Skies, #1

 Athens, 20.09.2006, 19:21

There is an infinite number of stereotypes associated with photographs of the sky, and particularly those of the sunset.  This hardly comes as a surprise. There is something annoyingly possessive about pictures; they are often taken so as to 'immortalise the moment,' as the cliché goes. Such a quest is of course vain,  as well as in vain. Whatever value a picture may have, aesthetic or other, lies in itself rather than in its subject; the latter is long gone as soon as a camera's button is pushed. Even linguistically, immortality contains its opposite; which is why such attempts to deny death, both symbolically and literally, only serve to verify it.

Life, however, is a much better reason for looking at pictures, let alone taking them. As the clouds move, the light changes, and the colors alter, any particular image of the sky is constantly replaced by another; and rather than capturing one, it may be more interesting to follow the change. After all, change lies at the core of all things living, is it not? And then there is also the multiperspectival nature of the sky. The sun may be one, but the sunsets are many; each one may be seen from a practically endless number of locations, all are  different, and none exist without the angle each of us is looking from. But then again, isn't difference also at the core of all things living?

Athens, 20.09.2006, 19:24