“And I think that’s what I’m always chasing, even when the pictures look quiet: that thin line where the solid world and the moving world touch each other.”
I’ve heard this referred to as a “liminal space” which is where dreams and creativity and new insights are born. Excellent essay on a complex topic, Tomasz! 👏
Thank you, Baird — I love that connection. “Liminal space” is exactly the kind of word that points to what I’m trying to name: that threshold where something ordinary turns slightly uncanny and alive, and a new meaning can slip in. Really appreciate you reading it that way.
In all due respect, I have to question the concept of a photograph needing an explanation like this. It’s a personal journey, introspective and deep, but perhaps most relevant to the photographer and not necessarily the audience. Let’s be honest, if anyone was drawn to this image, in a gallery, it would be in wonderment of why it was there. I’m not drawn into the narration at all, sorry. But here I am, discussing it and occupying my mind with it. So to that end, It’s touched me, not necessarily as intended.
Paul — thank you for taking the time to say this so candidly. I don’t see the text as required to “justify” the photograph; it’s simply one possible doorway into how I was seeing, for anyone who enjoys that kind of backstage access. And honestly, the fact that it made you stop, question it, and think about the image at all feels like a meaningful outcome in itself.
In retrospect, I didn't mean to be personal, your image and narrative were presented to me, and I reacted more in a general frame of my own journey for meaning in photography, perhaps my own photography. I just think, that particularly in photography, especially my photography, the story needs to be in the image, not words. Please forgive my criticism of your story, journey and process. It’s not really what I wanted to say. I’m just always on a quest to understand why we shoot and why we/they look. What is it that draws us to create and draws others to appreciate an image. To stop, look and feel. What is the point? Today the world is flooded with images, Perhaps billions taken everyday. In my travels I find myself often impressed with the poetic, descriptive interpretation of the curators. Often, too much so. How often have we been drawn into the story of a paintings by way of an audio tour by the words of the creative narrative of the curator reveling history of the artist, subject, times, place and painting. I’m at odds to equate that need or interest of those details to photography. I’m thinking it through.
Much of today’s exhibitions of art/photography is lifted by salesmanship as much as by the work itself, wrapped in confident adjectives, theory, and spin that tell us how to see it. Remove that language and the effect often fades—like the emperor’s new clothes—leaving little that would persuade on its own. At the same time, the act of curating has become an art unto itself: the selection, framing, and storytelling can be genuinely creative, sometimes carrying as much or even more meaning than the individual pieces. In those moments, it’s the context—not the object—that does the real work.
Sometimes adjectives and story lines of spin are conjured up to describe, justify and defend works of art. I know it’s to the beholder and I don’t think it matters who likes what, except for those trying to make a living off of it. Sorry for the ramble.
Sometimes my photos are pre-visualised and, other times, they are instinctive and reactive. I don't get to show my photos to many people (in fact, I shoot only for myself and hope that anyone else who sees them likes them - but it's okay if they don't).
I am exactly the same way with many images, Tomasz, and separately I really enjoy this one. And in.. not a rebuttal exactly, but in response to Paul, of course the image does not need an explanation. For those of us who enjoy learning about others' creative processes, it's welcomed. And then, in _direct_ rebuttal, buyers often really eat up the back stories; they help sell art in galleries. Back stories are never enough by themselves, but when a prospective buyer lingers in front of a piece, or asks any questions at all, if the gallerist then shares a back story or two, that can seal a deal. That's why they do it; it works.
“And I think that’s what I’m always chasing, even when the pictures look quiet: that thin line where the solid world and the moving world touch each other.”
I’ve heard this referred to as a “liminal space” which is where dreams and creativity and new insights are born. Excellent essay on a complex topic, Tomasz! 👏
Thank you, Baird — I love that connection. “Liminal space” is exactly the kind of word that points to what I’m trying to name: that threshold where something ordinary turns slightly uncanny and alive, and a new meaning can slip in. Really appreciate you reading it that way.
In all due respect, I have to question the concept of a photograph needing an explanation like this. It’s a personal journey, introspective and deep, but perhaps most relevant to the photographer and not necessarily the audience. Let’s be honest, if anyone was drawn to this image, in a gallery, it would be in wonderment of why it was there. I’m not drawn into the narration at all, sorry. But here I am, discussing it and occupying my mind with it. So to that end, It’s touched me, not necessarily as intended.
Paul — thank you for taking the time to say this so candidly. I don’t see the text as required to “justify” the photograph; it’s simply one possible doorway into how I was seeing, for anyone who enjoys that kind of backstage access. And honestly, the fact that it made you stop, question it, and think about the image at all feels like a meaningful outcome in itself.
In retrospect, I didn't mean to be personal, your image and narrative were presented to me, and I reacted more in a general frame of my own journey for meaning in photography, perhaps my own photography. I just think, that particularly in photography, especially my photography, the story needs to be in the image, not words. Please forgive my criticism of your story, journey and process. It’s not really what I wanted to say. I’m just always on a quest to understand why we shoot and why we/they look. What is it that draws us to create and draws others to appreciate an image. To stop, look and feel. What is the point? Today the world is flooded with images, Perhaps billions taken everyday. In my travels I find myself often impressed with the poetic, descriptive interpretation of the curators. Often, too much so. How often have we been drawn into the story of a paintings by way of an audio tour by the words of the creative narrative of the curator reveling history of the artist, subject, times, place and painting. I’m at odds to equate that need or interest of those details to photography. I’m thinking it through.
Much of today’s exhibitions of art/photography is lifted by salesmanship as much as by the work itself, wrapped in confident adjectives, theory, and spin that tell us how to see it. Remove that language and the effect often fades—like the emperor’s new clothes—leaving little that would persuade on its own. At the same time, the act of curating has become an art unto itself: the selection, framing, and storytelling can be genuinely creative, sometimes carrying as much or even more meaning than the individual pieces. In those moments, it’s the context—not the object—that does the real work.
Sometimes adjectives and story lines of spin are conjured up to describe, justify and defend works of art. I know it’s to the beholder and I don’t think it matters who likes what, except for those trying to make a living off of it. Sorry for the ramble.
Muy oportuna y conseguida
Thank you so much, Luis.
Sometimes my photos are pre-visualised and, other times, they are instinctive and reactive. I don't get to show my photos to many people (in fact, I shoot only for myself and hope that anyone else who sees them likes them - but it's okay if they don't).
I am exactly the same way with many images, Tomasz, and separately I really enjoy this one. And in.. not a rebuttal exactly, but in response to Paul, of course the image does not need an explanation. For those of us who enjoy learning about others' creative processes, it's welcomed. And then, in _direct_ rebuttal, buyers often really eat up the back stories; they help sell art in galleries. Back stories are never enough by themselves, but when a prospective buyer lingers in front of a piece, or asks any questions at all, if the gallerist then shares a back story or two, that can seal a deal. That's why they do it; it works.
I understand what you are feeling
I sometimes sat for hours waiting for the movement to happen.