Nothing worth learning can be taught.

The whole process of photography to me has always been difficult to explain—sometimes I think to myself, why do I keep pushing onwards? Doesn’t the world have enough photographers? Do I have anything worth saying? What’s the reason behind all this?

Perhaps, like all human beings, I am simply wondering how far I can go in this life of mine. There are many avenues of pursuing photography but two years ago, I chose to look through the lens of fashion. All other forms of photography felt either too constrained, or too free. I know I needed some structure, some kind of limit. I knew that there was a definition of beauty that I could discover on my own terms but in such a true form that others could easily see and feel what I did as well.

There is no reason, no intellect to speak of in my motivation. I was looking for a natural beauty and today I realize the only way I can get close to it is by moving in the same spirit—through instinct and instinct alone. It is unsettling to realize that for all we have learned in our classrooms, our textbooks, our formulas, models, and projections, we musn’t forget that everything is underpinned by a natural form of thinking that cannot be taught. It has to be experienced. I see now how the father of photographic reportage, Hénri Cartier-Bresson, was right all along when he said “Nothing worth learning can be taught.” It is not science that explains how gravity works, nor is it art that teaches us about perspectives—we learn through experience. We observe, we imagine, we experiment, and we compare—that is the universal process.

So, I still think of myself today as an amateur, a rookie. I think of how little I have experienced. Perhaps that is not a bad realization to make, but a good one. It may very well be that once we have created an open channel with ourselves that we may begin to see how beauty is and has always been.

“Red Eyes” The Crash Bandit

ifoundsalvationinpenstrokes:

The artist known as Naymebrand Crash bandit, has finally offered up his first single Red Eyes Prod. by The Ref to his much anticipated mixtape release “The Grey”. Look for it in the next coming days.

http://soundcloud.com/crashingbandit/red-eyes-prod-by-the-ref