I go and get the camera and do it. Photography is a medium in which if you don’t do it then, very often you don’t do it at all, because it doesn’t happen twice. A rock will probably always be more or less there just the way you saw it yesterday. But other things change, they’re not always there the day after or the week after. Either you do it or you don’t. Certainly with things as changeable as sky and landscape with moving clouds and so on, if they look wonderful to you on a certain day and if you don’t do it then, you may never see them again for the rest of your life. So as a photographer you become very conscious – at least I do – that everything is in movement.
Paul Strand
2 Comments
Mark
I like this quote from Strand. It isn’t too much different than words expressed by many of the greats on “seeing.” I guess it brings to question if he is discounting the experience of just enjoyment without photographing it — the “you may never see them again…” part.
Monte Stevens
Well, I agree, that scene won’t necessarily ever be there again. We have a decisive moment before us. What will we do? A different one will be offered in the next moment.