Extra baggage
Having just the camera in your hand with none of the extra baggage you usually carry along is a much better way to explore. Sure, experience is the canvas on which we paint and interpret our photographs. But in that fraction of a second right after you recognise your next best shot, you have a […]
Triggers, portals and colours
Every work of art is a portal to another dimension – one where emotion and imagination are the salt and light of existence. The more of life we preserve, the more portals we create: some to yellow, cheerful lands; others to purple, furious seas; still others to grey, sullen mountains. What colours have dominated your […]
The secrets we never tell
… and yet, somehow we do. In a way, the creation of art is not just a longing to be understood, it is also a longing to be misunderstood. We express in pictures what we cannot say in words in the slight possibility that others might get our meaning, but we surround our work with […]
Untruths
Some untruths are sometimes necessary to make us see truth; more questions are needed to make us see answers. Splatter the very colours of reality onto film or paper and what you get is something entirely different. What makes us different from all other life forms is our capacity for art and imagination. How well we […]
Time travel
Time consumes everything sooner or later. Either we keep trying in vain to fight the inevitable, or we steal what we can before it happens. In a way, photography is like time travel. Pictures are little windows to the past, to what we had and to what has been. And all we need is a […]
Moments not captured
There are so many seconds we let slip away because we’re too busy to notice them, but we have no excuse for neglecting the ones that we do. Not every event needs to be photographed – although it does help a great deal, which is why it’s handy to carry around a camera all the […]
The right limitations
Whether you like it or not, there will always be things that limit your art. Lighting, the weather, angles, perspective, these are just some of the elements photographers have to work around every day. Sometimes you can use these alleged drawbacks to our advantage and sometimes you can’t. Yet whatever limits may surround you, nothing is […]
Don’t stop
Great art is not accomplished overnight; it is a product of many mistakes and failed trials. Some things need hard work – even if work comes disguised in exhilarating adventures and breathtaking views. If you don’t like what you see now, don’t stop. Your next great photograph is just a few clicks away.
What notes are you playing?
The sort of art you capture depends on the sort of frequency you’re tuned into. And this, in turn, is affected by the moods and colours in your life from moment to moment. The gift of the artist is that he is always listening, always watching, always poised to receive the music. What notes are […]
What pictures reveal
What do your pictures say about you? The things we create are a way of our subconscious to tell us who we are and where we go to when our minds are given the freedom to drift. In photographing the world, we reveal as much of ourselves as we do about our subjects and about the […]
A thousand more
Which photographs bring back the most memories? Which of them ignite anger, fear, joy, longing, contemplation? Much of what gives a picture power over humanity is our ability to remember. In random moments we behold a trigger wrapped in two-dimensional colour and almost immediately, similar fragments of life come bobbing to the surface.
Distort reality
Photography is the art of reflection and refraction, bending and breaking, skewing and distorting the vision we see before us – all the while presenting a mirror image without a hint of alteration. What messages we send in photographs manage their way through the invisible cracks and crevices that can only be seen through the mind’s […]
A sketch book
Pictures are not only reflections of what used to be; they are a representation of the visual outline the artist conceived in his mind. And in the magical moment when he captures the exact spirit of his thoughts, we are allowed a look into a different world – one that is coloured by the hues […]
On reality and intensity
When imagination and emotion are kept under lock and key for want of an appropriate medium of expression, all of that energy has to go somewhere. For the photographer, it is the camera that becomes the means by which he can channel his soul to the world, generating from pure thought and memory the pixels, […]
In your own form
The intangible becomes tangible in a photograph. Shadows, shapes and lines are mere reflections of contours of the the artist’s mind, his spirit, his emotion. And when everything is long forgotten, the raw material resurfaces again through memory and reminiscing, anchored by ink and paper, destined to outlast even the very things it has captured.
On posture and perspective
A trick of the trade is to not assume you are too good to be under the mercy of nature. Regardless of the subject’s pose, the photographer on the other side ought to be always in a posture of humility. Only then can his eyes be opened to all possible angles by which to approach […]
Create what treasures you can
There is always something new and exciting to see, even in the darkest and dreariest of places. Look beyond the surface and stop merely recording life as it passes before you. Instead, peer through fresh eyes at the world around, discover what wonders lie beneath and if they are hiding out of sight, create what […]
Awesome to you
Forget what the rest of the world thinks; shoot what captivates your soul. Build your identity one photograph at a time and don’t lose yourself trying to please your audience. Look for what is usually left languishing in the periphery and discover new stories, as these are the ones that will get you out of […]
Finished products
Finished products hardly tell the whole truth. They are only the cover of the book, the lid of the box, the facade of the building. Spectators can never know what it feels to be backstage, to know the ups and downs of having magic pass through you in the same way the artist experiences it. […]
A photo a month
Do not expect every single picture you take to come out a masterpiece. There will always be, in one roll of film, some traces of raw material surrounding the true work of art. Allow yourself some beautiful errors here and there for they are what make up the path that leads you to your next […]
Simply complicated
The split-second decisions a photographer makes are not necessarily born of impulse – though a fraction of them may be – but products emerging from decades of living, and sharpening the mind’s eye. Even so, the capacity of the most random, thoughtless, albeit accidental snapshots to carry stories untainted by time, involves a complex, inexplicable […]
A moment to stay
Every photograph is a portal to the past, every glance, an adventure. Pictures are not only a way for humanity to preserve what has been, but more importantly a blissful journey to remarkable days, to fond memories and poignant sorrows. They ascertain that there is a road forwards, while affording us the pleasure of a […]
What are you?
Some people believe that photography is an escape from reality, an outlet for creativity, or a journey to find a separate dimension in which to create new and unique perspectives. Yet often we don’t see that what is thought to be a distraction is in fact an exercise in focusing. And what is seen as […]
