I like the number 99 because I feel it's the epitome of "almost". I like it even more because as a written number, it actually looks more perfect and balanced to me than 100. One with OCD might even itch to rearrange 100 it so it would read 010. Of course, doing that would take away it's validity. Would it? Maybe not to the person who just fixed a very unbalanced item. I guess what I mean with all of this is that what's perfect to one person might not be perfect to another, etc, etc. I really have no idea where I'm going with this, and I'm not going to nerd out and start giving Latin root meanings of the word perfection. However, deeming something as perfect basically represents finishing or bringing an end to something. Therefore, if something is perfect...well, that's all. It needs no more work...no more improvement.
To me, imperfection is more desirable. Recognizing the flaws in ourselves and the world around us, being humbled by those flaws, and spending a lifetime making improvements are what help us to grow. We follow this pattern on individual levels all the time, and especially through art. Art is imperfect, but art can be beautiful. It can also be ugly, yet force us to think about why we feel it's ugly. If art were perfect, there would be no art. I used this picture to represent these thoughts. When I took the shot I got really excited because my first thought was that (at least) symmetrically I had taken the "perfect picture". In reality, it was just the way the scene lined up, along with the way the center line was created at that very second to make the single shot look like two separate ones fused together. I got lucky. Furthermore, though I still love this image, I can look more closely and find flaws. This is why photography is my therapy. Photography is never about the perfect photo, but about the perfect moment. I have to be given the perfect moment, no matter how incredible the subject may be. Therefore, so much of it is out of my control. Even when everything comes together to create an amazing image, it's still almost perfect.
It's the other way around in spanish; "cien" is much more harmonious and elegant than "noventa y nueve".
ReplyDeleteStill, I can't but wholeheartedly agree on your photographic reflections.
Richard Avedon once said:
"The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth."
And that's basically it. Everything one would like to know about photography in a single sentence (well... 4).
Accuracy is overrated, focus is overrated, as is sharpness and essentially any other attribute you may want to quantify in a pic.
A photograph either works or it doesn't. And it's a completely subjective matter, we can spend hours taking an image apart but -while it is an interesting exercise in knowing what makes photography click for you- you need just a split second to know if a picture connects with you or not.
In this case, I enjoyed your capture, flaws and all :)
Love that Avedon quote...so true. Glad we're both still clicking and snapping away!
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