Vive la France!

Yea, that movie reminded me of a great holiday in the south of France a few weeks ago (I cannot believe it's only a few weeks ago!). Ah boy, it was a good time! The picture as shown above was probably the best picture I did during those eight days. A pretty poor result if you ask me! Somehow I couldn't be bothered and it took me a few days to figure out why I didn't "see photo's". Partly because of being in great company (one should take photo's alone), partly because the weather wasn't great... but I also realised: all these French medieval villages are so flippin' pitoresque there's nothing I could possibly add to that. Their beauty is just too obvious. I actually love ugliness and unusualness, because it gives me the ability to add something to it, to open my own and other peoples' eyes to its hidden beauty.

I just read this great attempt at a definition of photo's, it's in Dutch:

"Het fotografische is gewijd aan het onmiddelijke, de verduurzaming van het ogenblik, het permanente nu: foto's hebben geen duur, ze worden gemaakt in een fractie van een seconde, het zijn splinters van de tijd sporen van de ruimte. Alleen het fragment van het heden bestaat echt in het fotografische bewustzijn, niet de continuïteit, de reis door de tijd." A. Mulder

Translating it would take another ten minutes and I'm already taking too long here. But basically it says that photography is dedicated to the immediate, photo's don't last, only a fragment of the present excists in the photographic conscience, no continuity, no journey through time. I need to reflect on that a bit more I guess!