FLOW
:: UNO DEBE ABANDONARSE A SU INTUICIÓN: SABEMOS MÁS DE LO QUE CREEMOS - DAVID LYNCH ::
Photography is like therapy
For quite some time now, I've heard this phrase from the mouths of many photographers. I've even repeated it myself on countless occasions. But I think I've never truly been aware of the depth of the meaning it carries.
"Photography itself is about paying attention. If I'm somewhere and I hear what I call a zen bell (a zen bell sounds like this: ding), it's very subtle. But sometimes, that little notation is louder or more significant than anything else in the surroundings. Everything else is a distraction, and a little note is what catches my attention. I've learned to trust that. It's as if that thing has entered me, deep inside, and pushed away the distraction so that something essential is vibrating and makes me say, 'What is this about?' And I go there, to that thing. This is an opportunity to take a photograph."
(Fragment excerpted from the interview conducted with Joel Meyerowitz by W. Scott Olsen for Frames magazine.)
Taking the camera and going for a walk is a form of meditation. I immerse myself in my own world, observe my surroundings, and maintain that attention to see the "zen bell" that Joel Meyerowitz talks about in an interview appear.
"FLOW," or flowing, is letting oneself go. It's nothing more than focusing on the here and now, directing attention to this precise moment. It's being attentive to that "zen bell" Joel Meyerowitz talks about. It's forgetting about problems, what I have to do this afternoon or tomorrow, the background noise. It's like a spiritual practice.
In this project, I don't know what I'm searching for. I simply hit the streets, sling the camera around my neck, set a slow shutter speed because I want to capture not only the movement of the people I encounter but my own movement as well. This way, photographer and subject become a single target for my camera to capture. Most of the photographs are taken without me stopping, and often I simply follow the rhythm and steps of the person I want to photograph, or I turn to follow their movement, or if they are stationary, I approach while taking the photo. I don't know what I'm looking for, but when I find it, I recognize it and pursue it. It's a... intuition that in the scene, there's something that attracts me, calls to me... and in that moment, I press the camera shutter button, letting the unconscious take over. unconscious.
After a photography session, I return to "real life" and the everyday. But I come back refreshed.
La idea de FLOW me la inspiró mi visita a Dublín después de 32 años. No sabía cómo abordaría fotográficamente la ciudad después de tantos años. Al segundo día de estar allí, en mitad de la calle que en mi juventud tanto había recorrido algo me dio una pista de qué fotografías tenía que hacer. Le tomé el pulso a la ciudad. Sentía su latido bajo mis pies. Y en muchas de las fotografías ese pulso quedó literalmente reflejado. Ese pulso lo creaba cada persona que recorría la ciudad. El resultado fue Emotional Camera Movement.
In this project with photographs taken in the city of Gijón, my hometown, I do something similar. But the difference is that I already know the rhythm and pulse of this city. Now, I simply let myself be carried by it, let it capture me and pull me along. I let myself go and in some way, I sense when I need to press the shutter. Everything unfolds in a manner unconscious that is sometimes almost impossible to explain..
Cartier-Bresson said, "We should not think while taking a photograph." And Salgado added, "There comes a moment when it's not you who is taking the photograph."
The photographs are made using the ICM technique (intentional camera movement). However, I prefer to call it something else. The camera moves with me, it's attached to my body. If I had to give a name to this technique, it would be IBM (intentional body movement). The camera paints the scene to the rhythm of my own body.
The wonderful music of Joep Beving accompanied me during the editing of these images.
