I have got very nice mail from Paul
Politis, photographer who's work I admire very much. He was writing
much more, but I have found really interesting to read his comment, not
only about that particular photo, but also his view on, well, read it
here:
bathroom: Unlike the other two, this one
introduces a human being into it, reaching out toward the light. Again,
very metaphoric. I think we tend to put our own emotions into a picture
like this, imagining that the character in the photo is reaching out for
something that he can't quite capture, something perhaps we are reaching
for in life but have not yet attained.
The Greek key in the window reminds me of the myth of Tantalus, which you
may know of, which is a Greek myth about a man named Tantalus, who was
punished for some reason or other by the gods. His punishment was to be
put into a body of water up to his chin. When he would stoop down to
drink, the water would recede, and when he reached out in front of himself
to grab at some grapes that were dangling before him, they would move away.
This is where the english word "tantalize" comes from, which means exactly
that: "To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it
out of reach."
I think this is the strongest of your night experiments so far (for me
anyway) because it really speaks to trying to attain a goal, reaching out
in the darkness, unsure, toward the light. For people like me and you, it
may be trying to find what moves us in photography, and trying to find "our
voice" and our "reason" for taking pictures and get satisfaction and some
meaning from them.
I just read on your blog how you were affected by David Gilmour saying
that he (and the rest of Pink Floyd) created to please themselves. And
this is what I have known and believed for a long time. If you go through
life trying to please others, you will usually fail in pleasing most of
them in the end (and they will use you along the way to get what they want
from you), and you will certainly not respect or be happy with yourself in
the end. I think you are on the right path: even if I or anyone else hated
the photographs you are taking, you must try to listen to your own voice to
decide if they are good or not. No matter what shit we put on the
internet, there will always be some people that like what we are doing and
some people who hate it. I find that for me, the compliments make me happy
only for a while, and the insults hurt for only a while, but in the end if
I am truly happy with something I have photographed, that lasts.
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