Ben Stadelmaier holding a painting of himself by Debbie Aimone. She worked from a photograph of Ben taken by me.
This is a picture of my friend, Ben, holding a painting of himself surfing made by another friend of ours, Debbie. Debbie worked from an image of Ben that I captured a couple years ago. I've posted that original picture below.
Consider the life of this image: Ben, a talented kitesurfer, goes out for a session on the water and I show up with a camera and manage to capture a moment that lasted a fraction of a second. More than a year later, Debbie, a talented artist, is inspired by the photograph and creates a painting from it. The image is traveling among the imaginations of multiple people over time, and now one of them has offered her interpretation of it. Debbie is also a surfer, and she was intrigued by the water Ben is kicking up with his surfboard.
Humans are captivated by images, especially images of other humans. We publish books of photographs and display pictures on the walls of our homes and in museums. I have several books of photos from various photographers. I love to look through the books at pictures of strangers, some from many decades ago, and wonder about who they are, or were. I wonder how their life compares to mine?
A frozen image from the past speaks to the transient nature of our existence. The issue of impermanence is unsettling for most of us, but somehow, at least for me, seeing pictures of other people is comforting. It reminds me that I'm not the only person for whom life seems like a series of moments that pass too quickly. To live in a moment, to appreciate it, I need a picture of it that I can ponder and revisit. I could be accused of living in the past, but the future isn't here yet, and the present happens so fast that it becomes the past before I know it. I need a picture.
Monte
Ben Stadelmaier at Chapoquoit Beach.