Wednesday, December 22, 2010

MAGIC


by F. Solomon

Once, I was fixated with the idea of what a writer reveals in their fiction. I do not think that fiction should be a mirror of who you are, but it is inevitable that there will be parts of you and the people that you know in your stories. Always struggling with the line of what is fiction and what is my reality, I have brought the same issue to photography.

I hate taking pictures; it has never been something that I like to do. Now that I have a camera, however, I am always taking pictures; and I see in my photos the things that I write about and the things that obsess me. Closeups of flowers, a pop art, a couple embracing--these I took from a midtown window, but I do not like pictures of myself.  I do like pieces of myself. Since I started taking pictures, I have a lot of parts of me or pictures of me taking pictures but very rarely pictures of my face.

There is always the eye or the ear or something that creates inspiration, but the inspiration will be what you explore and turn into a poem, story, monologue or dance performance. When I was going to college, I was thinking about acting so I performed a monologue about a female character I created, who was nothing like me, and it was so much fun to be that character. I had to really stretch to be that character in a convincing way.

It's the same thing I do now with photographs.  I take a piece of myself and I morph it into something that is a suggestion of me but not enough of me that you have a clear impression.

Today, I heard real life love stories that were so good I wished I had created them. That is a good sign because it shows that I am such a romantic, that I am provided this type of inspiration. It is all about how you see the world, even with rose colored glasses, even in photography when you are photographing, what is there and trust me I cannot do any tricks worthy of an actress who needs to look slimmer with any photo program. With that in mind, when people tell me I have an eye and that my photos are romantic it makes me see that that is who I am. In my words and photos and it makes me happy.

"All you need is love," people keep singing this to me these days, even before The Beatles were available on iTunes.

That's what I think too. The picture with this post is of my knees while I was sitting on the window of a cafe in the Lower East Side. What did you see before I told you?  It is all slight of word or photo. Artists are magicians.


Photograph by F. Solomon


4 comments:

  1. I actually SAW a pair of delectably clad knees, so I guess my romantic self "gets" yours. I do believe that it is all about your soul - it will permeate everything you see, say, do, think. Whether it be a romantic soul or some other sort. It will, as the song says, color your world.

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  2. I saw knees, too, but then I know you a bit. ;)Wishing you a 2011 filled with all the very best magic...

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  3. I sw knees too but since they weren't open, I knew you wren't about to do the OHH-LA-LA!!

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  4. Yay for knees! :) This is a lovely post.

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