A book that is worth a thousand pictures

Long ago that the hegemony of the images in our day to day has me tired. Not only by the excess of information that they bring, but also by their quality. So many videos, photos (and arts) I see dropped the world, almost nothing deserves more than two seconds of attention, almost nothing deserves a longer reflection. A feather. When well thought out, well executed, well used, the images have much power.

Okay, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. This may have been true some day, but today you can not be so innocent about. The ease with which changes an image invites us to always be suspicious of what is presented to us - just as we already do, or should do, with the words. In the end, what we lack is to reflect more about the images (and, indeed, on any little thing we are producing and mainly consuming). We lost this habit, which is an unforgivable misstep.
All this long Lenga is the purpose of a book tailored for those who want to open the head for the photo. "The right moment," the Dorrit Harazim, brings 39 delicious texts on the best of twentieth century photography - especially in photojournalism area, which is a great school. Not interpretive delusions so common in the market of "critical." Are real stories about the photos on the photographers on the craft, about life. It is no exaggeration neither mine nor poetry. Each text is a journalism class and of course photography. To paraphrase one another, I say that after this book, you'll never see a picture in the same way.
In this melting pot of information, aesthetic analysis, as often boring to ordinary mortals, comes as a seasoning and does not harm the reader's intelligence. On the contrary. The nearly 400 pages of the book enrich veterans and beginners, professionals and amateurs.

It was, as it turns out, a very pleasant reading. Just missed a onosmático index - eternal lapse of the Brazilian editorial market. And also I assume that I am biased by the author. For guys like me, journalist and lover of photography, Dorrit Harazim was always obligatory reference. She ran the world in amazing stories - just cite its coverage of the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, in the 70s, among many others. Not being exactly photojournalist, but first-rate journalist, she has the exact notion of what makes a photo "works" and does not waste words or images.
So let's follow the example and waste no more time here. Reading "The right moment" made me rethink the photos I've been producing in the last decade. More than that, it made me take the camera out of the drawer and go to the street trying smarter approaches, less careless, better targeted, less obvious. As can be seen in instagrans of life, it is not easy.

Published by Adrian