Still and still moving

freeze
Originally uploaded by mincaye.

We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion...

-- T.S. Eliot, 'East Coker'


Looking back, this is one of the best photos I took over the past week. It was almost entirely accidental; I think I was trying to shoot Amy, but indeed the picture has turned out to be something so much more than that.

I think it really captures the spirit of that week of photography, the hustle and bustle and all. It is possible to spot Shen, Vern Ming, Zamil, Tristan, Keeshoore, Grace, Yuan Lih, and possibly Jia Hun, Yoke Teng and Vivek -- each wrapped up in whatever they were doing.

When I looked at it yesterday, it occured to me that this is one of those 'freeze frame' pictures, something like the album cover of the Bee Gees' This Is Where I Came In. One of those snapshots that capture a very busily moving scene, if only for a split second.

And maybe, this is what Eliot and Lewis mean when they speaks of the eternal -- the point where time touches eternity (that moment is usually called 'now'). For indeed, this scene is at once stuck in time, yet it is also timeless, in the manner in which all such photos are.

Oh, and the sunlight just accents that effect. Quite splendid, methinks.