“Imagine a tree abundant in its branches and leaves: its buds grow to maturity, its bark grows to maturity, its sapwood grows to maturity, its heartwood grows to maturity. In the same way, when—there being mindfulness and alertness—a person is abundant in mindfulness and alertness, the prerequisite for a sense of conscience and concern becomes abundant. There being a sense of conscience and concern…the prerequisite for restraint of the senses becomes abundant. There being restraint of the senses…the prerequisite for virtue becomes abundant. There being virtue…the prerequisite for right concentration becomes abundant. There being right concentration…the prerequisite for knowledge and vision of things as they actually are present becomes abundant. There being knowledge and vision of things as they are actually present, the prerequisite for disenchantment and dispassion becomes abundant. There being disenchantment and dispassion, the prerequisite for knowledge and vision of release becomes abundant.” (The Aṅguttara Nikāya)
Why this image and not another? I’ve written before about how it’s more felt than thought for me; a kind of “snap to grid” that clicks in my gut before it does in the shutter. But that grid is not of my making alone. We are saturated in images that leave an imprint on our ways of seeing; quite viscerally, we are channeled. It’s the images that do the choosing, so to speak.
But here’s where we re-enter the picture: in the cut, the splice, the sequence and series–the montage. We form patterns, contrasts, and homologies; we get the images talking to each other and make them say something different, maybe even new.
So, ask it this way instead: why this image with that other?
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“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
An older woman with two dogs said that to me as I was about to take the first shot.
“Oh yeah, I walk by her every day, and I told myself I have to get her on film.”
She said: “You know, she’ll be 51 years old this year.”
“Wow, really? And she doesn’t look a day over 20.”
She laughed.