Saturday, April 12, 2008

Being blasé?

Frequent readers of this blog, who are of course different from the loyal and fervent readers, will have noticed that life of this photographer tend to occur in the more marginal sections of life.
Most diverse and extreme situations are experienced.

Nights were spent on a wooden platform of a family in the Amazon rainforest in Peru and in a King Size bed of The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, USA.
Dining was in “Le Train Bleu” in the Gare de Lyon in Paris but also in food stalls in the streets of Surabaya, Indonesia.

Even more important than the circumstances are the exceptional people that are met while working and travelling worldwide.
Famous people were met but also persons that should be famous.

Is this kind of life style not resulting in becoming blasé?
That hardly anything still impresses as exceptional?

Yesterday morning at first light, a blackbird started singing right next to the window of the comfortable bedroom of this globetrotter.

Blackbirds are remembered from childhood.
The house of birth was in a park with many trees.
Each morning as a child the wake up call came from the blackbirds in the garden.
Hence, here in Poland the singing of the blackbird at about 6.30 AM was highly appreciated.
It brought back memories and bridged time.
As if nothing had happened since some years.

Blackbirds can be found only in Europe.
Although they are also spotted sometimes in North Africa, the Canary Islands and South Asia.

The remarkable thing of the blackbird is the singing.
They use singing to unsuccessfully stake their territory.

It is a sensation to listen to the blackbird singing because the tunes it makes are never ever the same.
There are birds that can sing but only one tune.
Famous example is the owl.
It is “uhu uhu uhu uhu” all his life...

But the blackbird is an absolute virtuoso.
Each tune takes approximately 4 to 5 seconds.
And each time the blackbird comes up with something different.

While listening to this Polish blackbird this phenomenon was checked.
And indeed, the incredible bird managed to present a new tune every time!

This made the waker think about creativity and photography.
To make pictures like a blackbird sings.
Each time different.
Each time letting the creativity flow to come up surprisingly with something original.
To make inventivity the source of all action.

Repetition ransacked.
Imitation irrationalized.
Plagiarizing petrified.
Epigonism eliminated.

The pictures of a photographer like the tunes of a blackbird.

There are no signs of being blasé.
As long as a blackbird can still astonish, impress and inspire.



Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Lennon & McCarthy


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To learn more about blackbirds and even hear them sing, click on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird







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