This just happened: Walking up my stairs, I glance up to see my two cats - one a beautiful red tabby and the other a black whatever whom I rarely photograph but whom, like all pet lovers, I will definitely sink to capturing from time to time - sitting regally together, also a rare encounter, lit in luxurious noon light from a window. The perfect image.
But, since it is my home, neither my iphone nor camera is hooked to my body so ... I lost the picture. It was a good one. It was also the one that quite literally got away.
'
Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term "The Decisive Moment." For us to understand it, we
must read his words and understand what he meant. For us to capture one of these so precious opportunities we must understand language and if, in my case, we lost the image, how then can we explain that wondrous event and share that moment with others? It takes language. It takes knowledge. It takes conversation, learning and of course, reading.
My moment is gone on this busy day so I am not going to write anymore but were I to have the time, that work is hard but I know that I am aided by what experience, knowledge and literature (including poetry and beautiful non-fiction prose) has given to me as tools and inspiration to write and share.
Just as we experience, share and are inspired by our and other's art and photography, so must we not forget the literary arts. It is part of our own artist's being.
