Weekly #8 -- Monday, December 31, 2018

To take photographs means to recognize — simultaneously and within a fraction of a second — both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.

— Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Mind’s Eye (Aperture)

This statement, made by Henri Cartier-Bresson in “The Mind’s Eye”, may be what first caused me to consider a possible connection between photographs (and images more generally) and myself. The last sentence is what got me (and still does).

I could just feel it. “It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis”. When this occurs, we are able to see things as they truly are… at the time called “now”. Not only are things an extension of ourselves, they are us and we them.

Henri Cartier-Bresson also said that “For me the camera is a sketch book”. In addition to being a photographer, he was also a painter and an author. I like to think that he applied this idea of head+eye+heart to all imagery (and creativity).

Happy New Year! Be safe!