Middle Earth! This Tolkien-head approves this message! Love both your photography and your words, this is delightful as ever! Although I chose to not "see" as much as I used to, the appeal of the vision is always alluring.
Also, riding public transit is so much fun. Watching people come and go in their most absent-minded moments is fascinating in itself.
Your words on the exchange, the dance, with your subjects in transit were a performance in themselves, but then that gallery came and it feel like I could hear the music, the sounds of the tube... What an abundance of experience in such a short piece! Thank you for such a treat.
You truly have in-sight Silvio, you see "in" to things in a way that is as unique as it is obvious. "It seems strange not to know what we’re thinking or looking at until we put words on paper, but that’s exactly what happens." Yes, so well put and true in my experience as well. I wonder if all writers feel this way, that in the willingness to start with nothing, the blank page, magic happens by surrendering to the play of perception and language in the moment.
So many things I totally agree with, but since you are talking about stories, Middle Earth is perhaps the most beautiful concept. Perfect also because I had never thought about it and you have enlightened me. I mean: I always thought the stories I made up about the people in the subway were generated by my imagination regardless and now I realize they were the result of the invitation offered by those transparent eyes. This is the most beautiful concept among the many you have exposed. We make up stories all the time, even unconsciously. I think it is due to the need to find meaning or a place for things and people. Stories have meaning and direction and that’s why we love them. And we also make them up for strangers in the subway! And photos - the "good" ones - always tell stories. Perfect, as always.
I love this: "Writing is revelatory... Like taking a photo of our thoughts, giving them shapes and colours, splashing them with light".
I say a phrase, but I can't remember where I heard it from. I think it was from learning about nonviolent communication: words create worlds. I love the visualisation of the words you conjure with this sentence. As you say, it's "[a] mysterious, inexplicable process that works like magic".
For me, it resembles the Purkinje effect.
And thank you for introducing me to the word "incipit".
The photos from the London tube are stunning, Silvio! I may need to re-read this piece to fully grasp it, but there were some sentences that made me “ooh” and “aah”
It's true, photos and words are magical linked, and here, you've perfectly described this thought. Your photos and your words tell stories in the same way as you described above. Love it!
Middle Earth! What a lovely concept. Exactly how I feel about people getting their rush hour lunches or quick coffee in between their days.
Delightful piece. I was beginning to wean myself off the photographing habit in an attempt to live more in the present, but this ode to photos has me wondering why. As you say, they are *the observational experience* that the present moment cannot afford us.
Silvio, this was so beautiful. You’ve got me really inspired. Especially your story of the old black and white photograph.
I resonate with your take on places of transit. I too love people watching and imagining what their lives are like above ground. And also resonating on the vulnerabilities of others in transit. I’m totally going to pay closer attention to others on the subway next time.
This is beautiful Silvio, such great insights. You took it into a different and much more interesting direction, and I inevitably took your first paragraphs into: what do you think about cinema being the perfect blend of words and images?
The Middle Earth concept is amazing, and so true. Your pictures are amazing, they totally reflect what being in that tube is, innocuous is a word that comes to mind. Very different, but also reminded me of scenes from Shame in the NYC subway.
And what a cherry on top finishing with that Tom Waits song, such simple and apparently straightforward, one of my favorites from him and my gateway song into his eclectic career. Love how tie it all together.
Middle Earth! This Tolkien-head approves this message! Love both your photography and your words, this is delightful as ever! Although I chose to not "see" as much as I used to, the appeal of the vision is always alluring.
Also, riding public transit is so much fun. Watching people come and go in their most absent-minded moments is fascinating in itself.
Your words on the exchange, the dance, with your subjects in transit were a performance in themselves, but then that gallery came and it feel like I could hear the music, the sounds of the tube... What an abundance of experience in such a short piece! Thank you for such a treat.
You truly have in-sight Silvio, you see "in" to things in a way that is as unique as it is obvious. "It seems strange not to know what we’re thinking or looking at until we put words on paper, but that’s exactly what happens." Yes, so well put and true in my experience as well. I wonder if all writers feel this way, that in the willingness to start with nothing, the blank page, magic happens by surrendering to the play of perception and language in the moment.
So many things I totally agree with, but since you are talking about stories, Middle Earth is perhaps the most beautiful concept. Perfect also because I had never thought about it and you have enlightened me. I mean: I always thought the stories I made up about the people in the subway were generated by my imagination regardless and now I realize they were the result of the invitation offered by those transparent eyes. This is the most beautiful concept among the many you have exposed. We make up stories all the time, even unconsciously. I think it is due to the need to find meaning or a place for things and people. Stories have meaning and direction and that’s why we love them. And we also make them up for strangers in the subway! And photos - the "good" ones - always tell stories. Perfect, as always.
I love this: "Writing is revelatory... Like taking a photo of our thoughts, giving them shapes and colours, splashing them with light".
I say a phrase, but I can't remember where I heard it from. I think it was from learning about nonviolent communication: words create worlds. I love the visualisation of the words you conjure with this sentence. As you say, it's "[a] mysterious, inexplicable process that works like magic".
For me, it resembles the Purkinje effect.
And thank you for introducing me to the word "incipit".
The photos from the London tube are stunning, Silvio! I may need to re-read this piece to fully grasp it, but there were some sentences that made me “ooh” and “aah”
It's true, photos and words are magical linked, and here, you've perfectly described this thought. Your photos and your words tell stories in the same way as you described above. Love it!
Middle Earth! What a lovely concept. Exactly how I feel about people getting their rush hour lunches or quick coffee in between their days.
Delightful piece. I was beginning to wean myself off the photographing habit in an attempt to live more in the present, but this ode to photos has me wondering why. As you say, they are *the observational experience* that the present moment cannot afford us.
Silvio, this was so beautiful. You’ve got me really inspired. Especially your story of the old black and white photograph.
I resonate with your take on places of transit. I too love people watching and imagining what their lives are like above ground. And also resonating on the vulnerabilities of others in transit. I’m totally going to pay closer attention to others on the subway next time.
Thanks for sharing this <3
So beautiful. You gave me the words I didn’t know I had to express this idea. Thanks for articulating so beautifully, as usual.
This is beautiful Silvio, such great insights. You took it into a different and much more interesting direction, and I inevitably took your first paragraphs into: what do you think about cinema being the perfect blend of words and images?
The Middle Earth concept is amazing, and so true. Your pictures are amazing, they totally reflect what being in that tube is, innocuous is a word that comes to mind. Very different, but also reminded me of scenes from Shame in the NYC subway.
And what a cherry on top finishing with that Tom Waits song, such simple and apparently straightforward, one of my favorites from him and my gateway song into his eclectic career. Love how tie it all together.
Another gem that you've produced here Silvio!
A beautiful word-canvas blending and bending the distinction between the visual and verbal media of expression, Silvio.
A wonderful fusion of outer light's appearance and the inner wellspring of mentation's silent narrative.