Taken - Nov 26 2024

 

Taken

Nov 26 2024



I am a still portrait

in black and white.

I prefer stillness

deliberation

a contemplative hush,

have always been content

in my own company.

Not a moving picture

flickering over a screen.

No live action

smash edits

full spectrum sheen.

And no soundtrack

to rattle the speakers

and juice-up the scene.

You contemplate a photograph

at your leisure,

seeing the fine detail,

imagining

the before and after,

appreciating

the shades of greys

that always lie between;

because it’s black and white

not or.

Her dark piercing eyes

— unblinking

and staring out at me —

are riveting.

It’s as if it's me being scrutinized, not her.

As if she’s following my every move.

As if she sees right into me

and through.

This freezing in time

is a revelation,

inaccessible to the naked eye

not seen in nature.

How a moment

captured in film

is so affecting,

and how in black and white

bercoms iconic.

Because less is more.

And because simplicity

reduces things

down to their essence,

cutting through pretence

and revealing

some elemental truth.

Even if it’s just us projecting

something of ourselves.

And what could be more honest

than a candid shot

of life as it’s lived?

Than action caught

as if stopped in mid-air,

as if letting out your breath

and then never again

needing to inhale?

Not forever, of course,

nothing is.

But at least seared into my head

for as long as I live;

her eyes still following

just as intensely.

A still picture

in black and white.

And whether given or not

taken,

yet nothing of hers is lost.