SY Hsu on photography and his "Strangers" picture album (translated by Nevin):
"I always thought that if I managed to photograph somebody often enough, I could never lose them. My photographs are, however, the proof of how much I have lost" – Nan Goldin, contemporary photographer
As you start taking the first picture of someting, you are doomed to face the prospect of losing the same. In my recently published picture album, there are all works of mine about the smiles belonging to but me. Almost without knowing it, I have taken pictures of the smiling faces of numerous ladies. But I am ended up with loniness by my side instead of the ladies I have somewhat fancied.
The good however best it is will be gone one day. We are obliged to take gain and no gain as the two sides of the coin of reality. Now this side shows, now the other side shows. This is especially true when the "gain" is by way of photography, which impresses the gain and no gain on the same space of an image. Only after then will the photographer realise that there is nothing really gained.
The traces of time have been left to different extents on us, be them physical or psychological. The distance between strangeness and familiarity is always shorter than you can imagine from an image, which only affords us a bit of a distance.
(Published by courtesy and with copyright of SY Hsu)
Comments