Tuesday Reads: Sasha Wolf
© Federica Belli
“I say “Yes” to everything to see what happens. When I’m photographing I agree to almost every single thing. My work depends on it. […] In the company of strangers I wait for a picture without knowing what it will be or when will show itself. I never know what is going to happen until it’s already underway. I’ve found that if I’m hesitant or scared about making a photograph but still mesmerized by the thought of it, that’s usually a good sign that I’ve reached a starting point. [...] Occasionally when I’m photographing I find myself inside an experience that feels like the entire mystery of the world is contained in that present moment.”
Saying yes to every possibility, for the sake of exploration and openness. Jumping into opportunities and maintaining a fresh eye. Being scared of the unknown behind every photograph but proceeding anyway with our daily practice. Embracing the wait which is necessary to notice an unpredictable and subtle twist before our eyes. Accepting our bounded rationality while still trying to transcend it and witness small portions of the mystery of the world. The words of Curran Hatleberg, as edited by Sasha Wolf in PhotoWork, seem to somehow encapsulate the implications of photographing on our attitude: the mere act of existing as a capturing eye generates an additional level of consciousness in the way we relate with our surroundings.
© Alexandra Von Fuerst.
Historical periods marked by uncertainty–being times in which hate and depression run rampant among us–naturally push us towards the rediscovery of media that accompany us in a process of exploration and appreciation of life. As human beings, our tendency is to contrast negative forces around us with opposite actions. Precisely in these circumstances, photography comes to represent a language that leaves space for surprise and playfulness–a sort of lightness that stems precisely from its opposite: awareness of depth.
Given the current economic and politic uncertainty, photographers find themselves in the position of exploring and portraying a subject which is itself unsure about its own nature: human society. Thus, given that photography acts as a filter (or magnifying lens, according to the use) of what it represents, the medium appears as a double layer of doubt. However, in practice, the act of getting close to the other–in any form–and choosing to engage with it openly generates in the photographer a quite peculiar sensation: looking through the viewfinder, in an abstract spazio-temporal black frame, one is able to reach an unprecedented level of excitement for life, a complete empathy towards the other. For a moment, time seems to dilate and hold “the entire mystery of the world”. For a moment as fragile as an eggshell, the photographer is aware of being one with the subject.
© Kai Yokoyama.
© Federica Belli.
Just like any intense stimulus, that sense of closeness and understanding becomes a sort of addiction, an addiction to exploring the meaning of our existence. We ask ourselves more and more what photography can possibly do, especially vis-à-vis the current aura of uncertainty: is photography just a playful exploration, thus secondary to more urgent issues? or is it the closest we ever got to a universal language, thus fundamental for our social cohesion? Well maybe, just maybe, the time has come to accept that it might be both at the same time.
Maybe the time has come to accept that, in photography as in life, playfulness may coexist with urgency. Uncertainty might suddenly become our only certainty–and that for now it is okay. Because the only way to keep evolving is to nourish our tingles of excitement and embrace the exploration of our surroundings. To embrace the sense of celebration of what it means to be alive, as messy as it might be, as uncertain as it might appear. After all, it’s all we have.
