Guy Tal | Photographer, Author
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Whether art and beauty can really make man better and stronger is an open question; but one thing is certain: that like the starry firmament they remind us of light, of order and harmony, and of “meaning” amid chaos. —Hermann Hesse Previous installments in this series: Remembering the Future — Part I: Introduction Remembering the... Continue Reading →
To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. —Bertrand Russell This continues Remembering the Future —... Continue Reading →
I live in a time of fear and the fear is not of war or weather or death or poverty or terror. The fear is of life itself. The fear is of tomorrow, a time when things do not get better but become worse. This is the belief of my time. I do not share... Continue Reading →
Today, I share with you more thoughts on the topic of "aboutness," which I discuss in a couple of my books. As always, I offer these essays free of the annoyances of advertising and paywalls. Still, if it is within your means to contribute as little as a couple of dollars to support this blog—the... Continue Reading →
I’ll play it and tell you what it is later. —Miles Davis This is a re-edited version of an article originally published in the online magazine On Landscape. If you are not already a subscriber, I recommend it highly. (Note, this is an unsolicited, unpaid personal recommendation, not an advertisement.) ~~~ Ansel Adams spent much... Continue Reading →
It was my great pleasure recently to speak with Grant Swinbourne's as part of his podcast, Landscape Photography World. My thanks to Grant for featuring me and for the excellent questions. Be sure to check out Grant's archives for more interesting conversations, and subscribe to be notified of future ones. (I happen to know at... Continue Reading →
Announcements: Ask Me Anything Philosophical: Today’s post was inspired by Jason Pettit's comments on my previous post, Sub Specie Aeternitatis. After many years of writing primarily about photography, hoping to inspire readers to pursue it with more seriousness and creativity, I’d like to extend my range of topics into one of my other passions: philosophy,... Continue Reading →
To speak of “reading” a picture is appropriate but dangerous at the same time because it suggests a comparison with verbal language, and linguistic analogies, although fashionable, have greatly complicated our understanding of perceptual experiences everywhere. —Rudolf Arnheim Generalizations are dangerous things. Sweeping statements, even if true in some cases (or even if true in... Continue Reading →
Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor. You will find every day that the gable of every house has its own particular look, its own... Continue Reading →
Art is too complex and diverse to be explicable in terms of a single category such as the aesthetic. ‘Artistic value’ is constituted by a set of different kinds of value. The modes of appreciating art, the means to understanding art, the kinds of objects that are artworks are also all plural. —Robert Stecker There... Continue Reading →