My sister, Julie, used to do sports photography for a university and she would tell me about timing. Catching the moment on film. That shot. That one.
In those years – gosh, I think it would have been the 1970’s – they were just coming out with cameras that could shoot the continuously. But what she said was: the really good photographer would be so connected to the action that she/he could catch the crucial instant. The auto camera would miss that milli-second.
I loved that. That level of precision. That MOMENT.
On the flip side, there is the blur. There is action that one sees and it happens so fast that you – you who are there watching – sense it as this indistinguishable blur. Not one moment separable from the next.
It’s that kind of indistinct sense of movement that I seek to capture in this piece. The eye might recall one vivid detail of the action. The rest: what just went by? That sense of having seen and wanting to capture it but – it’s gone.
Somewhere, the mind has registered that whole movement as a moment. That moment. That one.
“the unfathomable sublimity of a random moment … might revive the determination o rid oneself of life’s weight of self-doubt… Or a moment of staggering beauty might reignite the intention … to lead a life of great meaning…” Horizon, by Barry Lopez