The opposite is useful

© Eduardo Ruigómez

"All things come into being by conflict of opposites. The world is one and all." Heraclitus

"If the answers limit us to what we believe, to know the questions drive us beyond. Always beyond." Daniel Hood upon a reflection of William Merton H.

Which are the topics that may interest us when photographing? This is not a trivial matter, certain nihilism can invade us if the creative activity lacks substance. The emergence of frantic activity to make pictures with mobiles, present in many of the facets of our life, invites to a consideration on various questions that can help us understand the crazy explosion of images that we produce. New technologies have enormously stimulated communications, everything is much easier and now accessible: speaking when and with whom we want, wherever they are, or travelling to any remote place on Earth.

The photography also participates in that sense of ease that spreads like a millpond everywhere. We celebrate the fact that you can enjoy more than ever in history, but there is something that we are losing on the road. If we don't apply counterpoints that bring us to think about other options, our intellectual action radius is reduced gradually. Our vision is numbed and and we choose the easiest way, the most familiar one. The practice of a profession or a hobby involves daring to cross the borders of heaven and hell, but yes, crossing the earthly mud. The photography supports a myriad of spaces, themes, formats, textures and colors.*

Why the Impressionists used the camera to paint?, why the text is an intruder in the photography?, if the picture becomes painting and merges text and image, who puts up barriers to the creation?, what are the sources that feed our wits?, do we seek the invisible harmony that alters our ability to create?, do we stop to think about what we really want to get?, can inspiration beat to the insistence resource?, does repetition stand for a mechanism of insecurity, or a lack of new ideas?, do we camouflage creativity under the umbrella of the mantra of having our own personal style? I quote Heraclitus once again: "The opposite is useful. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony."

We have a luxurious deployment to explore, test, fix or alter at hand. Definitely, it is an essential exercise in search of the unknown and daring to work with twisted look. Cartier-Bresson masterfully expresses it: "A velvet hand, a hawk's eye: these we should all have."

*List of consulted subjects in the books of Life The Photography: love, fugitive emissions, work and leisure, faith and think, still life, portrait, couple, woman, man, child, group, nude, nature, animals, coast, rock, earth, war...