Abbas: The First 45 Years

Visited the open house at National Museum of Singapore on 30 August 2011 (Hari Raya public holiday) to view Abbas's photography exhibition. It was my first exhibition, since the last time I visited the War Remnant Museum in Ho Chih Min. The exhibition was good and featured Abbas's takes on the various religion, wars, controversies etc, as well as a very small segment on his feelings as a grandpa.

About his photography Abbas writes:
“My photography is a reflection which comes to life in action and leads to mediation. Spontaneity – the suspended moment – intervenes during action, in the viewfinder. A reflection on the subject precedes it. A meditation on finality follows it, and it is here, during this exalting and fragile moment, that the real photographic writing develops, sequencing the images. For this reason a writer’s spirit is necessary to this enterprise. Isn’t photography ‘writing with light’? But with the difference that while the writer possesses his word, the photographer is himself possessed by his photo, by the limit of the real which he must transcend so as not to become its prisoner.”

I love this quote a lot, especially the part in italics.

Guess I love photo exhibitions. Much more than art or historical artefact exhibitions. Looking forward to my next photo exhibition. :)
Zhentoutao Said...