The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
I believe that, through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us.
Interpretation
Self-discovery and understanding of the world go hand in hand.
The quote by Henri Cartier-Bresson suggests that as we navigate through life and engage with the world around us, we also undergo a process of self-discovery. It implies that our experiences in life shape our understanding of ourselves, and conversely, our understanding of the world contributes to our personal growth.
In practice
During a graduation speech to emphasize the importance of personal growth.
The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
Photographier: c'est mettre sur la meme ligne de mire la tete, l'oeil et le coeur.
Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eyenology (seeing).
The desert could not be claimed or owned β it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East ... All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.
Tension is the great integrity.
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.
Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
A prayer that must have a cannon behind it better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers.
The predominance of mind is no more than a stage in the evolution of consciousness. We need to go on to the next stage now as a matter of urgency; otherwise, we will be destroyed by the mind, which has grown into a monster.
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