Images that can speak
The well know French photographer and co-founder of the legendary cooperative picture agency Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson, once said that “if a photograph is to communicate its subject in all its intensity, the relationship of form must be rigorously established. Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things. In all sorts of visual communication, whether it is painting or photography, the understanding of form is complete.”
My interest in photography was born in my late teens when I struck a job at a photography lab. Being able to process and print pictures for free I acquired my first SLR – a Praktica from the East German camera factory Pentacon in Dresden in 1968. From there the interest gathered momentum and I chose to study the art form full time at Guildford School of Photography in England. Obsessed with making pictures I criss-crossed the British Isles in my blue second hand Ford Anglia hunting for the ultimate image, an image that captures the essence of a story in one single photograph.
Painting has influenced photography from its early childhood, and early photographers usually had a keen interest in paintings. But even though both are trying to communicate visually on a two-dimensional plane, photography has that ability to capture that significant moment, the life of something that lasts for only a flash of the time. But knowing that very significant moment is an art that only can be developed through knowledge and compassion.
The wonder of photography is its inherent ability to be an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. It never ceases to amaze me how photography can catch a moment in time for eternity. The exercise is a great intellectual delight, as well as satisfying to one’s nature of curiosity.
As I travel the world, I am always looking for images that speak, speak of something about our own inner reality. Images that can ascend from our imagination and possess the secret language of our dreams, images where the outer reality harmonizes with our inner intuition. Walking the streets in far-away places to capture that single moment when the outer reality harmonizes with our inner intuition.
Just like travelling is a journey without a destination, photography embodies all the stations on your journey through life. With sensitivity, a disciplined mind, and a strong sense of form and light, photography can give meaning to the path towards a happy and fulfilling life.
I’m still hunting for that ultimate image.