The Photograph as an Infinite Still

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.                                                                                  Dorothea Lange

My name is Tom McCann, of McCann Photo Perfect, and I love everything about Photography.  But what I love most of all is the chance to capture moments that are timeless.  We may see an elderly man or woman on a street and not give them a second thought as we pass by in our busy lives.  But take a photograph; an image of that elder and what do we see?  We see a story!  The lines of the face, the twinkle of the eye or the whimsical look on the face.  What does that tell us of that person?  What we see in that image, that nanosecond of time from which the photograph was made, is a look into the depth of the person’s soul.  We see their life reflected in the image of their face.  We see an Infinite Still.

Have you ever noticed that a still photograph can often show us more than a video or moving film? 

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing it as meditation.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

What drew me to Photography many years ago was the fact that so much is captured in a still image that we miss in the constant movement of life, or cannot see in a motion picture or video.   That continues to draw me in today, and will for the rest of my life.  Finding the depth in the Infinite Still.

A photograph allows us to study a moment in time.  In fact, the moment captured in a photograph is so short, and goes by so quickly that we miss it as it passes us by in real time. 

To me, photography is an act of observation.  It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place . . . I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

Elliot Erwitt

When we capture an image, we do not merely have a moment in time.  We have a moment that captures that which we cannot see with our eye; that which we cannot isolate with our brain; and that which we cannot contemplate with our mind and soul.  The Infinite Still.

Yet when we look at the photograph and study that moment in time, we see a depth of existence and emotion that allows us to become lost in that still moment.  The still image becomes infinite.

Photography, as a power medium of expression and communication, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

Ansel Adams

This is a study of those moments.  People, places, events and moments that shape our lives and define our time.

In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.                                                                                                                 Alfred Stieglitz

Infinite Stills.  Captured Moments.  The Depth of Time.

That is who we are.