Flowers construct the most charming geometries: circles like the sun, ovals, cones, curlicues and a variety of triangular eccentricities, which when viewed with the eye of a magnifying glass seem a Lilliputian frieze of psychedelic silhouettes.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the intricate and captivating patterns found in flowers, emphasizing their artistic beauty.
Duane Michals' quote reflects on the enchanting geometrical shapes that flowers exhibit, likening them to various forms and structures that can be appreciated when examined closely. Through the lens of a magnifying glass, the flowers' intricate details reveal a surreal tapestry of shapes and colors, transforming the ordinary into an extraordinary visual experience that captivates the observer's imagination.
In practice
This quote can be used in a nature photography exhibit to emphasize the beauty of floral designs.
Photographers usually want to photograph facts and things. But I'm interested in the nature of the thing itself. A photograph of someone sleeping tells me nothing about their dream state; a photograph of a corpse tells me nothing about the nature of death. My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.
I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.
A lot of photographers walk around looking for something 'out there,' but I'm very much interested in what's 'in here.'
There are those photographers who have made a whole career doing commercial work but have never had a museum show, and then there are others who've only had museum shows but couldn't survive for five seconds in the real world of photography. But I've done absolutely everything.
Photography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old man’s face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a building—and then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. It’s the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing.
The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.
One cannot create an art that speaks to men when one has nothing to say.
I pride myself on working with great musicians.
… lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to “walk about” into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?
I write music, it’s performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn’t need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.
If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.
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