The wonder of the still image as opposed to the moving image is that in a few frames it can convey mood, depth, emotion – a sense of time and place.
That time may be calm, reflective, natural – like these photos taken at Glencar Lake, beneath the shadow of Ben Bulben in ‘Yeat’s Country’ in Sligo, Ireland the weekend before last.
Or that time may be busy, modern, full of activity and people – like these images from the London Prepares events at the Olympic Park in Stratford last weekend; as visitors made their way to the new Olympic Stadium for its official opening.
Yet despite the difference in content, visual connections – form and structure – can still be had. One can trace the angled shoreline that hugs the waters of Glencar Lake and see similar lines in the patterns made by visitors’ steps towards the Olympic Stadium. Or the bowl of the Lake and the trees arching behind it are mirrored by the curve of the running track and the sweep of the stadium roof above and beyond it. We copy all that is around us it seems.
I would hope that the legacy of these games in London and the dichotomous spirit and fragility of human endeavour that will pervade them will last at least as long as the legacy of Yeat’s words on Ireland, the soul of which still applies to men and women of every nation.
‘Joy is of the will which labours, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.’ W B Yeats.
