Miraculously, although he died around the year I started to take my first photographs (1968), in the first half of last century John Steinbeck knew EXACTLY why I love photography so much in 2011.
So I exaggerate. But I was so pleased to recently discover these beautiful words:
"As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment." - John Steinbeck
I think Mr. Steinbeck was probably describing something we've all experienced countless times, and perhaps this is his description of what he aspired to capture in his writing - the slowing down of time, such that minute details in his words might weave the essence of a scene, a place, a face, a gesture, and the timeless undercurrent of meaning and significance represented by that moment.
Those moments which come to symbolize our human experience have a universal quality to them, because they encapsulate our dreams, fears, memories, and aspirations.
Writers aspire, and so do photographers, to portray these slowed-down and stopped moments with their words and their images.
It's been 3 decades since I read John Steinbeck, and I need to change that.
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