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Home 2004
"There are times when one would like words to have the lightness of images, to settle on things with the delicacy of a feather. I envy the agility of the photographer's grasp. Hardly has a word been formed than it is weighed and tips the scale. Never exactly right. Always a little too heavy for what it has to say. Doubtless one can change it, find another. But each time its weight is measured in ink and lead. Doubtless one can amend it, correct it, nuance it, make it more explicit. But this is to pile weight on to existing heaviness. A photograph retains the light and airy aspect of the camera's click. It is like the 'dicky bird' which, it is said, emerges when the shot is taken: little soul, Hadrian's animula, vagula, blandula, it escapes to animate, to breathe life onto the photographer's negative, and therefore all people are right to fear its power...... |
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.....It sides with the angels, Daniel, Ariel, Gabriel, the sound of its wings a murmur across the sky, while the word remains grey and grounded. There is no escape from words, but photography is blessed with the gift of grace. The print, once selected, remains both immaterial and irrefutable."
Jean Clair on Henri Cartier Bresson |
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