Lot Essay
"The perception of disparate beauties is one of the most difficult specialties which can be achieved only by means of photography."
"A good picture cries out its excellence at the moment it is taken. Occasionally, you feel this dissatisfaction after the picture is printed. You tear it up and throw it in the trashcan. For me there is no definite and clear-cut criterion for releasing the shutter besides my satisfaction of the image, and I am seldom able to offer a logical reason for my approving a photograph and rejecting another. It is often this feeling that guides me. If we put forth reason to interpret and describe this feeling, we have only mentioned a value that can be interpreted and described. But the real reasons which make us ponder in the face of an image are not easily discernible."
"You could pass by a landscape hundreds of times and then, one fine day, suddenly, be attracted and captivated by it. The landscape is still the same you passed by many times, but the light has rendered it more attractive. It is the same thing for a face. It happens that, looking in a mirror, one may find one's face more beautiful today than yesterday. I think that this has nothing to do with one's skin, with one having slept well the night before, or with one being happy inside. Of course, all that I have mentioned is undeniable, but what has made one's face more beautiful today than yesterday is only light; adequate light. One must pay attention to the light." (Abbas Kiarostami)
"A good picture cries out its excellence at the moment it is taken. Occasionally, you feel this dissatisfaction after the picture is printed. You tear it up and throw it in the trashcan. For me there is no definite and clear-cut criterion for releasing the shutter besides my satisfaction of the image, and I am seldom able to offer a logical reason for my approving a photograph and rejecting another. It is often this feeling that guides me. If we put forth reason to interpret and describe this feeling, we have only mentioned a value that can be interpreted and described. But the real reasons which make us ponder in the face of an image are not easily discernible."
"You could pass by a landscape hundreds of times and then, one fine day, suddenly, be attracted and captivated by it. The landscape is still the same you passed by many times, but the light has rendered it more attractive. It is the same thing for a face. It happens that, looking in a mirror, one may find one's face more beautiful today than yesterday. I think that this has nothing to do with one's skin, with one having slept well the night before, or with one being happy inside. Of course, all that I have mentioned is undeniable, but what has made one's face more beautiful today than yesterday is only light; adequate light. One must pay attention to the light." (Abbas Kiarostami)