'I’m never satisfied, so I don’t really have a favorite photograph. In a photograph, I always look for a combination of information and inspiration. Put simply, it has to be beautiful and say something. That doesn’t mean I can’t also find photographs that are about virtually nothing absolutely wonderful.
Once I’ve taken a photograph, I rarely look back at it because I want to move forward. It can—and simply must—always be better. I often notice that the photographs I took with my old 6x7 medium-format camera have a great deal of 'soul.' In the digital age, I sometimes forget to take the time to really see photographs. That’s why I chose an old 6x7 photograph.
At the time, I was working on bringing together all these kinds of photographs in a more 'artistic' (I hate that word!) book.
I took the photograph from a rock in Brittany, where a European shag was nearly engulfed by the incoming tide. It’s the symbolism (the last one on the rock), the dynamism, and the sense of scale that make it interesting to me! I love photographs that you have to spend a moment looking at and that often don’t seem particularly spectacular at first. Done well, photographs like these only get better with time (just like good music and a relationship ...). Shot with the Pentax 67, 300 mm f4.5, ISO 50 (Velvia), at around 1/8 of a second.'
Text: Ruben Smit
Name: Dr. Ir. Ruben Smit (1971)
Location: Wageningen
Information: www.rubensmit.nl
