a language older than words

dp

 

Photography can have the magical ability to capture and preserve an emotion or a strong feeling.. and sometimes it’s an unknown feeling or emotion at that time.  And the image that is captured can then radiate what was that unknown feeling of respect and quiet that the photographer had had, almost as if there is something that is guiding the photographers mind and eyes subconsciously… An unknown story to be told or later revealed to them.

And that is sometimes the power of photography, illustrating that at times there is a common feeling of having glimpsed something beautiful, and yet not captured it.. as so successful has been the camera’s role in beautifying the world that photographs rather than the world have become the standard of beautiful… yet photography in being the ‘ethics of seeing’ teaches us a visual code. Even if unknown at the time of capturing it, as there can be as strong a feeling of reverence akin to that a cathedral or mosque may have… even within landscape photography. As in this image, of what was once an aboriginal women’s birthing place, and a sacred place for women.

And photography not only records the present, but also the unknown past, even when bereft of people and their mark.  And in doing so, can then become a fountain of knowledge and understanding, leaving us with a personal judgement to enter places with a certain reverence and respect.

dp

the operation of grace

wiska – danny pope

just the place to bury a crock of gold

I should like to bury something precious in every place I have been happy

and then when I am old and ugly and miserable

come back and dig it up 

and remember

Evelyn Waugh

JFK

image – Tim Page

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth…”

-jfk

Jack Pope #1

I wanted to write an essay on that most important and at most times, that unconsciously grabbed intangible piece of luck..formed in the moment of that the blend of heart and head.. as your eye is tightly morphed into the viewfinder of that 35mm camera…

yet simply..

I can see it perfectly.

dp

…..’ if you could read my mind I have a thousand letters that need to be written’ ….. 10th January 2009

Philip ‘Jack’ Pope
18th September1928 – 12th January.2009