?The Oncoming Storm? by Jonathan Munshi
It was an unusual situation. I was the sole judge for a contest organised by Robi through Facebook, and had found an image I loved. I wrote a piece explaining my reasons behind choosing the photograph. There were other winners, chosen by the public. An exhibition had been arranged.
Shortly before the opening, it was discovered that the photograph had been submitted not by the person who took it, but by someone else. Luckily there was time to choose another image. One which I also liked. After the show, I wrote to Jonathan Munshi, the real author of the original winner, explaining the situation. Jonathan took it well, and since I’d already written the piece describing his image, I thought I’d post it here, along with our email exchange.
We look for special moments, gentle light, a fleeting glimpse. Wide open vistas, majestic skies. We capture great events, reveal hard truth. Photography is the wonderful tool that straddles science and art, mystery and fact. It enchants as it informs. But largely, photographs illustrate situations as they unfold. Record incidents. Document what is visible. It is when photography takes on the intangible that it is at its poetic best. When what it shows is not an illustration of what was, but the mystery of what might have been. It is while describing the elusive and the amorphous that photography becomes magical. Continue reading “An image to be sipped”