Some ‘LIGHT’ Quotations for Photographers
I guess most people will have thought about the connection between spiritual writings about light and the fact that photography literally means writing with light. Here are some quotations to inspire you further.
Some ‘LIGHT’ Quotations for Photographers
• The art or process of producing images by the action of light on surfaces sensitized by chemical processes.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/artsed/scos/visualarts/vglossary
• From the Greek Photos and Graphos, light writing or writing with light. The mix of art, craft and science for the creation of images on a light sensitive surface (such as film or a CCD).
http://www.startphoto.com/learn/glossary/glossary_ph-pn.htm
• Writing with light.
http://www.bestcameraprices.com/glossary.htm
71. O SON OF MAN! Write all that We have revealed unto thee with the ink of LIGHT upon the tablet of thy spirit. Should this not be in thy power, then make thine ink of the essence of thy heart. If this thou canst not do,
then write with that crimson ink that hath been shed in My path. Sweeter indeed is this to Me than all else, that its LIGHT may endure for ever.
THE TWO KINDS OF LIGHT
Today the weather is gloomy and dull! In the East there is continual sunshine, the stars are never veiled, and there are very few clouds. LIGHT always rises in the East and sends forth its radiance into the West.
There are two kinds of LIGHT. There is the visible LIGHT of the sun, by whose aid we can discern the beauties of the world around us – without this we could see nothing. Nevertheless, though it is the function of this LIGHT to make things visible to us, it cannot give us the power to see them or to understand what their various charms
may be, for this LIGHT has no intelligence, no consciousness. It is the LIGHT of the intellect which gives us knowledge and understanding, and without this LIGHT the physical eyes would be useless.
This LIGHT of the intellect is the highest LIGHT that exists, for it is born of the LIGHT Divine.
The LIGHT of the intellect enables us to understand and realize all that exists, but it is only the Divine LIGHT that can give us sight for the invisible things, and which enables us to see truths that will only be visible to the world thousands of years hence. It was the Divine LIGHT which enabled the prophets to see two thousand years in advance what was going to take place and today we see the realization of their vision. Thus it is this LIGHT which we must strive to seek, for it is greater than any other.
It was by this LIGHT that Moses was enabled to see and comprehend the Divine Appearance, and to hear
the Heavenly Voice which spoke to him from the Burning Bush.(1)
It is of this LIGHT Muhammad is speaking when he says, `Allah is the LIGHT of the Heavens, & of the Earth’.
Seek with all your hearts this Heavenly LIGHT, so that you may be enabled to understand the realities,
that you may know the secret things of God, that the hidden ways may be made plain before your eyes.
This LIGHT may be likened unto a mirror, and as a mirror reflects all that is before it, so this LIGHT shows
to the eyes of our spirits all that exists in God’s Kingdom and causes the realities of things to be made
visible. By the help of this effulgent LIGHT all the spiritual interpretation of the Holy Writings has been made plain, the hidden things of God’s Universe have become manifest, and we have been enabled to comprehend the Divine purposes for man. I pray that God in His mercy may illumine your hearts and souls with His glorious LIGHT, then shall each one of you shine as a radiant star in the dark places of the world.
12. O SON OF BEING! With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and with in thee have I placed the essence of My LIGHT. Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding. Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof.
33. O SON OF SPIRIT! With the joyful tidings of LIGHT I hail thee: rejoice! To the court of holiness I summon thee; abide therein that thou mayest live in peace for evermore.
13. O SON OF SPIRIT! I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enLIGHTenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.
11. O SON OF BEING! Thou art My lamp and My LIGHT is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none
other than Me. For I have created thee rich and have bountifully shed My favor upon thee.
PUP Pages 23-24 ….certain minerals come from the stony regions of the earth. All are minerals, all are produced by the same sun, but one remains a stone while another develops the capacity of a glittering gem or jewel. From one plot of land tulips and hyacinths grow; from another, thorns and thistles. Each plot receives the bounty of the sunshine, but the capacity to receive it is not the same. Therefore, it is requisite that we must develop capacity and divine susceptibility in order that the merciful bounty of the Sun of Truth intended for this age and time in which we are living may reflect from us as LIGHT from pure crystals Paris Talks* Pages 68-69
ADDRESS BY ABDU’L-BAHA
AT THE FRIENDS’ MEETING HOUSE, ST MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON, W.C.
Sunday, January 12th, 1913
About one thousand years ago a society was formed in Persia called the Society of the Friends, who gathered together for silent communion with the Almighty. They divided Divine philosophy into two parts:
one kind is that of which the knowledge can be acquired through lectures and study in schools and colleges. The second kind of philosophy was that of the Illuminati, or followers of the inner LIGHT. The schools of this philosophy were held in silence. Meditating, and turning their faces to the Source of LIGHT, from that central LIGHT the mysteries of the Kingdom were reflected in the hearts of these people. All the Divine problems were solved by this power of illumination.
This Society of Friends increased greatly in Persia, and up to the present time their societies exist. Many
books and epistles were written by their leaders. When they assemble in their meeting-house they sit silently and contemplate; their leader opens with a certain proposition, and says to the assembly `You must meditate
on this problem’. Then, freeing their minds from everything else, they sit and reflect, and before long the answer is revealed to them. Many abstruse divine questions are solved by this illumination.
Some of the great questions unfolding from the rays of the Sun of Reality upon the mind of man are:
the problem of the reality of the spirit of man; of the birth of the spirit; of its birth from this world into
the world of God; the question of the inner life of the spirit and of its fate after its ascension from the body.
They also meditate upon the scientific questions of the day, and these are likewise solved.
These people, who are called `Followers of the inner LIGHT’, attain to a superlative degree of power, and are
entirely freed from blind dogmas and imitations. Men rely on the statements of these people: by themselves -
within themselves – they solve all mysteries. If they find a solution with the assistance of the inner LIGHT, they accept it, and afterwards they declare it: otherwise they would consider it a matter of blind imitation. They go so far as to reflect upon the essential nature of the Divinity, of the Divine revelation, of the manifestation of the Deity in this world. All the divine and scientific questions are solved by them through the power of the spirit.
Baha’u'llah says there is a sign (from God) in every phenomenon: the sign of the intellect is contemplation
and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at one time – he
cannot both speak and meditate.
It is an axiomatic(self-evident) fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the LIGHT breaks forth and the reality is revealed.
You cannot apply the name `man’ to any being void of this faculty of meditation; without it he would be a mere animal, lower than the beasts. Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of Holy Spirit – the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection and meditation.
The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Through it he receives Divine inspiration, through it he receives heavenly food.
Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself: in that
state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of
spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves. To illustrate this, think of man as endowed
with two kinds of sight; when the power of insight is being used the outward power of vision does not see.
This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in
touch with God.
This faculty brings forth from the invisible plane the sciences and arts. Through the meditative faculty
inventions are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out; through it governments can run smoothly.
Through this faculty man enters into the very Kingdom of God.
Nevertheless some thoughts are useless to man; they are like waves moving in the sea without result. But
if the faculty of meditation is bathed in the inner LIGHT and characterized with divine attributes, the results
will be confirmed.
The meditative faculty is akin to the mirror; if you put it before earthly objects it will reflect them. Therefore
if the spirit of man is contemplating earthly subjects he will be informed of these. But if you turn the mirror of your spirits heavenwards, the heavenly constellations and the rays of the Sun of Reality will be reflected in your hearts, and the virtues of the Kingdom will be obtained.
Therefore let us keep this faculty rightly directed – turning it to the heavenly Sun and not to earthly objects – so that we may discover the secrets of the Kingdom, and comprehend the allegories of the Bible and the mysteries of the spirit.
May we indeed become mirrors reflecting the heavenly realities, and may we become so pure as to
reflect the stars of heaven. Paris Talks Page 173
Photography
Baha’u'llah: Gleanings Pages 65-66
Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him – a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation…. Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the LIGHT of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty.
These energies with which the Day Star of Divine bounty and Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of LIGHT are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured
Photography A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there—even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity. Robert Doisneau
It is not merely the likeness which is precious . . . but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing . . . the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think—and it is not at all monstrous in me to say . . . that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist’s work ever produced. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The most refined skills of color printing, the intricate techniques of wide-angle photography, provide us pictures of trivia bigger and more real than life. We forget that we see trivia and notice only that the reproduction is so good. Man fulfils his dream and by photographic magic produces a precise image of the Grand Canyon. The result is not that he adores nature or beauty the more. Instead he adores his camera—and himself. Daniel J. Boorstin
The camera can photograph thought. It’s better than a paragraph of sweet polemic. Dirk Bogarde
Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does. John Berger
The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget. John Berger
Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure. Tony Benn
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. Dorothea Lange
Photographers never have much incentive to show the world as it is. William Leith
The magic of photography y is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn’t what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organised visual lying. Terence Donovan
That the outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character, is a presumption likely enough in itself, and therefore a safe one to go on; borne out as it is by the fact that people are always anxious to see anyone who has made himself famous. . . . Photography . . . offers the most complete satisfaction of our curiosity. Arthur Schopenhauer
In America, the photographer is not simply the person who records the past, but the one who invents it. Susan Sontag
It is not altogether wrong to say that there is no such thing as a bad photograph—only less interesting, less relevant, less mysterious ones. Susan Sontag
Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
W Stevens (1879–1955), U.S. poet. Opus Posthumous, “Adagia” (1959).
We regard the photograph, the picture on our wall, as the object itself (the man, landscape, and so on) depicted there. This need not have been so. We could easily imagine people who did not have this relation to such pictures. Who, for example, would be repelled by photographs, because a face without color and even perhaps a face in reduced proportions struck them as inhuman. Ludwig Wittgenstein
Photography suits the temper of this age—of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately. Edward Weston
The camera is a killing chamber, which speeds up the time it claims to be conserving. Like coffins exhumed and prised open, the photographs put on show what we were and what we will be again. Peter Conrad
I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term—meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching—there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.
Ansel Adams
If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, “I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life.” I mean people are going to say, “You’re crazy.” Plus they’re going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that’s a reasonable kind of attention to be paid. Diane Arbus
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. Diane Arbus
The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking. Brooks Atkinson
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary. D Bailey
The photographic image . . . is a message without a code. Roland Barthes
If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature. Charles Baudelaire
Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era. Jessie Tarbox Beals
The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses. Walter Benjamin ,
Tourism
Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.
Susan Sontag (b. 1933), U.S. essayist. On Photography, “Plato’s Cave” (1977).
Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.
Norman Mailer (b. 1923), U.S. author. Newsweek (New York, 22 Oct. 1984).
Any one who knows what the worth of family affection is among the lower classes, and who has seen the array of little portraits stuck over a labourer’s fireplace . . . will perhaps feel with me that in counteracting the tendencies, social and industrial, which every day are sapping the healthier family affections, the sixpenny photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists in the world.
MacMillan’s Magazine (London, Sept. 1871).
Photographers never have much incentive to show the world as it is.
William Leith (b. 1960), British journalist. Independent on Sunday (London, 13 Sept. 1992).
Housework
Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.
Phyllis Diller (b. 1917), U.S. author, actor. Quoted in: Jilly Cooper & Tom Hartman, Violets and Vinegar, “I Liked You Better Smaller” (1980).
Photography and Painting
All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this—as in other ways—they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.
John Berger (b. 1926), British novelist, critic. Keeping a Rendezvous, “How Fast Does It Go?” (1992
The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.
Susan Sontag (b. 1933), U.S. essayist. On Photography, “The Heroism of Vision” (1977
