Wallace Stevens: “You have a blue guitar,/ You do not play things as they are.”
I suppose the whole point of the visual arts is to get us to see things as they otherwise are.
And perhaps be unlikely.
Wallace Stevens: “Things as they are/ Are changed upon the blue guitar.”
This is not a bicycle.
This is not a ladder.
These are not sacks waiting to be moved.
Things as they are not are directions and lines of force.
Things as they are not are relationships between lines, textures, and light.
With things as they are not, we learn the background of things.
Camera: Spotmatic F
Lens: Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 35mm F 3.5
Film: Fujifilm Superia Venus 800
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Published by eddietay
I am a poet and an educator. I have come to realise in recent years that the act of writing poetry has trained my mind to be always on the prowl for everyday moments that might be suitable material for my writing.
Hence, I turn to photography in order to record some of these moments. I soon discover that the photographs I am taking, using film rangefinder cameras which are more discreet and hence suitable to the task at hand, are in the tradition of street photography.
In search of poetry, I have become a street photographer.
What can Hong Kong teach me about street photography, and what can street photography teach me about Hong Kong?
This blog seeks to address that question.
View all posts by eddietay
Hong Kong Lucida 
I’m reminded of “Gödel, Escher, Bach.” And also of my seminar on English Romantic era poetry–Coleridge’s defamiliarization and the suspension of disbelief.
Sounds like a fascinating book! I must go read it.