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| photo: Man on the Amtrak, Tacoma WA, 2012: J.W. Zirschky |
Riding the rails, riding through cars, planes and on foot. Seizing the light at a moment's notice takes over our vision; takes the heart and runs it through! Oh how I wish all would feel this - experience the rush of a moment come and gone - a moment of agony and ecstasy, for all those publishers who write articles upon articles on gear and techno know-how; for all those people crammed into photo-supply stores looking for the new, ten thousand dollar, do-it -for-you, cook you bacon and eggs, piece of equipment! For you, I write this: Let the heart and eye work together and seize upon the moment! It may not be the best piece of work your trained brain has ever done, or people may not even recognize or give a damn. But is this why you photograph? Is this why you paint? Is this why you stay up long nights and type, scribble, and type again! NO! You do it because your heart and eye are connected, and they seize and then create! Sometimes throughout all of our photographs, all our paintings and writings we have to do normal, day-to-day, humdrum, have-to's, and through this we find others who create as much as we do - and even more - and we wonder..."why"? Why do I do this? The market is crowded. There is no work. Newspapers are dying. The medium is shifting. A fellow at a party a week or so ago asked me "Is there any work in photography anymore? Can you really get magazine work?" The naiveté killed me! Yes, there is work! But we must ATTACK IT! And even so, if we do not find the work right away, which in most cases we do not, for our modern world has this notion that success will just somehow show up. If the work doesn't come then we continue to push ahead - we build, we pound nails, we haul your trash, we fish the sea, we pour your coffee, we cremate you when you die, we paint the house, rake the leaves, and clean the toilets! Yet we do not stop THE ATTACK! We capture with our creative eyes and hearts! We create our bodies of work and we do it because this, my dear fellows, is God's gift to us (among many other blessings). We put in the hours, the seconds, the rays of light upon the moment......because this, my dear fellows, is our calling.
