I didn't understand
why these photographers wanted to experience the world through a lens.
To me at that time, it was almost as if they were creating a 2D world
from a 3D reality. I spent nearly 10 years doing my best to be a part
of my environments. Experiencing as much as possible from as many
perspectives as i could.
My photos were flash grabbed moments that helped me remember faces
and places, a memory cue to accompany my journals. For me the camera
remembered the drinking partners and places i was no longer able to.
Then one day in India, i met a man with a camera. Joseph was a 'professional'
photographer from Canada, Yet all he had with him was a manual, black,
old fashioned looking camera of the likes i had never seen. It required
no batteries to operate and was almost silent . To be honest i thought
it looked like a heap of junk next to my sleek silver super-compact.
As we walked through the dusty streets he clicked, wound on and clicked
again, every step he looked, observed, made adjustments on the lens
and never once lifted the camera to his eye.
I did not understand. He continued almost invisibly stealing fractions
of a second from peoples lives. Their expressions, their interaction,
their story.
As he clicked, i watched and something clicked in me. Suddenly i realised
how big the world really was and that somewhere, everything is happening.
