Txema Rodríguez

It amazes me how the fragments of the moment always manage to fit together in spite of all the defective maneuvers and devices of the mind to impose a Procrustean strict conformity to what we are supposed to see and feel.
Meaning appears beyond the image, fading as we attempt to state it as if reality had a defense mechanism of its own.
The two girls with hair extensions, heavy makeup and deep racks passed by the boy without noticing him.
I shot the camera from intuition and even though I can’t remember what I was thinking at the time the shutter was released, I can easily relate to the boy’s gawk: we can only see what we already believe and perpetuate the rule in order to shrink the anxiety associated with desire and to avoid the emotional insulation resulting from rejection.
Robert Doisneau wrote that one’s got to struggle against the pollution of intelligence in order to become an animal with very sharp instincts – a sort of intuitive medium – so that to photograph becomes a magical act, and slowly other more suggestive images begin to appear behind the visible image, for which the photographer cannot be held responsible.
Maybe none of the girls were worthwhile looking at (dull, average, unexceptional), but at this moment, the boy’s glance yields a return: a foreknowing vision beyond them.