Jan Saudek

And of course, all that anguished striving,
that desperate, obstinate attempt to capture those few people I have loved,
to record their appearance once and for all,
was nothing but the ancient, senseless desire to halt time.
My camera in my hand and my life in front of me –
And to command in military fashion: Halt!


Never to grow old, to remain forever young,
to warm myself endlessly in the sunlight,
to lie in the hot sand on the bank of a river –
and dream of the world on the other side,
where time does not stand still,
where flowers wilt and no one hides from old age under a woman’s skirt –
while on our bank, in the image that remains,
we will forever be embraced by loving arms,
and no one will ever leave us –
and the hot sand of the river bank will never become frozen slag.
That is what photography is about, its meaning and purpose.


Jan Saudek