Viewfinder: A calm moment on one of Vienna's busiest streets
Apr 21, 2012
A man sits and observes the scene on Vienna's Graben (Photo: Photo: David Reali)
Every object or creature perceivable on a human scale and encountered by modern man has been documented in a photograph. For most people, photos provide some kind of evidentiary weight – if it isn’t in a photo, it hasn’t happened. Photos are perceived as proof of existence. Consequently, the pictures we have seen or collected in our lives heavily influence our understanding of reality, and to a greater extent they dominate our memories and perception of the past. From family portraits to historical photos, so much of how we frame truth comes down to how we framed our subject and how we framed the space of time surrounding a moment.
On a busy day, the Graben can be emptied in a thousandth of a second. It remains abandoned for eternity as the silent stage for a stranger’s frozen thought.
David Reali lives and works in Vienna