On the banks
Thinking about my application for the Eddie Adams Workshop this year, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I photograph and what I choose to photograph. In his book “Photosynthesis,” Bryan Moss talks about photographers choosing to photograph life “in the stream” or “on the banks,”- the world’s action and trauma versus a more subtle drama of daily life. I hold up this metaphor as getting at what I want to do with my work, but I don’t think I’ve been exactly able to articulate why.
Enter my brother looking over my 300 word application statement:
“Now, a moment comes to mind out of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha: towards the end of the book, Siddhartha discovers the holy ohm while sitting on the river bank. The bank itself is static, but it overlooks the river through which all water must pass. From a single point of reference, the interconnectedness of the world is experienced.”
Word.
