The blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye.
Jacques DerridaRead
Whatever precautions you take so the photograph will look like this or that, there comes a moment when the photograph surprises you. It is the other's gaze that wins out and decides.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Photography can capture unexpected moments that reveal deeper perspectives beyond the artist's control.
This quote by Jacques Derrida highlights the unpredictable nature of photography, suggesting that despite the careful planning and precautions a photographer may take, the true essence of a photograph often lies in the spontaneous aspects that emerge in the moment. It emphasizes the idea that the viewer's interpretation and emotional response to the photograph can sometimes hold more significance than the photographer's original intention, making the act of viewing a collaborative experience between the image and the observer.
Themes
PhotographyArtPerspectiveUnexpectedGaze
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a photography workshop to encourage students to embrace spontaneity in their work.
More from Jacques Derrida
All quotes →Everything is arranged so that it be this way, this is what is called culture.
Jacques DerridaRead
No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn't understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language.
Jacques DerridaRead
Psychoanalysis has taught that the dead – a dead parent, for example – can be more alive for us, more powerful, more scary, than the living. It is the question of ghosts.
Jacques DerridaRead
The trace I leave to me means at once my death, to come or already come, and the hope that it will survive me. It is not an ambition of immortality; it is fundamental. I leave here a bit of paper, I leave, I die; it is impossible to exit this structure; it is the unchanging form of my life. Every time I let something go, I live my death in writing.
Jacques DerridaRead
Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology.
Jacques DerridaRead
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