failure to photograph reality

This is the work of Duane Michals called “A Failed Attempt to Photograph Reality”, 1975.  The script was presented as a gelatin silver print.

“how foolish of me to believe that it would be that easy. I had confused the appearance of trees and automobile, and people with reality itself, and believed that a photograph of these appearances to me a photograph of it. It is a melancholy truth that I will never be able to photograph it and can ony fail. I am a reflection of photographing other reflections within a reflection. To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.”

“It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected… For the length of these few sentences, we meet here.

It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me.”

Most of his photographs were presented in sequence. Here is one taken from New York Magazine 14 Sep 1992.

He said, “I want to know what time is, not what a clock looks like.” Perhaps he’s done it. Nobody can photograph his own thoughts better.

singapore merlion dilemma

This infrared photograph of the singapore merlion statue was taken by Raymond Chua from singapore. It was part of the ‘union of light’ exhibition organised by the photographic society of malaysia held in SGM building in july. In the exhibition, we are meant to see only the surface of the photograph, the wide angle effect, and the fascinating colour effect from the invisible infrared spectrum made visible by the camera and an excellent capture of an iconic symbol in singapore. Instead of the visible light, we are now looking at the scene from a light source our human eye cannot see. Is there a point to this? The picture is unable to provide the appropriate historical narratives for the viewer. Perhaps a poem can help us look at this iconic symbol differently. Here is the poem by Liang Yue called “The Merlion” written in 1984 in chinese.

说你是狮吧

你却无腿，无腿你就不能

纵横千山万岭之上

说你是鱼吧

你却无腮，无腮你就不能

遨游四海三洋之下

甚至，你也不是一只蛙

不能两栖水陆之间

前面是海，

後面是陆

你呆立在栅栏里

什么也不是

什么都不像

不论天真的人们如何赞赏你，

如何美化你终究，

你是荒谬的组合

鱼狮交配的怪胎

我忍不住去探望你

忍不住要对你垂泪

因为啊，因为历史的门槛外

我也是鱼尾狮

也有一肚子的苦水要吐

两眶决堤的泪要流

A hybrid creature, unable to identify itself as the king of the beast or the fish in the ocean. A bizzare union. The poet identifies himself as being in the same position of the merlion, in need of regurgitating a stomach full of ‘bitter water’. In fear of losing his own identity. A thought provoking poem about this popular icon of singapore. what kind of hybrid creature can we conjure up for malaysia? I wonder…