“
What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. 'The necessary condition for an image is sight,'Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: 'We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
When we define the Photograph as a motionless image, this does not mean only that the figures it represents do not move; it means that they do not (i)emerge(i), do not (i)leave(i): they are anesthetized and fastened down, like butterflies.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches — and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
When do I see a photograph, when a reflection?
”
”
Philip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
“
The incapacity to name is a good symptom of disturbance.
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Roland Barthes (Camera lucida: Reflections on photography)
“
The photograph is literally an emanation of the referent. From a real body, which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being, as Sontag says, will touch me like the delayed rays of a star.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
It is said that mourning, by its gradual labour, slowly erases pain; I could not, I cannot believe this; because for me, Time eliminates the emotion of loss (I do not weep), that is all. For the rest, everything has remained motionless. For what I have lost is not a Figure (the Mother), but a being; and not a being, but a quality (a soul): not the indispensable, but the irreplaceable.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
In an initial period, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it decrees notable whatever it photographs. The 'anything whatever' then becomes the sophisticated acme of value.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: ‘I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor.’ Sometimes I would mention this amazement, but since no one seemed to share it, nor even to understand it (life consists of these little touches of solitude), I forgot about it.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
If you opened the dictionary and searched for the meaning of a Goddess, you would find the reflection of a dancing lady.
”
”
Shah Asad Rizvi
“
The Photograph is an extended, loaded evidence — as if it caricatured not the figure of what it represents (quite the converse) but its very existence ... The Photograph then becomes a bizarre (i)medium(i), a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest (o)shared(i) hallucination (on the one hand 'it is not there,' on the other 'but it has indeed been'): a mad image, chafed by reality.
”
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The Photograph is violent: not because it shows violent tings, but because on each occasion (i)it fills the sight by force(i), and because in it nothing can be refused or transformed (that we can sometimes call it mild does not contradict its violence: many say that sugar is mild, but to me sugar is violent, and I call it so).
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
What pricks me is the discovery of this equivalence. In front of the photograph of my mother as a child, I tell myself: She is going to die: I shudder… over a catastrophe which has already occurred. Whether or not the subject is already dead, every photograph is this catastrophe.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Henceforth I would have to cosent to combine two voices: the voice of banality (to say what everyone sees and knows) and the voice of singularity (to replenish such banality with all the élan of an emotion which belonged only to myself).
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
A paradox: the same century invented History and PHotography. But History is a memory fabricated according to positive formulas, a pure intellectual discourse which abolishes mythic Time; and the Photograph is a certain but fugitive testimony; so that everything, today, prepares our race for this impotence: to be no longer able to conceive duration, affectively or symbolically: the age of the Photograph is also the age of revolutions, contestations, assassinations, explosions, in short, of impatiences, of everything which denies ripening.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
For the photograph's immobility is somehow the result of a perverse confusion between two concepts: the Real and the Live: by attesting that the object has been real, the photograph surreptitiously induces belief that it is alive, because of that delusion which makes us attribute to Reality an absolute superior, somehow eternal value; but by shifting this reality to the past ('this-has-been'), the photograph suggests that it is already dead.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Each photograph is read as the private appearance of its referent: the age of Photography corresponds precisely to the explosion of the private into the public, or rather into the creation of a new social value, which is the publicity of the private: the private is consumes as such, publicly.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
That we are not totally transformed, that we can turn away, turn the page, switch the channel, does not impugn the ethical value of an assault by images. It is not a defect that we are not seared, that we do not suffer enough, when we see these images. Neither is the photograph supposed to repair our ignorance about the history and causes of the suffering it picks out and frames. Such images cannot be more than an invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering offered by established powers. Who caused what the picture shows? Who is responsible? Is it excusable? Was it inevitable? Is there some state of affairs which we have accepted up to now that ought to be challenged? All this, with the understanding that moral indignation, like compassion, cannot dictate a course of action.
”
”
Susan Sontag (Regarding the Pain of Others)
“
Usually the amateur is defined as an immature state of the artist: someone who cannot — or will not — achieve the mastery of a profession. But in the field of photographic practice, it is the amateur, on the contrary, who is the assumption of the professional: for it is he who stands closer to the (i)noeme(i) of Photography.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
It is as if the Photograph always carries its referent with itself, both affected by the same amorous or funereal immobility, at the very heart of the moving world: they are glued together, limb by limb, like the condemned man and the corpse in certain tortures; or even like those pairs of fish (sharks, I think, according to Michelet) which navigate in convoy, as though united by an eternal coitus.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this image which produces Death while trying to preserve life. Contemporary with the withdrawal of rites, Photography may correspond to the intrusion, in our modern society, of an asymbolic Death, outside of religion, outside of ritual, a kind of abrupt dive into literal Death.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
I want a History of Looking. For the Photograph is the advent of myself as other: a cunning dissociation of consciousness from identity. Even odder: it was before Photography that men had the most to say about the vision of the double. Heautoscopy was compared with an hallucinosis; for centuries this was a great mythic theme.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The task of a philosophy of photography is to reflect upon this possibility of freedom - and thus its significance - in a world dominated by apparatuses; to reflect upon the way in which, despite everything, it is possible for human beings to give significance to their lives in the face of the chance necessity of death. Such a philosophy is necessary because it is the only form of revolution left open to us.
”
”
Vilém Flusser (Towards a Philosophy of Photography)
“
Painting can feign reality without having seen it. Discourse combines signs which have referents, of course, but these referents can be and are most often 'chimeras.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
In terms of image-repertoire, the Photographer (the one I intend) represents that very subtle moment when, to tell the truth, I am neither subject nor object but a subject who feels he is becoming an object: I then experience a micro-version of death.
”
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
We know the original relation of the theater and the cult of the Dead: the first actors separated themselves from the community by playing the role of the Dead: to make oneself up was to designate oneself as a body simultaneously living and dead: the whitened bust of the totemic theater, the man with the painted face in the Chinese theater, the rice-paste makeup of the Indian Katha-Kali, the Japanese No mask ... Now it is this same relation which I find in the Photograph; however 'lifelike' we strive to make it (and this frenzy to be lifelike can only be our mythic denial of an apprehension of death), Photography is a kind of primitive theater, a kind of Tableau Vivant, a figuration of the motionless and made-up face beneath which we see the dead.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The unary Photograph has every reason to be banal, 'unity'
of composition being the first rule of vulgar (and notably, of academic) rhetoric: 'The subject,' says one handbook for amateur photographers, 'must be simple, free of useless accessories; this is called the Search for Unity.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes forever the precise and transitory instant. We photographers deal in things that are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory. The writer has time to reflect. He can accept and reject, accept again; and before committing his thoughts to paper he is able to tie the several relevant elements together. There is also a period when his brain "forgets," and his subconscious works on classifying his thoughts. But for photographers, what has gone is gone forever.
”
”
Henri Cartier-Bresson (The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers)
“
The (i)studium(i) is ultimately always coded, the (i)punctum is not)...
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
One of the marks of our world is perhaps this reversal: we live according to a generalized image-repertoire. Consider the United Sates, where everything is transformed into images: only images exist and are produced and are consumes ... Such a reversal necessarily raises the ethical question: not that the image is immoral, irreligious, or diabolic (as some have declared it, upon the advent of the Photograph), but because, when generalized, it completely de-realizes the human world of conflicts and desires, under cover of illustrating it.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
I feel that the Photograph creates my body or mortifies it, according to its caprice (apology of this mortiferous power: certain Communards paid with their lives for their willingness or even their eagerness to pose on the barricades: defeated, they were recognized by Thiers's police and shot, almost every one).
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
I imagine that the essential gesture of the Operator is to surprise something or someone (through the little hole in the camera), and that this gesture is therefore perfect when it is performed unbeknownst to the subject being photographed. From this gesture derive all photographs whose principle (or better whose alibi) is “shock”; for the photographic “shock” consists less in traumatizing than in revealing what was so well hidden that the actor himself was unaware or unconscious of it.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
In 1850, August Salzmann photographed, near Jerusalem, the road to Beith-Lehem (as it was spelled at the time): nothing but stony ground, olive trees; but three tenses dizzy my consciousness: my present, the time of Jesus, and that of the photographer, all this under the instance of 'reality' — and no longer through the elaborations of the text, whether fictional or poetic, which itself is never credible down to the root.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The moon occurs more frequently than the sun as an image in lyric poetry. There is a greater contrast between the moon and the night sky than there is between the sun and the daytime sky. And this contrast is more conducive to sorrow, which always separates or isolates itself, than it is to happiness, which always joins or blends. And to stand face-to-face with the sun is preposterous -- it would blind you. The moon has no light of its own; our apprehension of it is but a reflection of the sun. And some believe artists reflect the creative powers of some original impulse too great to name. The moon is the incunabulum of photography, the first photograph, the first stilled moment, the first study in contrasts. Me here -- you there. Between 1969 and 1972, six missions left for the moon and six missions came back. The men who went to the moon who were forever altered without exception all say the same thing -- it was not being on the moon that profoundly affected them as much as it was looking at the earth from the vantage point of the moon. You there -- me here.
”
”
Mary Ruefle (Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures)
“
It is by studium that I am interested in so many photographs, whether I receive them as political testimony or enjoy them as good historical scenes: for it is culturally (this connotation is present in studium) that I participate in the figures, the faces, the gestures, the settings, the actions.
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”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The Winter Photograph was my Ariadne, not because it would help me discover a secret thing (monster or treasure), but because it would tell me what constituted that thread which drew me toward Photography. I had understood that henceforth I must interrogate the evidence of Photography, not from the viewpoint of pleasure, but in relation to what we romantically call love and death.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The way the sun reflects light, the water, and vibrant color is what I can proudly call photography.
”
”
Tanya van Rooyen
“
...The editors of (i)Life(i) rejected Kerész'a photographs when he arrived in the United States in 1937 because, they said, his images 'spoke too much'; they made us reflect, suggested a meaning — a different meaning from the literal one. Ultimately, Photography is subversive not when it frightens, repels, or even stigmatizes, but when it is (i)pensive(i), when it thinks.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
her reflection captivates me
her darkness teaches me
her essence fills me
her light calms me
her soul caresses me...
she is my fascination
she is is my art
she is my glow
she is my love
she is my dance
”
”
D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
“
The portrait-photograph is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Another unary photograph is the pornographic photograph (I am not saying the erotic photograph: the erotic is a pornographic that has been disturbed, fissured). Nothing more homogeneous than a pornographic photograph. It is always a naive photograph, without intention and without calculation. Like a shop window which shows only one illuminated piece of jewelry, it is completely constituted by the presentation of only one thing: sex: no secondary, untimely object ever manages to half conceal, delay, or distract... A proof a contrario: Mapplethorpe shifts his close-ups of genitalia from the pornographic to the erotic by photographing the fabric of underwear at very close range: the photograph is no longer unary, since I am interested in the texture of the material.
The presence (the dynamics) of this blind field is, I believe, what distinguishes the erotic photograph from the pornographic photograph. Pornography ordinarily represents the sexual organs, making them into a motionless object (a fetish), flattered like an idol that does not leave its niche; for me, there is no punctum in the pornographic image; at most it amuses me (and even then, boredom follows quickly). The erotic photograph, on the contrary (and this is its very condition), does not make the sexual organs into a central object; it may very well not show them at all; it takes the spectator outside its frame, and it is there that I animate this photograph and that it animates me.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
When people call me a photographer, I always feel like something of a charlatan—at least in Japanese. The word shashin, for photograph, combines the characters sha, meaning to reflect or copy, and shin, meaning truth, hence the photographer seems to entertain grand delusions of portraying truth.
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”
Hiroshi Sugimoto
“
[Photography] allows me to accede to an infra-knowledge; it supplies me with a collection of partial objects and can flatter a certain fetishism of mine: for this 'me' which like knowledge, which nourishes a kind of amorous preference for it. In the same way, I like certain biographical features which, in a writer's life, delight me as much as certain photographs; I have called these features 'biographemes'; Photography has the same relation to History that the biographeme has to biography.
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”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
I believe all photographers want to be remembered for their images. They reflect a piece of their soul.
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”
Christopher Paul Flateau
“
fiction must be different from reportage; painting from photography. And this difference should be reflected in the language of the work
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”
Paul West
“
she danced with
her own reflection,
absorbed in a trance
of morning light,
a glowing impression,
whose sheer beauty
was pure and simply,
her timeless simplicity
”
”
D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
“
we are only here on this planet for a little while...so dance, and love, and reflect what makes you happy, and then love and dance some more
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”
D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
“
At different times I've worked in different mediums. For me, the variation is not an artistic judgment, but a necessary choice. It's just as normal to eat with chopsticks, as it is to eat with forks or hands. Different circumstances call for different tools. I try to express ideas with the most appropriate available materials and forms. Very often the medium comes first, and then my reasons for it. Sometimes, I work with a medium I don't like out of curiosity. It is an experiment to challenge my pre-existing concepts and tastes. I've taken hundreds and thousands of photographs, and it's not because I like the medium. I wanted something to parallel my daily activities, and photography is the most logical way of doing that. I filmed documentaries because the medium reflects real conditions the most completely. I don't think artists should only work with what is handiest and most familiar, because the unfamiliar provides a challenge, and it creates another language. It defines the condition for new possibilities.
”
”
Weiwei Ai
“
But very often (too often, to my taste) I have been photographed and knew it. Now, once I feel myself observed by the lens, everything changes: I constitute myself in the process of "posing". I instantaneously make another body for myself, I transform myself in advance into an image. This transformation is an active one: I feel that the Photograph creates my body or mortifies it, according to its caprice (...).
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
after a hot shower, wipe the mirror and clear the mist covering it...look closely at yourself, see the reflection you want to see...breathe in, breathe out...now, let go of who you are, and become who you can be...
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D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
“
The photograph touches me if I withdraw it from its usual blah-blah: “Technique,” “Reality,” “Reportage,” “Art,” etc.: to say nothing, to shut my eyes, to allow the detail to rise of its own accord into affective consciousness.
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”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
The artistic creation of the poet, painter, photographer, and writer is a reflection of the artist’s inner world. The agenda of consciousness that spurs all forms of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but to portray its inward significance to the creator. A great poem, painting, photograph, and written composition fully express what the creator feels, in the deepest sense, about the distinctively depicted image that captured their imagination.
”
”
Kilroy J. Oldster (Dead Toad Scrolls)
“
Hence the detail which interests me is not, or at least is not strictly intentional, and probably must not be so; it occurs in the field of the photographed thing like a supplement that is at once inevitable and delightful; it does not necessarily attest to the photographer's art; it says only that the photographer was there, or else, still more simply, that he could not (i)not(i) photograph the partial object at the same time as the total object (how could Kerész have 'separated' the dirt road from the violinist walking on it?). The Photographer's 'second sight' does not consist in 'seeing' but in being there. And above all, imitating Orpheus, he must not turn back to look at what he is leading — what hi is giving to me!
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
on this morning, you feel her touch deeply into your soul as the misty fog lightly brushes in whispering silence across the surface of your being, amidst the soothing fragrance of wet pine needles floating all around...she creeps playfully though in wavy reflections, warming your waters with her magic, her dance, the hope for a new awakening
”
”
D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
“
All writing is essentially autobiographical because our composed thought patterns reflect our accumulated life experiences. At some level, every type of work, whether it is literature, poetry, music, painting, photography, sculpture, or architecture, is always a portrait of the creator. We cannot escape ourselves any more than we can outrun our shadow.
”
”
Kilroy J. Oldster (Dead Toad Scrolls)
“
Now give me some advice about how to take full advantage of this city. I’m always looking to improve my odds.”
“Just what I’d expect from a horny actuary.”
“I’m serious.”
Carlos reflected for a moment on the problem at hand. He actually had never needed or tried to take full advantage of the city in order to meet women, but he thought about all of his friends who regularly did. His face lit up as he thought of some helpful advice: “Get into the arts.”
“The arts?”
“Yeah.”
“But I’m not artistic.”
“It doesn’t matter. Many women are into the arts. Theater. Painting. Dance. They love that stuff.”
“You want me to get into dance? Earthquakes have better rhythm than me…And can you really picture me in those tights?”
“Take an art history class. Learn photography. Get involved in a play or an independent film production. Get artsy, Sammy. I’m telling you, the senoritas dig that stuff.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You need to sign up for a bunch of artistic activities. But you can’t let on that it’s all just a pretext to meet women. You have to take a real interest in the subject or they’ll quickly sniff out your game.”
“I don’t know…It’s all so foreign to me…I don’t know the first thing about being artistic.”
“Heeb, this is the time to expand your horizons. And you’re in the perfect city to do it. New York is all about reinventing yourself. Get out of your comfort zones. Become more of a Renaissance man. That’s much more interesting to women.
”
”
Zack Love (Sex in the Title: A Comedy about Dating, Sex, and Romance in NYC (Back When Phones Weren't So Smart))
“
The wish to capture evanescent reflections, is not only impossible, as has been shown by thorough German Investigation, but the mere desire alone, the will to do so, is blasphemy. God created man in His own image, and no man-made machine may fix the image of God. Is it possible that God should have abandoned His eternal principles, and allowed a Frenchman in Paris to give to the world an invention of the Devil
”
”
Helen Rappaport (Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography, a True Story of Genius and Rivalry)
“
[Louis] knew on some level that fame is not the story we tell; it is the story the world tells us. And the world was telling Louis it wanted to see itself reflected in gouache and charcoal of painted calico; that the human eye longed to trust the illusion of likeness. Render perfectly a meadow at dusk, a horizon at dawn, and people will love you for it. For giving them something they didn't know they already had.
”
”
Dominic Smith (The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre)
“
Photography transformed subject into object, and even, one might say, into a museum object: in order to take the first portraits the subject had to assume long poses under a glass roof in bright sunlight; to become an object made one suffer as much as surgical operation; then a device was invented, a kind of prosthesis invisible to the lens, which supported and maintained the body in its passage to immobility: this headrest was the pedestal of the statue I would become, the corset of my imaginary essence.
”
”
Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
“
Imagination, then, must be the flip side of memory, not so much a calling up as a calling forth. Yet imagination also relies on knowledge: on knowing what is—and is not—possible in this world of fact. Imagination plants the seed or buries the bulb knowing the seasons will shift, seeing, in the mind’s eye, April give way to August, the azalea to the rose, knowing that the red leaves of the maple will burnish in autumn, knowing that from this exact window, one can look down to the inlet where the moon’s reflection will be just another shimmering white blossom.
”
”
Judith Kitchen (Half in Shade: Family, Photography, and Fate)
“
Vanity is by far my favorite of all sins, and the camera lens is the ultimate vanity mirror. The camera captures all moods and nuances; immortalizes the soft and silky continuum that is humanity. Those still life moments seem so fluid, so representative of continuity. They are a single moment captured, yet an eternity expressed. All your youth; all your ages, captured and expressed in a single click.
Of all the indulgences, vanity is certainly my favorite which we should otherwise resist, but are inexplicably captivated by and addicted. What other animal would spend so much time pouting and preening for its reflection? Only humanity would participate in such self-adoration.
You would think we have the most colorful feathers or softest of manes. Rather, we are a naked biped that feels incomplete without some decorative element, accessory, or embellishment of the self. We are intoxicated by the image of the body, no different than we are seduced by fine wines, foods, or mind altering elements. We devour the skin, and peel away clothes as if they were the skin of some tropical fruit, covering a colorful and juicy interior. We hunt for bodily pleasures, and collect them as prizes; show them off in social situations as if our companions were some sort of extended adornment to ourselves.
We are revealed in our sensuality. To touch beneath the surface; to connect beyond facades, that unattainable discourse between individuals is put tentatively within reach in intimacy. To capture those moments is to capture the essence of what makes us human, and what ultimately sets us above and aside from the rest of nature.
Capturing humanity in its most extravagant expressions is intoxicating. Vanity is by far my favorite sin, and it is an endless tale as infinite as humanity. Every person is but a stitch in a giant tapestry.
”
”
A.E. Samaan
“
A photograph does not present us with ‘likenesses’ of things; it presents us, we want to say, with the things themselves. But wanting to say that may well make us ontologically restless. ‘Photographs present us with things themselves’ sounds, and ought to sound, paradoxical … It is no less paradoxical or false to hold up a photograph of Garbo and say, ‘That is not Garbo,’ if all you mean is that the object you are holding up is not a human creature. Such troubles in notating so obvious a fact suggest that we do not know what a photograph is; we do not know how to place it ontologically. We might say that we don’t know how to think of the connection between a photograph and what it is a photograph of.
”
”
Stanley Cavell (The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film, Enlarged Edition (Harvard Film Studies))
“
The only genuinely photographic subjects are those which are violated, taken by surprise, discovered or exposed despite themselves, those which should never have been represented because they have neither self-image nor selfconsciousness. The savage - like the savage part of us - has no reflection. He is savagely foreign to himself. The most seductive women are the most selfestranged (Marilyn). Good photography does not represent anything: rather, it captures this non-representability, the otherness of that which is foreign to itself (to desire, to self-consciousness), the radical exoticism of the object.
Objects, like primitives, are way ahead of us in the photogenic stakes: they are free a priori of psychology and introspection, and hence retain all their seductive power before the camera.
Photography records the state of the world in our absence. The lens explores this absence; and it does so even in bodies and faces laden with emotion, with pathos. Consequently, the best photographs are photographs of beings for which the other does not exist, or no longer exists (primitives, the poor, objects). Only the non-human is photogenic. Only when this precondition is met does a kind of reciprocal wonder come into play - and hence a collusiveness on our part vis-a-vis the world, and a collusiveness on the part of the world with respect to us.
”
”
Jean Baudrillard (The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena)
“
…on the large white canvas…was refracted the life-size apparition of a very pretty and quite young red-haired woman. The vision, transparent flesh, miraculously photochrome, was dancing.…The movements had the quality of flow of Life itself, thanks to the process of serial photography which, on a six-yard- long ribbon, can capture ten minutes of the motions of a being on microscopic glass-slides, later reflected back through a powerful lamposcope.…Suddenly a flat and heavy voice, silly and harsh resounded.…The gestures, gazes, lip movements…were reproduced.
”
”
Auguste de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (Tomorrow's Eve)
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A picture is a moment in time. It is not a reflection of one's day or life.
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Melony Mejias
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I could read my nonexistence in the clothes my mother had worn before I can remember her.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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Ultimately, Photography is subversive not when it frightens, repels, or even stigmatizes, but when it is pensive, when it thinks.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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I had thought photography could reflect the truth of a woman's beauty. But after seeing these horrible prints, I decided it was an imperfect art, impossible for the photographer and sitter to control. Painting, on the other hand, I began to believe, could reveal something greater than reality. In the right hands with the right chemistry between artist and sitter, painting could illuminate a higher truth. More to the point, it had the power to immortalize. A beautiful woman captured on canvas is eternally youthful, eternally adored. I thought of Shakespeare's description of Cleopatra: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.
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Gioia Diliberto (I Am Madame X)
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We keep drifting in time but do not pause to even think and reflect for a while. Life is truly lived in the every day moments. When we take out time for our passion. It may be drawing and sketching; singing and playing music; traveling and photography; or reading and writing.
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Avijeet Das
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El problema de localizar fotografías confirma la indiferencia ante la presencia de las mujeres en la historia, cosa que se refleja constantemente en los medios, libros, archivos históricos, museos y bibliotecas universitarias.
The problem of locating photos often confirms the indifference to women’s presence in history, as reflected in the media, books, historical records, museums, university libraries.
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Elizabeth Martínez (500 Years of Chicana Women's History / 500 Años de la Mujer Chicana: Bilingual Edition)
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Whether it’s music, photography, film, or painting, the arts reflect the world around us, and for too long, I only saw the dark side. The seedy underbellies, the ugly truths.
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Ana Huang (Twisted Love (Twisted, #1))
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Photography, because it preserves the appearance of an event or a person, has always been closely associated with the idea of the historical. The ideal of photography aesthetics apart, is to seize an “historic” moment. But Paul Strand’s relation as a photographer to the historic is a unique one. His photographs convey a unique sense of duration. The I am is given it’s time in which to reflect on the past and to anticipate its future: the exposure time does no violence to the time of the I am: on the contrary, one has the strange impression that the exposure time is the lifetime.
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John Berger (Understanding a Photograph)
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Are you looking for a creative and unique way to express yourself through self-portraits? Welcome to Monography, your go-to self-portrait studio where you can unleash your creativity and capture stunning images that reflect your individuality.
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Monography
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Sacredness is a practice that comes from the heart and speaks to the soul.
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Myria Rei Sólas (Daily Reflections Through Art and Image)
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When things are rushing by and you feel overwhelmed, just pause and breathe.
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Myria Rei Sólas (Daily Reflections Through Art and Image)
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Your beauty is deep inside you, in the tenderest place of who you truly are.
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Myria Rei Sólas (Daily Reflections Through Art and Image)
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Documentary photography is one of the prominent and influential branches in the art of photography that records social, cultural, and even historical realities. This type of photography allows the photographer to depict real and sometimes untold stories of everyday life and people. In this type of photography, the main goal is to convey the sense of realness and authenticity of the scenes. In this article, we will review important tips and principles for documentary photography with a camera and explain how to record facts in an attractive and effective way.
Choosing the right equipment
Choosing the right equipment
Choosing the right equipment for documentary photography is very important, because you often need to act quickly and accurately. Using DSLR cameras and mirrorless cameras are the best options for this type of photography.
Camera feature advantages
High flexibility DSLR, excellent image quality, various lenses
Mirrorless light and compact, more speed, silence
Recommended lenses:
50mm prime lens: for portraits and close-ups.
24mm wide lens: for shooting wide landscapes and scenes.
The importance of light in documentary photography
Natural light is one of the main factors in documentary photography. You can't always control the lighting conditions, but learning to use ambient light, especially in public or outdoor settings, can help you create better images.
Important points in using light:
Natural light: during the golden hours (early morning and evening) is the best time to take documentary photos. This light is soft and pleasant.
Shadow Light: If the direct sunlight is strong, try shooting in the shadows to avoid harsh shadows on your subjects.
Composition techniques in documentary photography
Composition is one of the key principles in documentary photography, with the help of which you can tell a telling and interesting story. The rule of thirds is one of the best and most common compositional rules used by documentary photographers.
Rule of thirds:
Divide the image frame into three horizontal parts and three vertical parts.
Place the important subjects of the photo at the intersection points of these lines.
Also, pay attention to the depth of the scene and try to use the foreground and background properly to make your image more dynamic.
Taking meaningful photos
One of the important principles in documentary photography is the meaningfulness of the images. Each photo should tell a story or capture a special moment. In order for your images to be real and emotional, it is better to interact with your subjects and capture them in their natural state. Don't be afraid to record unexpected and normal moments; Because these moments can better reflect the reality of everyday life.
Recording feelings and emotions:
Documentary photography should be able to show feelings and emotions well. Pay attention to small details in faces, gestures and looks. These details can add depth to your images.
Choose the right angle
The right angle of view can make a big difference in the impact of your documentary photo. Try different angles to find the best way to tell your story.
Low Angle: To show the power or glory of a subject.
High Angle: To show the smallness or loneliness of the subject.
Normal angle (Eye Level): to create a closer and more realistic connection with the viewer.
Camera settings for documentary photography
Camera settings for documentary photography
Camera settings are very important for documentary photography, as you may be shooting in different light conditions and at high speed. In the following, we mention some key camera settings for documentary photography.
shutter speed
For documentary photography, where there is a lot of movement in the scene, the shutter speed is very important. If you are shooting moving scenes, the shutter speed should be faster than 1/250 second to avoid blurring.
resource : nivamag.ir
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Mostafa
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Photography is the only "language" understood in all parts of the world, and bridging all nations and cultures, it links the family of man. Independent of political influence - where people are free - it reflects truthfully life and events, allows us to share in the hopes and despair of others, and illuminates political and social conditions. We become the eye-witnesses of the humanity and inhumanity of mankind.
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Helmut Gernsheim
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Realism without naturalism... is a leading motif in Modern Art. There is a move away from the struggle to perfect the reflection of Nature in Art's mirror, which I attribute to the all-pervading effects of photography...You must serve the tradition without being its slave. Remember you are an artist, not a draughtsman.
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Tom Holt (Lucia Triumphant (Lucia, #8))
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Seeing God is all about getting in touch with reality. If you want to photograph God, focus your lens on Hamakom, The Place, anyplace where you see divine light illuminating reality. Let your camera collect the light reflecting from the reality shaping your everyday life and you will find yourself photographing God in action." (From the Introduction to the book Photograph God)
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Mel Alexenberg (Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life)
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I realize this is quite a surprise, as a live performance wasn’t in the program tonight,” Alex said. “And if you know me, you know I’m not famous for my patronage of the arts—or my singing skills.” Soft laughter rippled through the crowd, along with a few knowing looks. Alex waited for the chuckles to die down before he continued, his gaze burning into mine. “Whether it’s music, photography, film, or painting, the arts reflect the world around us, and for too long, I only saw the dark side. The seedy underbellies, the ugly truths. Photographs reminded me of moments in time that never lasted. Songs reminded me that words have the power to rip one’s heart out. Why, then, would I care about art when it was so terrible and destructive?” It was a bold statement to make in front of London’s art world, but no one heckled. No one so much as breathed. Alex had us all under the spell of his words. “Then someone came into my life and upended everything I thought I knew. She was everything I wasn’t—purehearted, trusting, optimistic. She showed me the beauty that existed in this world, and through her, I learned the power of faith. Joy. Love. But I’m afraid I’ve tainted her with my untruths, and I’m hoping, with all my heart, that one day she’ll find her way out of the darkness and into the light again.
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Ana Huang (Twisted Love (Twisted, #1))
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Sometimes I would mention this amazement, but since no one seemed to share it, nor even to understand it (life consists of these little touches of solitude), I forgot about it.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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Photography has been, and is still, tormented by the ghost of Painting…
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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I realize this is quite a surprise, as a live performance wasn’t in the program tonight. And if you know me, you know I’m not famous for my patronage of the arts—or my singing skills. Whether it’s music, photography, film, or painting, the arts reflect the world around us, and for too long, I only saw the dark side. The seedy underbellies, the ugly truths. Photographs reminded me of moments in time that never lasted. Songs reminded me that words have the power to rip one’s heart out. Why, then, would I care about art when it was so terrible and deconstructive? Then someone came into my life and upended everything I thought I knew. She was everything I wasn’t—pure-hearted, trusting, optimistic. She showed me the beauty that existed in this world, and through her, I learned the power of faith. Joy. Love. But I’m afraid I’ve tainted her with my untruths, and I’m hoping with all of my heart, that one day she’ll find her way out of the darkness and into the light again.
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Ana Huang (Twisted Love (Twisted, #1))
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With the advent of the first truly revolutionary means of reproduction, photography, simultaneously with the rise of socialism, art sensed the approaching crisis which has become evident a century later. At the time, art reacted with the doctrine of l'art pour l'art, that is, with a theology of art. This gave rise to what might be called a negative theology in the form of the idea of "pure" art, which not only denied any social function of art but also any categorizing by subject matter.
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Walter Benjamin (Illuminations: Essays and Reflections)
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For the past twenty minutes Keith had been explaining to Jackson Crane his philosophy of art, and how this was reflected in his own practice. "I would say I don't really have a /medium/, you know? Painting, photography, poetry, sculpture - I've mastered them all. It's not for me to call myself a Renaissance man, but. . ." He shrugged. "It has been said. Really if I had to say what my art was /about/, though, it's a celebration of the female form but also a rumination on the gaze. That's why I only use the body, not the head, so they're not looking backing at you - there's a purity there, you know? /In the looking./ Power in anonymity. I want to confront the viewer - but I'm posing questions. The viewer has to answer those questions themselves . . .
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Ellery Lloyd (The Club)
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Of all the objects in the world: why choose (why photograph) this object, this moment, rather than some other? Photography is unclassifiable because there is no reason to mark this or that of its occurrences: it aspires, perhaps, to become as crude, as certain, as noble as a sign, which would afford it access to the dignity of a language: but for there to be a sign there must be a mark; deprived of this principle of marking, photographs are signs which don't take, which turn, as milk does. Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is always invisible: it is not it that we see.
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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What the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: The photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially. In the photograph, the event is never transcended for the sake of something else: The photograph always leads the corpus I need back to the body I see.
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Barthes Roland (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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A specific photograph, in effect, is never distinguished from its referent (from which it represents), or at least it is not immediately or generally distinguished from its referent (as is the case with every other image, encumbered - from the start, and because of its status - by the way in which the object is simulated): it is not impossible to perceive the photographic signifier (certain professions do so), but it requires a secondary action of knowledge or of reflection.
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Barthes Roland (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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The photograph belongs to the class of laminated objects whose two leaves can not be separated without destroying them both:
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Barthes Roland (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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Of all the objects in the world: why choose (why photograph) this object, this moment, rather than some other? Photography is unclassifiable because there is no reason to mark this or that of its occurrences: it aspires, perhaps, to become as crude, as certain, as noble as a sign, which would afford it access to the dignity of a language: but for there to be a sign there must be a mark; deprived of this principle of marking, photographs are signs which don't take, which turn, as milk does. Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner, a photograph is always invisible: it it not it that we see.
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Barthes Roland (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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What I want, in short, is that my (mobile) image, buffeted among a thousand shifting photographs, altering with situation and age, should always coincide with my (profound) "self"; but it is the contrary that must be said: "myself" never coincides with my image; for it is the image which is heavy, motionless, stubborn (which is why society sustains it) , and "myself" which is light, divided, dispersed; like a bottle-imp, "myself" doesn't hold still, giggling in my jar: if only Photography could give me a neutral, anatomic body, a body which signifies nothing! Alas, I am doomed by (well meaning) Photography always to have an expression: my body never finds its zero degree, no one can give it to me (perhaps only my mother? For it is not indifference which erases the weight of the image-the Photomat always turns you into a criminal type, wanted by the police-but love, extreme love).
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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He is dead and he is going to die
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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The Hyderabad Baby Studio recognizes that photography is not just about clicking a camera; it's about preserving the emotions, memories, and unique personality of each child. To achieve this, the studio takes a personalized approach to each session.
Parents are encouraged to share their vision and ideas, enabling the photographers to tailor the session to their desires. Whether it's a specific theme, a favorite toy, or a particular milestone, the studio ensures that the essence of the child is reflected in every photograph. The final product is not just a collection of images but a narrative of a child's journey, one that parents can revisit and cherish for years to come.
In an era marked by the proliferation of digital photography and smartphone cameras, the Hyderabad Baby Studio brings back the importance of professional photography. While anyone can take a picture, professional photographers possess the expertise and equipment necessary to create images that stand the test of time.
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chickharsha
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This year, however, we wish to reflect a unique cohort with a unique approach to the trip theme. This year, we wish to pose the theme as a question: what is more truthful, a painting or a photograph? We wish you to question the concept of truth—or disclosure—and investigate what it means to you and how you perceive and practise that truth. Instead of the photography and fine arts classes working on the same assignment separately, you’ll be working in pairs. Between the two of you, you will need to search deep within yourselves and decide which of your art forms is the most truthful. You will present your findings in the form of a 3,000-word essay due once you return from the trip, and you will later present your work at the prestigious Spearcrest end-of-year exhibition.
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Aurora Reed (Spearcrest Prince (Spearcrest Kings #2))
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Thus the life of someone whose existence has somewhat preceded our own encloses in its particularity the very tension of History, its division. History is hysterical: it is constituted only if we consider it, only if we look at it — and in order to look at it, we must be excluded from it. As a living soul, I am the very contrary of History. I am what belies it, destroys it for the sake of my own history (impossible for me to believe in "witnesses"; impossible, at least, to be one; Michelet was able to write virtually nothing about his own time).
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Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)
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the sun shines down upon us, the lucky ones...you're the radiant autumn leaves, so bright and vibrant, so vivid and ablaze with warming colors...i am your reflection in the river, only just a bit darker, and hazy opaque, and slightly blurred, more cooled by the waters (but still burning for you)...but we're complimentary mirrors to each other, such beautiful simplicity, two incomplete parts of the perfect whole, we are together one the same...one love in the glowing light
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D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
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imagine if you could dance with a tree, floating over the water on a mystic dance floor shared only by you and your tree in alchemy, all amidst a warm morning mist wrapping itself around your legs, up to your belly, as your own impression surrounds you in a dance within your own mirrored reflection, you and your dancing tree...how cool would that be? totally mystifying
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D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))
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remember, some souls are purely magical, others are just the mystifying reflections of the real thing
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D. Bodhi Smith (Bodhi Smith Impressionist Photography (#6))