Thursday, 3 July 2008

her whole life



My desire for her was desire for her whole life: a desire that was full of pain, because I sensed it was unattainable.

Proust
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16 comments:

  1. Kubla Khan3 July 2008 at 21:10

    Hello

    Perhaps pictures and photos can capture an unspeakable essence in certain times of our lives, for apart from poses, they are attitudes. a deliberate pose is a statement, for instance in this photograph of yours and the more unapproachable it gets, the more mysterious.
    however, the candid solitude that nature presents or the careless pose of someone unawares, that, only that reflects the true essence of things or can.
    that does not mean photos or pictures are not true but they are thus only acts of creation, like a poem say.
    the true essence of beauty lies in a wild sadness and some pictures of yours are truly that. i will visit your harem more often.

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  2. James Owens4 July 2008 at 01:43

    I like kubla khan's just phrase "a wild sadness" in describing your photographs. That seems right to me. This image never releases its last secrets, which may be another definition of beauty (and it is a beautiful image that I like very much).

    Though I do read this as "unposed," it seems hard, finally, to make the distinction between the posed and the unposed shot, since even the unplanned photograph is still the one chosen and framed by the photographer, the one the photographer has elected to display out of, perhaps, many others that were discarded. Maybe one could talk about a difference in intention for the photographer and the subject of the photograph.... but I don't know how. Or maybe the difference between "posed" and "unposed" is ultimately a difference in the viewer's expectation?

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  3. Shuddho4 July 2008 at 06:14

    true...when you observe you change

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  4. Roxana5 July 2008 at 00:52

    kubla: I would leave that "perhaps" aside, in your first sentence. and I would say that, on the contrary, this next sentence of yours needs the modal modifier I took out of the first one :-) : "however, the candid solitude that nature presents or the careless pose of someone unawares, that, PERHAPS only that reflects the true essence of things". because I think a statement, a deliberate pose can do this also. however, anhaga is right - in this case it was not a "deliberate pose", what made you think that? still, my framing of the picture is of course a deliberate act and this leaves open all the questions raised by anhaga.

    "wild sadness" as essence of beauty - here I could agree, but again, why do I feel the need for "maybe" once more, when I talk to you? maybe beauty is this, but maybe something else also, and much more than all this and than all that can be named.

    harem, ha :-) I wonder: if Scheherazade had shown the king a picture every night, instead of telling him a story, would she have survived? and for how long? would this lead to a "ut pictura poesis" sui generis? :-) I somehow doubt that, still this could be the exciting beginning of an "aesthetics in the harem", after all, we already have the "philosophy in the bedroom". but I wonder who would write it :-)

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  5. Roxana5 July 2008 at 01:12

    james!!! are you back? yes, you are back! :-) I am so glad!

    I have already answered to kubla and referred to your very interesting questions. I like your hesitation between intentionalist and anti-intentionalist theories of interpretation :-) and leaving the door open for a kind of "viewer-response criticism" :-)

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  6. Roxana5 July 2008 at 01:14

    but kubla, I forget: I love this too, what you wrote about my pictures, that they express a "wild sadness". it is very beautiful and I really thank you for saying it. and for seeing it.

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  7. Roxana5 July 2008 at 01:27

    zuma, you think the uncertainty principle applies in photography also? :-)

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  8. Ffflaneur5 July 2008 at 20:04

    "I wonder: if Scheherazade had shown the king a picture every night, instead of telling him a story, would she have survived? (yes!) and for how long? (long!) would this lead to a "ut pictura poesis" sui generis? :-) I somehow doubt that (why?) , still this could be the exciting beginning of an "aesthetics in the harem", after all, we already have the "philosophy in the bedroom". but I wonder who would write it :-)"

    YOU would write it .... in your next post, my dear - the enthralled public insists!

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  9. Roxana6 July 2008 at 11:31

    ahahahah :-) dearest ffflaneur :-)
    I don't know, I think in a way people respond much more to words, or that it is much easier to get obsessed with words, and be fascinated with them, then with pictures, images don't get hold of you in this passionate, possessive way... I was thinking about this, that even here people react much more to the words, to the poetical context in which I embed the image, and that it wouldn't be the same if I just showed the image by itself...

    let me think about that harem-aesthetics, hmmm :-) oh, your vote of confidence honours me, but I don't think I could pull off such an exploit :-)

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  10. Shuddho7 July 2008 at 04:10

    ofcourse...is there a better example? both are about light falling on objects, i believe. though my science is a little rusty...

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  11. Anonymous8 July 2008 at 11:22

    Sorry, I couldn't make heads or tails of this picture. Who or what is it? Is it someone floating to the ceiling or a giant bored of watching t.v., perhaps? Or someone trying to smother themselves with a pillow? A suicide or an attempt to stop laughing?


    You must tell. Some of your pictures are so disorienting. I can't make out the angles.

    As for the harem that Mr. Kubla Khan mentions: where is it?

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  12. Roxana11 July 2008 at 01:25

    anonymous, hi :-)
    well, if Mr. Khan sees the harem and ffflaneur and I talk about it, then maybe you should start wondering why _you_ cannot see it. and I ask myself whether this is only a problem of "angles" or it goes deeper than that :-P

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  13. Anonymous11 July 2008 at 05:49

    Hello, roxana! :)

    Well, seeing isn't always believing! A fish in the great sea does not "see " it, does not "talk" about it: the fish knows there are no maps for it, that there never are for true places; it is just "in" it-and that is all that counts. If he finds his way, he finds his way.

    Yes, perhaps it goes deeper..

    See the fish
    in the sea
    deep down
    deep down
    density

    Bird-colored
    flower-colored
    dark;
    grey, wild hunger

    Open eye
    and open mouth
    search the water
    north and south.

    There are mountains
    in the sea;
    oh, deep down
    deep down
    density.

    --W.Bronk.

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  14. Ffflaneur11 July 2008 at 11:37

    (in delayed chat mode )
    oh, here we go again ;-) !! : words versus visuals!

    Of course words and stories unfold in time and so can captivate people by the “what’s next” . Whereas a photo, having captured an instant, charms us on the spot. But then again, as a frozen image, a photo (or painting) may also mesmerize us into enduring contemplation …
    But I admit that it is not very likely that the lure of contemplation would keep a lusty bloodthirsty king from murder, his predatory instincts would indeed rather need the thrill of a cliffhanger to be deceived. :-)
    (a modern Scheherazade might thus resort to a daily TV-soap to keep the king hooked)

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  15. Roxana13 July 2008 at 23:34

    anonymous, hi :-) I didn't get your analogy, you mean you couldn't see the harem because you were in it, just like the little fish in the big sea? :-P that would be strange.
    but I loved the poem, thank you.

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  16. Roxana13 July 2008 at 23:42

    ffflaneur, yes :-) here we go again! and it is not strange that after all this time we still have to go back to Lessing's Laookon ? maybe to make a puzzle game out of a picture would be also a solution, then we would free the image out of its spatial boundaries and allow it a temporal development - yes, I could show you one picture per week, each evening another puzzle piece :-)

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