the gesture of photography

Tonight I’m struck by a text by my favourite author: Vilem Flusser.

He wrote a fascinating chapter regarding the gesture of photography. The last sentence of the chapter is spot on:

… photography as a gesture of looking, of “theoria.”

So simple, so true, so elegant.
But that last sentence is only becoming a beginning of something bigger.. the very heart of the problem of looking. … the very problem of attention … the very problem of consciousness, the very problem of knowledge,.. the very problem of channeling ourselves between the outer and the inner world… the very problem of our spirituality; the very problem of our soul.

Theoria (θεωρία) is Greek for contemplation.
It corresponds to the Latin word contemplatio, “looking at”, “gazing at”, “being aware of,” … theologia, as “reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity”

Tonight, is going to be a very valuable reading night for me.

reference:
Flusser, Vilem, 2014 (1991, 1993), GESTURES translated by Nancy Ann Roth, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis