Robert Shnayerson, the matchless editor, wrote me, “I confess that a fascination with impermanence—the world’s torrential changes—has given me a respect for photography as an art of freezing instants that can never be exactly repeated. Nothing else (even painting) quite matches the veracity and longevity of an honest photograph.”
He also suggested my new book’s title should be called “Moment By Moment,” and he’s right. The book is a retrospective, and I agree that a good photograph is one that cannot be repeated. This singularity may explain why the image of a moment can hold our interest forever. I’ve searched for such pictures most of a lifetime, moving from one possibility to another.
Once, I photographed J. R. R. Tolkien who wrote “The Lord of the Rings.” He spent his life examining the English language at Oxford University and invented languages of his own—I asked him to write something in one of them. I love the way his left hand huddles with his right. This simple bit of reality takes on a pulse of its own. It defines a moment I hope lives on.
John Loengard
John Loengard, Moment By Moment
Published by Thames & Hudson
€35
