“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”  ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and a Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture and science so I guess it would be appropriate to borrow a few of his words for this blog.


As photographers, I believe we are trying to “capture the music” when we make our photos, at least in our personal works of art.  When viewing our results the audience may not hear the same “music” we heard but our artistic hope is they hear and feel something.  Something which, if possible, touches on emotion and pleads for assessment.  But even if no one hears our “music” and believes us insane we continue to “play”…to make our own style of photos. We/I do it for those moments, the inner fire, which inspires the “dance” of our spirits.

Dancing by the Fire
Dancing by the Fire

7 Comments

  1. Inspired, your words and your image. I like being on this artistic journey of yours.

    • Very kind of you, Cedric. I’m not sure how much of a “journey” it is, it may just be a sidestep. I do feel less bound by traditional photography and am more at ease pushing my own boundaries. It’s still a very conscious process and we’ll just have to see where it goes. I’ve certainly taken inspiration from many of your recent posts as well. :-)

  2. Well, in someone’s mind each of us is “insane”. It’s inescapable! But I will go out on a limb here and say that without question the guy occupying the oval office today is certifiable.

    Love the image, by the way. Maybe it’s because I love yellow and red. Is it a single image or a composite?

    • Hi Paul, yes, definitely to some each of us are “insane,” at least to some degree. Now being labeled “insane” by some would be a badge of honor I’d proudly wear. That guy occupying the oval office I wouldn’t give the benefit of being called insane…I believe he’s much, much worse. And perhaps worst even still are his cohorts in Congress which are allowing and participating in his actions. ~sigh~

      Thanks on the image…it’s a single image.

  3. OK, now I’m really curious. What is the picture of? It looks like tree branches in the background, but they go out of focus at the bottom of the frame. And what’s the other thing (the blue and red and yellow and green thing)? I just hate it when I can’t identify objects in an image!!

    “Much, much worse”. Yeah, sociopath comes to mind…..

    • The image, giving up all my secrets :-) …those are tree branches in the background, the blue, red and yellow thing is a 3-part nylon wind kite hanging from a tree limb, the image was taken during the day, the reddish fire glow on the right bottom is lighting effect I applied in Affinity Photo (similar to Photoshop). The image was selectively darkened, details removed and glow effects added.

  4. Well, this insane man likes your image! And, I liked before I knew what it was. Awesome!