“His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning.”
Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying
A reference to George Meredith's style.
The Decay of Lying (1889)
Source: On Photography
“His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning.”
Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying
A reference to George Meredith's style.
The Decay of Lying (1889)
“The photographer in my head says:
Give me peace.
Flash.
Give me release.
Flash.”
Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters
Source: Invisible Monsters
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Entry (1961)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent — a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchful (be attuned) to catch the flash and fix it. One must know how to catch and preserve these scant flakes of gold sluiced out of the sand and rocks of everyday life. Originality does not come nugget-size.
“A closer inspection would have shown more significant details.”
Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) American author
On the character "Thunder Jim Wade" in "The Poison People" in Thrilling Adventures (July 1941) using the pseudonym "Charles Stoddard."
Short fiction
Context: A casual eye might have seen nothing extraordinary in Wade as he moved lithely across the meadow toward the Thunderbug. He was tall, lean and rangy, looking rather like a college boy on a vacation, with his brown, almost youthful face and tousled dark hair, so deep-black that it was almost blue.
A closer inspection would have shown more significant details. There was an iron hardness underlying Wade’s face, like iron beneath velvet. His jet eyes were decidedly not those of a boy. There was a curious quality of soft depth to them, although sometimes that black deep could freeze over with deadly purpose.
Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist
"A Personal Credo" (1943), published in American Annual of Photography (1944), reprinted in Nathan Lyons, editor, Photographers on Photography (1966), reprinted in Vicki Goldberg, editor, Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present (1988)
“Then I am able to pursue this one main idea and see how all the details serve to illuminate it.”
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Journals of Søren Kierkegaard 1A 8, 1834
1830s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1830s
Context: The reason I cannot really say that I positively enjoy nature is that I do not quite realize what it is that I enjoy. A work of art, on the other hand, I can grasp. I can — if I may put it this way — find that Archimedian point, and as soon as I have found it, everything is readily clear for me. Then I am able to pursue this one main idea and see how all the details serve to illuminate it.
Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) American photographer
Deschin, Jacob. "Nature as it is". New York Times (1857-Current file); Feb 3, 1952; Proquest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2002) pg. X14
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol 1
“You'll fix me, because we're parabatai. We're forever.”
Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight
Source: Lady Midnight