What Do You Say, For Yourself

I have always loved Cities, though I have been to few.  I love the anonymity.  I love how such a big and crowded and busy thing can have in every place, every moment of what it is...singular moments, oasis's, vignettes.  Each and every thing it's own story.

It would not surprise you I often love movies, books, and photography that highlight such.

I have just discovered a photographer and painter named Saul Leiter.  He produced work in the 40's and 50's which are saturated in that feeling I get when I am able to be lost in a big city.  A few of his photographs are posted above.

I have not had the opportunity, or perhaps taken the adventure on, of  seeing many places.  I've been around California, the state I live in.  I have been to Texas, Hawaii, Washington, Puerto Vallarta.  I am not a fan of Nevada.  In each and every place I soaked in as much as I could.  Taking photographs in my mind.  Sadly I do this instead of actually taking photographs.  I hate having a camera to my face, or held up before me.  It probably seems ridiculous to you I write that because it would make more sense at least to me, if I did have a camera as an extension of myself.  I always wanted a view camera.  Held at the center of me and gazing down into the view-finder.  Unobtrusive, silent clicks.  I wish there was a digital version, I can honestly say I'd become a photographer then.  I suppose we all have the tools we'd prefer to work with.  And our excuses for not producing when we don't.

My favorite place, the place I fell in love with, Seattle.  Point of truth, I fell in love as I came off the plane at Sea-Tek.  The City itself a very brief and intense affair.  I think of going back all the time.  I remember vividly the jazz club, Pikes Market where I bought the very best jasmine tea I have ever brewed.  I horded it, however, it is gone now.  I can recall the feeling of the place.  The way the ground felt under my feet.  The air, the light, the fragrance of the place.  The press of the bodies in a crowd.  The open sidewalk going up a hill, the tree in bloom before me.  The little drops of misting rain that landed on my face and in my eyes as I walked uncovered just feeling it.  I have often heard when someone passes you can't remember their face clearly in your mind, you can't remember the sound of their voice or laugh.  It is not true.

In my memory, Seattle is clearly recalled.  In just a few days it settled permanently into my skin.

What do you say, for yourself?  I have often wondered what someone like Saul Leiter would say in moments of artistic high, upon reflection, about his chosen subject, about himself. 

I like to think perhaps like the organism of a city it is ever changing but still one constant all together.  Like the photographs depiction of little things within a whole.  For myself, it is what I would say in a moment about a moment... and yet, there is essence in my response of who I am that would permeate it.  My personal perspective, my eye.

I have always felt, when I present something as I see it, to let the person seeing it have their own experience.  Sure, I present something I see, something I'd like to communicate.  I suppose I would like it to be clearly defined, some feeling, some idea.  Yet...I feel it is important for the viewer, the reader, the individual to feel their own ownership of it, their own idea, their own interpretation.  That they might become part of the tapestry as I have.  That they might place themselves in the moment I am capturing.

Interestingly, I just realized, maybe most of the time when they move away from it they are happier the further they away they are.  I would be nice though, if perhaps, it would become part of them.  Unforgettable, craved, experienced with simply a closing of their eyes and simply recalling.

I'd like that.