I’VE HEARD IT SAID, READ IT WRITTEN A ZILLION TIMES, “ Be in the moment.” The directive is most often expressed when the person to whom it is uttered has allowed their attention to drift away from what is happening around him/her at any given moment in time. The “what is happening”-sights, sounds, activities, persons, et al-at any specific moment in time has been determined, by the admonitioner, to be worthy / demanding of undivided attention by one and all. And…
…iMo, one of the unique characteristics of the medium of photography and its apparatus is its ability to record, present and preserve select and discrete moments in time. Every picture (aka: photograph) ever made is an invitation for a viewer to see and vicariously experience, in his/her imagination, the “what was happening” in a past, fleeting moment in time. To wit, a picture issues an invitation to “be in the moment”. That is, to be vicariously in the preserved moment as presented in the picture and actively in the moment of viewing the picture.
Consider this from John Swarkowski:
“…immobilizing this thin slice of time has been a source of continuing fascination for the photographer. And while pursuing this experiment he discovered something else: he discovered that there was a pleasure and beauty in this fragmenting of time that had little to do with what was happening. It had to do rather with seeing the momentary patterning of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement.”
Re: “the momentary patterning of lines and shapes” - as I have previously written, I tend to see segments of the world as lines and shapes-as suggested by physical objects, light / shadow, color, et al-which are perceived from only a very specific POV. While the perceived lines and shapes are not concealed within the flow of their movement, how I perceive them is most definitely dependent upon my (and my picture making device) lack of movement - that is movement away from my very specific POV.
Consequently, I am unable, unless I remain nearly absolutely motionless, to “be in the moment”, re: the perceived relationship of lines and shapes-which for me, in most cases is “what is happening”-for any length of time. The pleasure of seeing is very short lived.
However, in some ways, a significant part of why I make pictures is cuz I can preserve and extend indefinitely that short lived pleasure of seeing, aka: being in the moment. And, in the best of cases, my pictures can present to viewers thereof a tangible and palatable perception of the “being in the moment” (and what it entailed) of a picture’s making.
