I have been, over the past couple of weeks, here and there, reading a 400+ word book on Photography History.
It’s so freaking inspiring.
I stumbled across this delightful quote by Tina Modotti (1896-1942, Italian American photographer, model, actor, political revolutionary) speaking passionately about her firey and steamy romance with Edward Weston (1886-1958-one of the most influential 20th century American photographers to have ever lived)
She writes…
“One night after – all day I have been intoxicated with the memory of last night and overwhelmed with the beauty and madness of it – I need but to close my eyes and find myself not once more but still near you in that beloved darkness – with the flavor of wine yet on my lips and the impression of your mouth on mine. Oh how wonderful to recall every moment of our frail and precious dreams – and now while I write you – from my still quivering sense rises an ardent desire again to kiss your eyes and mouth – my lips burn and my whole being quivers from the intensity of my desire… ”
Wow.
Why don’t we, even as lovers and partners, talk like this, to each other, use these kinds of words in our communications, and write letters of love to each other….like this?
Why do we remain silent, wanting, wondering, wishing?
Is it because we are shy, maybe scared, perhaps embarrassed that our intense emotions won’t be mutually reciprocated?
Or have we just lost our way in the lexicon of love?
Maybe love, this kind of love anyway, is no longer a priority for us?
This morning, when I woke up, with this bit of prose still spinning around in my head like a pinwheel, I headed out for a morning coffee and a crack at the remnants of first light, this love song, ironically, was next in my Spotify queue…
“Lady of The Island” by Graham Nash.
It dawned on me, as clear and revelatory as daybreak, that photography, at some level, has always been and will always be a lover to me.
When I have a camera in my hand, and that calm and quiet in my head…I feel the delightful pressure of photography, in my ear.
Beams of sunshine light the stage.
I never want to finish what I’ve just begun with you.
What I may, admittedly, lack in face-to-face romantic vocabulary, like Tina, we both share a quivering sense
and an ardent desire for discovery in love and light.
My morning homage to photography as a lover.
Click
Jack
