I am in the process of reviewing photographs from the past few years to see whether there are images that I overlooked originally and now find interesting. It has surprised me how many images I found that I wanted to work on again, given the growth in my editing skills and the new tools that I have available.
Today, I worked on images from early 2013 in Hawaii. Some are from areas where volcanic flows create stark dark landscapes. Others are from a site along the ocean where ruins of an ancient Hawaiian village can be explored. In both sets of images, it is the light that struck me when I originally made the photographs and again today as I was reviewing them.
The word photography literally means “writing with light” and I find it so apt. The thing that takes an ordinary view of something and elevates it into something special and beautiful for me, is often the light. In paintings, the ones that speak to me capture a sense of light.
But no matter which photographic technique is used, there is always one thing, and one thing only, that remains: the light. Photo-graphy: The writing of light. The light of photography remains proper to the image. Photographic light is not “realistic” or “natural.” It is not artificial either. Rather, this light is the very imagination of the image, its own thought. It does not emanate from one single source, but from two different, dual ones: the object and the gaze. “The image stands at the junction of a light which comes from the object and another which comes from the gaze” (Plato). — Jean Baudrillard
When I make photographs I look for the light. And I spread the light whenever I can. I prefer to see and imagine the things that bring joy and light to life rather than focus on the dark and painful parts of life. It’s not that I’m unaware of all of the difficulty, pain and craziness in the world. I am.
But I believe that we must focus on moving towards what is good, true, and real, rather than focusing on all that is wrong in our lives. We use a different part of our brains when we are using what is called “approach behavior” versus when we are problem-solving and it opens us up to new possibilities, new realities.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. — Albert Einstein
How about you? Do you look for the light in your life? Do you focus on possibilities or problems?
May you walk in beauty.
Take a look at the “new” old images that spoke to me of light today.
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