Again I think about those stories with various tribes and mystics who refused to have their photo taken out of fear that the camera will steal their soul. And there’s something to be said about the reluctance many people have when it comes to being filmed without their knowledge or accord, on the street, for instance.

Paranoia? Misanthropy? Fear of being seen for who you really are? Maybe. But I think in the majority of cases one can speak of some sort of instinct or intuition regarding the power of the camera. I guess on some level people feel and know that it can be indeed a machine gun (see Godard’s famous quote) – an instrument of power, that is -, that there is something potentially unequal in the relationship between who is behind the camera and in front of it, respectively. Moreover, that an image is something that can be distorted and manipulated – my image (which signifies my identity) can be used in a way which doesn’t have anything to do with who I really am, which no longer resembles me: “This is not me.” Metaphorically, it’s as if one’s soul has been stolen.

(This might be all the more relevant in this age of amputated, overflowing images – images without authors, without a point of view, without a consciousness behind them; anonymous images, warped images, misused images, usurped images, uprooted images, decapitated images, virtual images.)

(Featured image: © Anca Tăbleț / Viziunea Interioară)