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
In whatever one does there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the connection between perception and emotion in the creative process.
Henri Cartier-Bressonβs quote suggests that artistry and creativity stem from a deep interplay between visual observation and emotional experience. It implies that for true artistry to emerge, one must not only see with their eyes but also feel with their heart, establishing a relationship that allows for a more profound expression of ideas and feelings through art.
In practice
In a discussion on the importance of emotion in photography, one could use this quote to highlight the significance of feeling.
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).
Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.
An artist cannot be partially sincere any more than art can be an approximation of beauty.
A young man is afraid of his demon and puts his hand over the demon's mouth sometimes and speaks for him. And the things the young man says are very rarely poetry.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.
With a book I am the writer and I am also the director and I'm all of the actors and I'm the special effects guy and the lighting technician: I'm all of that. So if it's good or bad, it's all up to me.
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