Trafika Europe 11 - Swiss Delights

Matteo Terzaghi

or attention as effort, a momentary, conscious exertion. The photographic image printed on paper or visualized on screen, then, would correspond to the dead center Valéry spoke of. In photography, the subjects portrayed constitute the image, just as past experience is an integral part of our memory. Photography prolongs the original act of paying attention, but is also its residual fossil. The first photographic plates required exposures lasting several seconds, during which the subject had to stand still, utterly immobile, as if turned to stone. The lumberjacks interrupted their sawing and turned toward the lens, time stood still and space condensed into the plane between four right angles, then the photographer thanked the men and the tree fell amid the sound of breaking branches.

HIDDENSEE

How had we ended up there? After having seen a picture of the island of Hiddensee in the paper, we’d decided to go, and now we were en route, the creased newspaper clipping in my pocket.

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