Iain S. Thomas on Heart:
I am saying: risk squeezing your heart, because I believe there's goodness there, for both you and the world.Sure, maybe it'll be made of stone.
But if you squeeze it hard enough, you'll get blood
via The Risks of Never Reaching Inside Your Own Chest by Iain S. Thomas.
If you’re lucky, the horrible thing that happens gives you some distance from the world and it lets you to look at it in a way no one else does. [..]Because you’re the lucky one.
via The Horrible Thing That Happens by I Wrote this for You (Iain S. Thomas.
Tim Winton on Humane and Heart:
there was a quality to it I later recognised as humane. I didn’t just take shelter from it; I took heart.
via SPURNED NO LONGER by Tim Winton.
And so she was and so I did.
[1] Bella - Inscription "The freedom to be who you are and to enjoy what is!" - Sculpture by Greg James.
Tim Winton on Looking and Stories:
It was a picture you fell into. You could look at it for the rest of your life and still wonder what the story was.
Mary Ellen Mark on the Thrill of Street Photography and :
From the very first moment I took pictures [on the streets of Philadelphia], I loved it. The thrill was the idea of just being on a street, turning a corner and looking for something to see. It was just an amazing feeling. Photography became my obsession. In a way it’s not so different when I go out to work now. It’s just that now I have years of experience in knowing how to use that little machine in front of me – at least better than I used it then. When it’s good and interesting it’s still that feeling of being on the street and wondering — God, I love this! - what’s going to happen next?
via Celebrating the legacy of photographer Mary Ellen Mark, dead at age 75 by Nicole Crowder.
Tim Winton on Havoc:
Afterwards, despite the happy outcome, you are, of course, a f'ing mess. What you have been, all through your moment of extremity, is a casual-sounding robot. The state you’ve been in is probably nothing short of hysterical. Maybe that’s who you are.
Spencer Lum on Vision, Dreams, Hopes and Purpose::
the moment we give up our vision in favor of the common and the accepted is the moment we lose touch with our dreams, hopes, and even our purpose. The things that make us the most human and the most powerful.
via What I learned from living my desperate life by Spencer Lum.
Garry Kasparov on Dreams and Happiness:
If you always have a dream, the happiest day of your life is never over.
via Saint Louis University 2015 Spring Commencement Address - May 16, 2015 by Garry Kasparov.
Sarah Pabst on Dreams and Flying:
hoping that this night I’ll dream of flying.
via I'll dream of flying by Sarah Pabst.
Sarah Pabst on Photography, Story Telling and Responsibility:
To me, photography is a way to tell someone’s story through your very subjective and emotional view. I am not interested in the big issues, but in the small stories of people anyone would listen to. To these people that let me be a part of their lives for a moment that can be a miserable, difficult or also euphoric one, I have a responsibility.
Kate Geraghty on Trust, Respect and Photography:
It's a privilege to meet people and for them to trust us enough to tell us their story, [..] each one of them has to be given the respect to tell their story.
Via Photographer Kate Geraghty on the privilege of witnessing history by Joel Meares.
Trent Parke on Memory and Photography:
I’m really interested in the subconscious and memory and how those things can suddenly re-surface, especially through photographs.
There is no one way to do anything in life. There is no path to take to get you to the magic garden. It’s inside you and always was. It’s up to you to fight and say,
I am me and good or bad, these are my photos. I love them because they are me and I am them and they do not exist without me and I don’t want to exist without them.That means that you have committed to your work and committed to make a signature that you recognize.
Via Living With Street Talk … Living With Yourself by StreetShooter.
Colin Pantall on Photography and Remembering:
It's strange how one remembers things without being aware on any conscious level of why one remembers or how one remembers. [..]Perhaps it might be good to reach elsewhere for our ideas on photography, outside the small, incestuous world of photo-theory so that we can add to and enrich our understanding of how images work with added engagement and added interest. Today, cognitive and social psychology might be good places to start. [..]
I can't help but feel that there is also an element of the false memory (more of which in a different post) and wish fulfilment in there as well.
The idea that when we see those happy pictures, we remember them and feel that those happy times will come again.
Elia Viviani on Belief:
It has taken time to achieve, but I’ve always believed in myself, I’ve never given up, and I think I’ve done it in the best way today.
via Matthews moves into Giro d’Italia lead as Viviani takes stage 2 by Shane Stokes.
Iain S. Thomas on Uncomfortable:
Uncomfortableness isn't something to be avoided. Uncomfortableness must be embraced. It is how we achieve what we set out to achieve.[..]Introducing uncomfortableness into the system, into the process you're going through, isn't going to mess it up. The uncomfortableness in the system quite often is the system. It's the walls of the house you're building, whether that house is a business, a career, your art or an exercise routine. [..]
It is the strain against the muscle when you exercise that builds it. It is the hours you spend studying that earn you your diploma. It is the patience you have with each other that grows a strong marriage. And, ironically, whether it's doing the dishes or running or anything else, expecting that life will be easy and comfortable is the surest path to pain and frustration.
So, I wish you peace, and an uncomfortable day.
via The Art of Being Uncomfortable by Iain S. Thomas.
When you are shy, profoudly shy, and I was born with shyness deeply embedded in me, almost every moment of your life is uncomfortable. The only respite coming when you are in a familiar environment by yourself or in the company of those that love and understand you for who you are. Everything seems hard, but I have managed and have survived to live a rewarding and fulfilling life. I have achieved things I never thought possible, some of which is captured here in my humble blog. And maybe that is why I do this, to demonstrate to myself that I am doing something with my Life, in spite of how hard it always seems and feels.
I have Iain's Book I Wrote this for You. I don't know how I stumbled across it, but I can relate to his words which are also on his blog (iwrotethisforyou.me).
This is what I thought when I read the above and so it is uncomfortably and awkwardly captured here in this post.
In my life I constantly heard "You can't do this. You should not do that." Yet I did so many things I was told I couldn't do.via Saul Leiter or the Art of going unnoticed by Sam Stourdze.
StreetShooter writes on Photography and Intent:
Here’s some things I discovered and figured out. I am not claiming to be the inventor or Doctor of Photography. I am just a guy that’s made photography a very important of my existence and these are things I try to live by.via Streetshooter … Thoughts and Findings … Defining and Finding “Intent” by StreetShooter.There are 3 facets to photography. Eye, Heart and Mind. The Important thing is INTENT. Try to visualize a Pie. In the center is INTENT. Equally at three points are Eye, Heart and Mind. There are 3 parts because Intent is why you do things and not how you do things. The other 3 are how you do things.
All parts are the sum of one and effect each other at different times.
Nick Mitzevich on Trent Parke and Life :
By stripping himself bare to reveal his own imperfections, Parke pursues the bigger meaning of life and in doing so he challenges us, to reflect on our own lives.via The world loves Trent Parke … who? by Gina Fairley.
And that is what I have pretty much done here. That's maybe why I can relate to his work and motivation.
Doug Miller on a Moment and Eternity:
One of the most difficult parts of walking the early stages of cancer seems to be the waves of feelings, emotions, guilt, etc. that you feel. It is the strangest feeling. One moment you are having a normal conversation or doing simple daily tasks and SUDDENLY......WHAM you get hit by a wave of thoughts. [..]via Waves by Doug Miller.But at times this weight lifts. And for a moment there is a lightness of being. At times as you face your mortality there are moments where the importance rests solely in a single moment. The blueness of the sky, a breeze, the warmth of the sun, a laugh with a friend, the touch of a hand, these moments sometimes sharpen the focus of life. And at once time stands still pausing in the simplicity and perfection of that moment. Maybe that is how eternity feels.
Doug Miller on Healing:
None of these paths that these fellow travelers walk are easy, but I have seen such a lightness of being in them all. Each trying to see the hope in the midst of the raging storm, providing to others a glimpse of light that they themselves are searching for.via The Ministry of Brokenness by Doug Miller.There is this strange principle I am discovering not just in myself but in those countless others that are members of this difficult brotherhood and sisterhood of suffering.
I am noticing that a significant part of the healing process is to reach out and give to others, both those that are sick and those that are well.
It seems to some possibly a bit ludicrous, but to me it seems as if it gives this journey a complete purpose, a usefulness of sorts.
I am coming to call it "A ministry of Brokenness" I am seeing it as a powerful balm to all in need. [..]
In our weakness we are made strong.
There is a deep truth in all of this.
