Now that I put the pieces together, I think that whole book Haunted Air, and the way it came into my hands had to do with this image I shot last Halloween in our neighborhood.
I loved it when I took it: loose and blurry and almost chaos...but I think it holds together just barely. I immediately blew it up to 30 x 30 and even then was still in love with it. And here in my office it hangs twice: once behind my monitor and then the big print at the entrance. Why this? What's the big deal?
I think that over the years I've had images that just were given to me, images that I didn't work hard to create. But when I saw them...wow...I immediately wanted to recreate them. And these attempts very rarely work out to anyone's satisfaction.
Then there is the idea that these special images can serve as a map for us. They can point to where our work is headed...what it's opening up to, what it may look like in the future if we follow it. Was this image that? Well...not yet. It's been a year and I still haven't found a way to channel the qualities of this image with intention. But though some things move fast in photography these days, other things move a glacial speed. And here, a year later, I'll admit I'm optimistic that I'll see this stuff surface again.
3 comments:
Oh wow, that is really great. It's eerie how things come full circle like that. And that print is really beautiful, no picture like that deserves to be stuck behind a screen forever.
Your post so accurately expresses the great mystery of photography; how these magical (for lack of a better word) moments can come together in front of the lens and mysteriously and inexplicably disappear.
Hi Sarah-
Thanks for writing and reading. I like the image alot. But just showing one image...I don't love to do that. My goal would be to put together a series of images with those qualities. And then...I'd have something to dig in to. So far...I don't have it. But soon.
Carrie- Yes, the mystical and magical, but the greedy part of me wants to master it, tame it, and deliver it on cue. Can't always do that with the mystical. Ha.
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