Guy Tal | Photographer, Author
This is a reader-supported, ad-free zone. Please consider supporting my work on Patreon.
The fine arts and the hard sciences have more in common than most people believe, because both are driven by dopamine. The poet composing lines about a hopeless lover is not so different from the physicist scribbling formulas about excited electrons. They both require the ability to look beyond the world of the senses into... Continue Reading →
Searching is everything—going beyond what you know. And the test of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you. —Wynn Bullock Winter invites reflection. For some, such end-of-year reflection is tied with traditions or... Continue Reading →
Whatever you do to satisfy yourself will fulfill those in the world who are like you. What takes form within you will be felt outside of yourself. But if you try to satisfy someone else, you will serve neither that person nor yourself. Thus you will never know any peace. —Alfred Stieglitz Almost every time... Continue Reading →
A happy life must be one in which there is activity. If it is also to be a useful life, the activity ought to be as far as possible creative . . . But creative activity requires imagination and originality, which are apt to be subversive of the status quo. —Bertrand Russell In scientific literature,... Continue Reading →
Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself. —Henry Miller A new calendar year... Continue Reading →
This post expands on an article I originally wrote for LensWork Magazine. In this longer version, I incorporated some ideas emerging out of recent thinking about photography’s standing as an art form, relative to other media. These thoughts may lead to more writing on this topic in the coming weeks. As always, if you find... Continue Reading →
The following is a rather prolonged train of thought about misconceptions having to do with the practice of mindfulness and the common advice to "live in the moment." If you find my words and work useful, please consider even a small contribution to help support these writings, which I offer to you without advertising or... Continue Reading →
Sometimes, the only way to discover who you are or what life you should lead is to do less planning and more living—to burst the double bubble of comfort and convention and just do stuff, even if you don’t know precisely where it’s going to lead, because you don’t know precisely where it’s going to... Continue Reading →
We all agree that our senses and emotions are engaged when we look at art, but we do not readily appreciate the prominent role that knowledge plays in this experience. ~Arthur Shimamura Winters are hard in this desert. Hard for me, that is. I am a being maladapted to this environment: improperly equipped to survive... Continue Reading →
Not a guilt trip: It is my intent to offer this blog free of advertising, and free of any expectation of compensation, and you should not feel any guilt at all for reading it as such. I love writing, and I love sharing my ideas. If, however, you wish to show your appreciation with a... Continue Reading →