PLACE (VIEWPOINT)
This term concerns me in its double meaning: as a designation of a small, pointlike area in space and time but also in the inner psychic reality of human beings. Such places are called locations or viewpoints.
"All phenomena are surrounded by a swarm of countless points of view, like carrion is surrounded by flies and vultures. But not all viewpoints are equally profitable." Vilém Flusser in Imageless Islam
My perception of tourists (to which I sometimes belong) photographing the world corresponds to this picture: Countless cameras circle around objects in search of the most rewarding places.
However, Flusser's statement can be reversed: every point of view is surrounded by innumerable phenomena, but not all of them are equally productive.
I settle down in one place and keep the eye of my camera aimed to the phenomena around me. The resulting pictures show the surroundings of my location, in the middle of which the camera sits like a blind spot. (When you look at photographs, you are usually not aware of the camera point of view.)
The image of flies and vultures (actively) circling around their potential prey can also be reversed: the camera remains (passively) observing, waiting, lurking in one place. To this, the adequate picture from the animal world is the spider, which sits in the middle of its web and waits (for prey).
© Fredi Hüberli, 2019
