There comes a moment when it is no longer you who takes the photograph, but receives the way to do it quite naturally and fully.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea of letting creativity flow naturally rather than forcing it.
Sebastiao Salgado suggests that there is a pivotal moment in artistic expression, particularly in photography, where the artist stops consciously trying to create art and instead allows themselves to be guided by instinct and a deeper understanding of their craft. It highlights the importance of being in tune with oneβs intuition and the natural flow of creativity, emphasizing that true artistry arises from a place of authenticity rather than calculation.
In practice
This quote can be referenced during a photography workshop to inspire participants to trust their instincts.
I have a way to photograph. You work with space, you have a camera, you have a frame, and then a fraction of a second. It's very instinctive. What you do is a fraction of a second, it's there and it's not there. But in this fraction of a second comes your past, comes your future, comes your relation with people, comes your ideology, comes your hate, comes your love - all together in this fraction of a second, it materializes there.
As in any person's life, there have been difficult moments: I have a son with Down's syndrome; through my photography, I have witnessed all manner of human degradation. But there have also been very happy moments.
There are moments that you suffer a lot, moments you won't photograph. There are some people you like better than others. But you give, you receive, you cherish, you are there. When you are really there, you know when you see the picture later what you are seeing.
So many times I've photographed stories that show the degradation of the planet. I had one idea to go and photograph the factories that were polluting, and to see all the deposits of garbage. But, in the end, I thought the only way to give us an incentive, to bring hope, is to show the pictures of the pristine planet - to see the innocence.
In the end, the only heritage we have is our planet, and I have decided to go to the most pristine places on the planet and photograph them in the most honest way I know, with my point of view, and of course it is in black and white, because it is the only thing I know how to do.
My way of photographing is my way of life. I photograph from my experience, my way of seeing things.
At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.
When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art.
The starting point of a picture for any painter is a matter of colors and form...I believe that the poetry of art - if that is what one may call it - is a matter of animating these forms and colors.
Only write to me, write to me, I love to see the hop and skip and sudden starts of your ink.
The true function of art is to criticize, embellish and edit nature⦠the artist is a sort of impassioned proof-reader, blue penciling the bad spelling of God.
My poems tend to have rhetorical structures; what I mean by that is they tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There tends to be an opening, as if you were reading the opening chapter of a novel. They sound like I'm initiating something, or I'm making a move.
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