Between the Past and the Future

We are all stuck, aren't we, between the past and the future; stuck in a never ending series of moments known as the present. We never quite grasp the present as quickly it moves on to become only a memory. The human condition is essentially one of hope and that defines the role of the future, a place for the better. A place where something new, maybe something exciting, will happen. A part of our minds also demands nostalgia not to mention the more serious role of the past as the place we look to learn whether it be learning at the mother's knee or learning the lessons of world history.

These thoughts define the role and value of photography. A typical photograph captures its image for only 1/100th of a second but most often it captures so much more. Once committed to film or media the image will tell a tale of the past to the future. A look, a place, how things were, how we lived. This then inspires the photographer and is where I found myself in the last couple of days. At the one hour in my chair uploading 1988 and 89 photographs whose value, insofar as they contain images now long deleted by time itself, is inestimable; at the next, wondering what tomorrow might bring in terms of new opportunities to record what soon will be past.

In photography, we are artists more than we are scientists even if, like me, we choose documentary over art photography. The production of an excellent image satisfies another need of the inner being, to be creative, to be worthwhile, to leave something behind.

"It's just a moment.....this time will pass" (U2)