Teju Cole: Blind Spot

Nigerian-American photographer, writer, professor, and true Renaissance man Teju Cole talks about his book Blind-Spot and his philosophy when it comes to photography and life itself. He reminds me a lot of Gordon Parks in the sense that he was a true artist, not only with his photography but the way he articulates himself. He opens up about his childhood life experiences in an interview I viewed called Teju Cole Interview: My Looking Became Sacred .

 

He says that your work as an artist is sacred and every artist has their own sense of a calling which is how overtime everyone develops a voice that is shared with the world since is something the world did not have before. This philosophy is a lot like Henri-Cartier Bresson who believed that photography is like sketching in a sense.

“It really did become sacred. This intensity of looking at the world, and looking really closely, and photographing things that were not exciting, but things that were sort of washed with presence, with light.”

Overall, Teju Cole’s worldwide photography has inspired me and many people to look more closely, and that blind spots, even if quite literally can potentially change the way you see the world. That photography is a way to capture something that would potentially be forever gone.