment about the contradictions in spatial planning in Friesland, about the cooperation with Charlie Waite, about an important next step in my Night train project, about my images on the new website of bureau Noordtij , about my work on (sustainable) wooden blocks at the province of Flevoland and last but not least in large format in living rooms on the wall.
Too much….
Right after the moment I think: I'm not going to do it, I will not write a blog / newsletter, I'm not paying attention anymore and I read "The Mind's Eye". And only then I can see what happened to me the last few days here in Andalusia, when it was not raining.
The next moment I find myself behind my laptop writing this blog/newsletter. Wonderful those rainy days!
Adios y hasta luego
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