Guy Tal | Photographer, Author
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Announcements: My new e-book, Future Hindsights, will be available for purchase from my website on Friday, May 15th. I will post an announcement and link on this blog when I release it. If you wish to receive the announcement and my regular blog articles via email, please subscribe here. If you wish to purchase autographed copies... Continue Reading →
What is a poet? An unhappy man who in his heart harbors a deep anguish, but whose lips are so fashioned that the moans and cries which pass over them are transformed into ravishing music. ... And men crowd about the poet and say to him, “Sing for us soon again”—which is as much as... Continue Reading →
Upcoming Ebook: Future Hindsights I am happy to announce that I am in the final stages of producing my next Ebook: Future Hindsights / Selected Writings on Photography and Experience. This will be the first in a series of 3 upcoming titles (the other two will focus on Photography and Art, and Photography and Philosophy). From... Continue Reading →
Without music, life would be a mistake. —Friedrich Nietzsche Previous installments in this series: Amor Fati—Part I: Introduction Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebellion In his poem, The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry confessed, “When despair for the world grows in me […] I come into the peace of wild... Continue Reading →
Don’t ask, “Is my attitude toward life the right one?”—to that question there is no answer. Every attitude is as right as every other, all are a part of life. Ask instead, “Since I am as I am, since I have these particular needs and problems which seem to be spared so many others, what... Continue Reading →
If we lose ourselves in contemplation of the infinite greatness of the universe in space and time, meditate on the past millennia and on those to come; or if the heavens at night actually bring innumerable worlds before our eyes, and so impress on our consciousness the immensity of the universe, we feel ourselves reduced... Continue Reading →
My yearning no longer paints dreamy colors across the veiled distances, my eyes are satisfied with what exists, because they have learned to see. The world has become lovelier than before. The world has become lovelier. I am alone, and I don’t suffer from my loneliness. I don’t want life to be anything other than... 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 →
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 →