A Quiet Attention

 

I have long known that I am contemplative.

In photography, it matters.

I do not move quickly through images. I stop. I look again. I stay with a photograph for a while before I know what I think of it.

The same is true when I photograph.
I am not good at moving on too quickly. I need to pause, to let the frame appear, to understand where the light is coming from and what the scene is quietly asking.

Some photographers are at ease with speed. They react quickly, walk quickly, decide quickly.
I admire that.

But it is not how I work.

When the pace becomes too fast, I begin to lose what I came for. I see less. I compose less. I start following the movement instead of listening to the image.

I need to stop.
To look.
To wait.

Not because I am searching for perfection, but because I am trying to pay attention.

And perhaps for beauty, too.

That word has become difficult to use, but I still believe in it. Not beauty as decoration. Not beauty as something pleasant or easy. Beauty as the moment when the world becomes more exact, more present, more difficult to leave.

This is why silence matters to me.

Without it, I do not really see.

Not everything at once.

Not everything quickly.

Silence first.

The photographs are gathered here:
Selected Works