Sometimes people can latch unto a song lyric or the image of a photograph in very powerful ways, and completely alien to the state of mind of the composer or photographer. Of course such connections are quite a compliment on the one hand, but may carry a heavy price in misunderstanding if the artist and fan ever attempt to discuss it. Yet all of that is part and parcel of the bond between a creative and an audience. Yet there is another aspect to consider as an artist, and that is whether or not you can stand perhaps lending additional permanence to something meant to remain only temporary and fleeting.
Yes indeed, sometimes a tiny moment in time, or an incredibly poignant convergence between nature and a temporary man-made space flows across my perspective and inspires a melody, or an entire cascade of lyrical ideas for poetry or song and then I’m faced with that quandary: Do I want to disturb a breath of the moment, otherwise lost in a flash and only available to me thereafter as a memory with all of frailty and fiction in the hereafter recall of it? Do I really want to steal time away from enjoying it by taking a picture? Do I really want to give that moment a fixity and longevity it otherwise can never have?
A 9 second video here below captures a tiny moment of what I’m talking about. It hit me and could have inspired much more.
Countless times I force myself to simply breath in and out and not to move towards my camera or my keys. I steel myself to simply be with the temporary smallness of a moment, to let it go unmolested by and through me.
