Guy Tal (@guytal.com) Bsky - nopzon.com

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Posts by Guy Tal

Self-Expression, Suppression, and Art What is a poet? An unhappy man who in his heart harbors a deep anguish, but whose lips are so fashioned that the moans and cries which pass over them are transformed into ravishing music. … A…

3 weeks ago 7 0 0 1

Upcoming Ebooks, Presentation Offerings Upcoming Ebook: Future Hindsights I am happy to announce that I am in the final stages of producing my next Ebook: Future Hindsights / Selected Writings on Photography and Experience. This will be …

4 weeks ago 4 0 0 0

Amor Fati—Part IV: Nature and Music Without music, life would be a mistake. —Friedrich Nietzsche Previous installments in this series: Amor Fati—Part I: Introduction Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebe…

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Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebellion Don’t ask, “Is my attitude toward life the right one?”—to that question there is no answer. Every attitude is as right as every other, all are a part of life. Ask instead, “Since I am as I am, sinc…

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Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness If we lose ourselves in contemplation of the infinite greatness of the universe in space and time, meditate on the past millennia and on those to come; or if the heavens at night actually bring inn…

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Amor Fati—Part I: Introduction My yearning no longer paints dreamy colors across the veiled distances, my eyes are satisfied with what exists, because they have learned to see. The world has become lovelier than before. The worl…

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Remembering the Future — Part V: The Future is Not Here Yet, But We Are It is in vain that we can predict and control the course of events in the future, unless we know how to live in the present. —Alan Watts It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that l…

3 months ago 4 0 0 0

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Remembering the Future — Part IV: We Can Predict (Some Of) The Future A new year starts today. Happy New Year! As I have in past years, I think it’s also worth noting that another year will start tomorrow, too. One also started yesterday. In fact, countless new years…

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Remembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the Present (cont.) It seems to me that the most damaging restrictions on an artist’s liberty are self-imposed. So often, what may have begun as fresh thinking and discovery is turned into a routine and reduced to mer…

4 months ago 6 1 0 0

Remembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the Present The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. —W…

4 months ago 5 1 0 0

Remembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will Come (cont.) Whether art and beauty can really make man better and stronger is an open question; but one thing is certain: that like the starry firmament they remind us of light, of order and harmony, and of “m…

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Remembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will Come To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on fr…

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Remembering the Future — Part I: Introduction I live in a time of fear and the fear is not of war or weather or death or poverty or terror. The fear is of life itself. The fear is of tomorrow, a time when things do not get better but become wo…

5 months ago 8 1 0 1

Aboutness—Further Thoughts Today, I share with you more thoughts on the topic of “aboutness,” which I discuss in a couple of my books. As always, I offer these essays free of the annoyances of advertising and pay…

6 months ago 10 1 0 0

Those Great and Simple Images Camera, camera, what do you do—and I damn your eye, damn your wink, damn your memory—for with all of that you still can’t think. —W. Eugene Smith In 1937, Albert Camus, then just 24 years old, publ…

7 months ago 9 0 0 2

Classical Photographers and Jazz Photographers I’ll play it and tell you what it is later. —Miles Davis This is a re-edited version of an article originally published in the online magazine On Landscape. If you are not already a subscriber, I r…

7 months ago 7 0 1 1

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Finding Creative Fulfillment – An Interview with Grant Swinbourne It was my great pleasure recently to speak with Grant Swinbourne’s as part of his podcast, Landscape Photography World. My thanks to Grant for featuring me and for the excellent questions. Be…

9 months ago 5 0 0 0

Discretionary Time This article is offered in response to an anonymous reader who wrote to say that they “would love to spend more time philosophizing, but who’s got the time?” Have a philosophical question you&#8217…

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Random Morning Thoughts My thanks to those of you who sent me philosophical questions (see previous post)! Please keep them coming. I’ll have some answers for you soon. If you’d like to purchase any of my book…

11 months ago 8 1 0 0

Art and Nihilism Announcements: Ask Me Anything Philosophical: Today’s post was inspired by Jason Pettit’s comments on my previous post, Sub Specie Aeternitatis. After many years of writing primarily about ph…

1 year ago 12 0 0 1

Sub Specie Aeternitatis — A Philosophical Meditation If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair. — Th…

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Beyond Storytelling To speak of “reading” a picture is appropriate but dangerous at the same time because it suggests a comparison with verbal language, and linguistic analogies, although fashionable, have greatly com…

1 year ago 11 0 1 1

On Seeing Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor.…

1 year ago 16 2 1 0

Complex Art Art is too complex and diverse to be explicable in terms of a single category such as the aesthetic. ‘Artistic value’ is constituted by a set of different kinds of value. The modes of appreciating …

guytal.blog/2025/02/03/c...

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Viewerly and Artistly Announcements: After prematurely announcing its final date a few years ago, the Moab Photography Symposium will be back in September, 2025! I will join several of my talented photo colleagues and h…

guytal.blog/2025/01/21/v...

1 year ago 23 1 1 1