Photographs
One evening last week I went to see the Robert Doisneau exhibition with three of my colleagues. I found myself in front of the famous picture that everyone has seen surely seen somewhere at some time in their life:
This electronic version doesn't do the picture justice; it really is a beautiful photo. The black and white is sharp to the point where you feel you're in the picture, ridiculous as it is since the picture is in black and white and whaddaya talking about real life is in colour!
But yeah, I have a teeny thing for the man. Skinny, tousled longish wavy pale hair and look at that weird scarf he's wearing. I love it. Reminds me of a person I'd rather forget.
We were both looking at the picture when Leda turned to me and said, "Who knows what happened to them afterwards?" That's really The Burning Question of all photography, isn't it? Every picture captures a moment in time; from it you can get a glimpse of its past and a little less and more vaguely, of its future. Most of them you'll never know. I remember this documentary I saw on National Geographic a few years ago about a team of photographers and researchers travelling the whole of Afghanistan searching for a green-eyed girl who was photographed as a child at the time before Taliban rule. The photograph was on the cover of the Nat Geo magazine, you've probably seen it, it shot this unknown Afghan girl to fame without her even knowing it. They wanted to find her so they could photograph her again. Why would they do that? To answer the question. They found her eventually. Her eyes were still green; and like all Afghan women her face was hidden in a black veil; she had children and she looked a little tired. The most amazing thing about photography is that it catches one particular, transient moment and keeps it forever.
This electronic version doesn't do the picture justice; it really is a beautiful photo. The black and white is sharp to the point where you feel you're in the picture, ridiculous as it is since the picture is in black and white and whaddaya talking about real life is in colour!
But yeah, I have a teeny thing for the man. Skinny, tousled longish wavy pale hair and look at that weird scarf he's wearing. I love it. Reminds me of a person I'd rather forget.
We were both looking at the picture when Leda turned to me and said, "Who knows what happened to them afterwards?" That's really The Burning Question of all photography, isn't it? Every picture captures a moment in time; from it you can get a glimpse of its past and a little less and more vaguely, of its future. Most of them you'll never know. I remember this documentary I saw on National Geographic a few years ago about a team of photographers and researchers travelling the whole of Afghanistan searching for a green-eyed girl who was photographed as a child at the time before Taliban rule. The photograph was on the cover of the Nat Geo magazine, you've probably seen it, it shot this unknown Afghan girl to fame without her even knowing it. They wanted to find her so they could photograph her again. Why would they do that? To answer the question. They found her eventually. Her eyes were still green; and like all Afghan women her face was hidden in a black veil; she had children and she looked a little tired. The most amazing thing about photography is that it catches one particular, transient moment and keeps it forever.