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| Wednesday, 05 January 2011 12:08 | |
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Time and Perception
Time is a really fascinating phenomenon. Philosophers like Platon, Kant, Heidegger or McTaggart have developed very different aproaches on the theory of time, but each of them claims it to be an important factor to human perception.
On one hand we experience time as something absolute, constant and unchangeable - without any influence on it from our side - relentless clockhands teach us so every day. On the other hand daily life shows us, that time can be very personal and relative - an hour of waiting can become a never ending eternity, while an hour of intensive happiness vanishes away just like that. Our personal emotions put a kind of variable quality on our sensing of time itself, which as a result does take essential influence on our personal experience by the choice of perspective for each single moment in our lifes.
A photo, one should think, shows objectively and unswayed by such thoughts a single and absolute moment in time. But just like all living creatures experience time in variable ways, the perception of a camera is influenced by the setting of exposure time. A camera is able to observe things a lot faster as our eyes can do - with very short exposure times it can catch the beat of a dragonfly wing precisely and absolutely sharp. But a camera is also capable of de-accelerated perception, as u can see on some of my photos. With longer exposure times moving motifs start looking very much different to what we are used to see with our eyes.
One of the reasons why I love photography so much, is just because it does not really have a lot to do with objective perception. The interaction of perspective, framing, aperture and time in some (very rare) cases results in a time-less photo, which can cast a spell upon the viewer - and by this it takes an influence on his personal experience of time itself.
Art arises in the eye of the viewer - and if a photo can bestow a timeless moment of fascination upon the viewer - only then it does becomes art. Which, of course, does not want to postulate that these photos are to be seen as art!
Jay Evers
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Comments
woooow!
Erst einmal Gratulation zur Seite und dem Blog! Ich finde sie sehr gelungen und es macht Freude darauf zu stöbern!
Und nun zu den Gomera Bildern.........die Relativität der Zeit ist tatsächlich wunderbar anhand Deines Vergleichs zu erkennen....und natürlich anhand der wunderschönen Fotos!
Du hast so unglaubliche Lichtmomente eingefangen, ich liebe diese Bilder.
Wasser mit langen Belichtungszeit en, also das, was Du als fluffige Wolken bezeichnest, übt schon immer einen ungeheuren Reiz auf mich aus. Allerdings tun viele Fotographen hier des Guten zuviel, und dann wirkt das Bild nicht mehr verträumt sondern einfach unnatürlich. Diesbezüglich hast Du ein goldenes Händchen - in keiner einzigen Aufnahme hatte ich den Eindruck dass die Narürlichkeit verloren ging und dennoch wirken sie samtig und vertäumt.
Wunderbare Arbeit, ein grosses Kompliment von
Andrea (Anidusa)