Encounters...

Quentin Blake centre for Illustration

“Drawing a new character is like encountering someone for the first time. You come to know them as you draw them: you arrive at the edge of their story.”

When I read those words I stopped.

Not because they were about illustration.

But because they were about paying attention.

When I first picked up a camera I thought photography was about finding and showing beautiful things.

Now I think beauty often comes afterwards.

A photograph is sometimes the beginning of seeing.

You live with an image.

You return to it.

Little by little it begins telling you why you pressed the shutter.

Perhaps drawing is the same.

Perhaps writing is too.

We don't always begin with understanding.

Sometimes we simply begin with an encounter.

The world is always speaking. We only have to notice.

Always learning to see,
Cassandra