Thursday, December 16, 2010

Photographing Reality

(For Eve Arnold)

Your untaught hands picked up a camera
and never put it down, finding
instinct for the picture
that carries the burden of history
so lightly it seems no burden at all.

Icons of stage and screen; children and women
whose lives are never seen,
all gently caught; held
in your gaze, your lens capturing
the essence of their lives and times.

Deceptively simple is this art of yours,
framing faces in a view-finder
to create a pleasing image
that seems by accident to encapsulate
history, yet somehow magically transcends it.

1 comment:

Veritas said...

I loved this poem,

Photographing intimacy is a special passion I have. Whether erotic or pedestrian, the glimpse into one's subject's interior mind is revealing in so many ways.

And always a feast of unexpected discovery.

Enjoy your Sunday,


Veritas