User Profile

“... of all methods offered in Buddhism, meditation is emphasized as the most important. It is the one training that changes the mind at all levels.” ― Rob Nairn

— Living, Dreaming, Dying by Rob Nairn (Page 18)

“If you want to be happy and become enlightened, give up all forms of selfishness and harmful behaviour. Live to help others. Above all—try to be kind.” ― Rob Nairn

— Living, Dreaming, Dying by Rob Nairn (Page 0)

“Science has expanded the artistic horizons of photography into the limitless universe of the galaxies, - the microcosm of the cell and even to the world of the molecule and the atom. The extraordinary thing is that the photographic representation of shapes and forms at the level of these two incomprehensible abstractions has already demonstrated that the aesthetics of these disparate worlds will be a source of wonder and inspiration for the photographers and artists of the next 150 years.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 77)

“It was however the accuracy and detail of the photographic reproduction that seemed at first, to deny an interpretive dimension to the photographer. Photographs were just too vividly real to qualify as art. It was soon realised though by some photographers that the constraints of realism and detail were not necessarily draw-backs to the aesthetic presentation of an image nor restrict the photographer's creative role or his opportunity for social comment. Admittedly it seemed more difficult to express and interpret subjective perceptions in a photograph when the photograph itself so clearly represented the visual reality. But as photographic technology improved, the photographer found an undreamed of range of technical artifices with which to portray his aesthetic and artistic interpretations, almost as an instantaneous reaction, The interesting thing is that while the strictly scientific and technical nature of the photographic process might well have imposed restrictions on artistic expression, it turned out not to do so.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 56 - 57)

“Indeed it was Fox Talbot's personal ambition to record his own holiday travels through Europe that stimulated him to investigate ways of producing permanent pictorial records of his trips.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 52)

“Photography is now such a universally available technique that every camera enthusiast has become a potential artist and every photograph, a potential masterpiece, As a technology and art form, photography has had a pervasive effect on human civilization, influencing social evolution, education, science, culture and commerce as well as the artistic and aesthetic Interpretation of the world.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 52)

“It would be impossible to assess the contribution that photography has made to human civilization or to know what effects it will have in the future. It is a process that has touched all our lives, be it at the Saturday movie matinee, or through the pleasure of a candid snapshot that acts as a reminder of some special moment, or as knowledge recorded for future generations in the pictures of the planetary space probes. It seems unlikely that either Nièpce, Daguerre or Talbot would have understood just how significant their first rudimentary images were and certainly they would not have thought that in 150 years time, photographs would be telling us something about the make-up of things as exotic and different as Halley’s Comet, the eye of a cricket and the insulin molecule.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch

“[...] Up to this time the images that Niėpce produced were heliographic copies of engravings; but in 1827 he produced a heliograph of an outdoor scene, the world’s first photograph. It was a view from the window of his house taken across the courtyard showing a loft, a pear tree and the roof of a barn. Niėpce derived enormous personal satisfaction from this result [...] It was hard to believe that within 10 years these rudimentary images would be transformed into pictures of incredible detail and fidelity.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 31 - 32)

“Our perceptions of the natural world are of course both real and illusory. The certainty of what is reality and what is illusion, however, is knowable only from points of reference that we accept as defining those two states. ― Bede Morris"

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 13)

“[A] photograph is a non-interpretive image with a precise and immutable complement of information. The visual image is not like this at all, even at the moment in time when it is first recorded. The brain takes the visual image and interprets it in terms of past experience, present knowledge and future expectations.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch (Page 13)

“What peer review group would have recommended funding Nièpce in 1815 to do research on a method for producing pictures from elements of electromagnetic radiation, if he had claimed this research would lead to an analysis of the composition of the stars, a description of the internal machinery of cells, the form and structure of microbes and molecules, a method for diagnosing pregnancy by sound and cancers by radioactive imaging and, for good measure, the establishment of a motion picture industry, computerized tomographic brain scans, television and instantaneous news reports from around the world by satellite projection? Nièpce could never have been funded through a peer review system — all he had was a dream, an inspiration, a passion and a conviction. These sorts of things are for artists; they are not the stuff of discovery and certainly not a basis on which to fund research.” ― Bede Morris

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch

“It is pleasing therefore to be able to look without reserve at the creation of images, in which scientific discovery and invention, together with artistic inspiration, have combined to record permanently the fleeting instant, the seen and the unseen worlds, against a background of space, dimension, time and human society.” ― Arthur Birch

— Images: illusion and reality by Bede Morris, Arthur J. Birch