Guy Tal @guytal.com · 21/09/2026guytal.blogThe Hidden DangerThe fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them. —Edward Weston It is the habit of most photographers who write about photograph… 120
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 03/09/2026guytal.blogVideo Interview: Creative Risk, Spontaneity, and Future Hindsight I’ve recently had the pleasure of speaking with the very talented Beth Buelow about my recent eBook, Future Hindsights. Among other topics, we spoke about such topics as experience, mu… 000
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 10/08/2026guytal.blogIntuition, Not RulesThe so-called “rules” of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial—nothing but obscurations between the spirit and the revelation of the world of nature and of… 081
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 20/07/2026guytal.blogLife, Meaning, Rebellion, and ArtTo say yes to the world, to reproduce it, is simultaneously to re-create the world and oneself, to become the great artist, the creator. —Albert Camus Note 1: If you have not already done so, pleas… 020
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 06/07/2026guytal.blogThe Dizziness of FreedomI am amazed that some people can be so lacking in anxiety as to imagine that they have grasped the truth of their art on the first try. —Henri Matisse In his 1844 work, The Concept of Anxiety, Dani… 020
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 10/06/2026guytal.blogFree Webinar: Future Hindsights, Author Talk with Guy TalI invite you to join fellow writer and photographer Colleen Miniuk and me for a FREE special live author talk on Thursday, June 18th at 5PM Mountain Time (7PM Eastern, 6PM Central, 4PM Pacific) to … 010
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 08/06/2026guytal.blogNature, Beauty, Art (and AI)What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of ‘humility.’ This is a genuinely reli… 020
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 15/05/2026guytal.blogAnnouncing: Future Hindsights E-Book Now AvailableMy new E-Book, Future Hindsights / Selected Writings on Photography and Experience, is now available for purchase! The E-Book is in PDF format and offered for a limited time at an introductory pric… 030
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 26/03/2026guytal.blogSelf-Expression, Suppression, and ArtWhat is a poet? An unhappy man who in his heart harbors a deep anguish, but whose lips are so fashioned that the moans and cries which pass over them are transformed into ravishing music. … A… 070
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 23/03/2026guytal.blogUpcoming Ebooks, Presentation OfferingsUpcoming Ebook: Future Hindsights I am happy to announce that I am in the final stages of producing my next Ebook: Future Hindsights / Selected Writings on Photography and Experience. This will be … 050
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 25/02/2026guytal.blogAmor Fati—Part IV: Nature and MusicWithout music, life would be a mistake. —Friedrich Nietzsche Previous installments in this series: Amor Fati—Part I: Introduction Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebe… 060
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 09/02/2026guytal.blogAmor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and RebellionDon’t ask, “Is my attitude toward life the right one?”—to that question there is no answer. Every attitude is as right as every other, all are a part of life. Ask instead, “Since I am as I am, sinc… 050
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 27/01/2026guytal.blogAmor Fati—Part II: VastnessIf we lose ourselves in contemplation of the infinite greatness of the universe in space and time, meditate on the past millennia and on those to come; or if the heavens at night actually bring inn… 030
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 20/01/2026guytal.blogAmor Fati—Part I: IntroductionMy yearning no longer paints dreamy colors across the veiled distances, my eyes are satisfied with what exists, because they have learned to see. The world has become lovelier than before. The worl… 060
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 05/01/2026guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part V: The Future is Not Here Yet, But We AreIt is in vain that we can predict and control the course of events in the future, unless we know how to live in the present. —Alan Watts It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that l… 050
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 01/01/2026guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part IV: We Can Predict (Some Of) The FutureA new year starts today. Happy New Year! As I have in past years, I think it’s also worth noting that another year will start tomorrow, too. One also started yesterday. In fact, countless new years… 141
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 19/12/2025guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the Present (cont.)It seems to me that the most damaging restrictions on an artist’s liberty are self-imposed. So often, what may have begun as fresh thinking and discovery is turned into a routine and reduced to mer… 061
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 11/12/2025guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the PresentThe question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. —W… 061
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 06/12/2025guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will Come (cont.)Whether art and beauty can really make man better and stronger is an open question; but one thing is certain: that like the starry firmament they remind us of light, of order and harmony, and of “m… 030
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 29/11/2025guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will ComeTo be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on fr… 040
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 17/11/2025guytal.blogRemembering the Future — Part I: IntroductionI live in a time of fear and the fear is not of war or weather or death or poverty or terror. The fear is of life itself. The fear is of tomorrow, a time when things do not get better but become wo… 081
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 09/10/2025guytal.blogAboutness—Further ThoughtsToday, I share with you more thoughts on the topic of “aboutness,” which I discuss in a couple of my books. As always, I offer these essays free of the annoyances of advertising and pay… 0101
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 04/09/2025guytal.blogThose Great and Simple ImagesCamera, camera, what do you do—and I damn your eye, damn your wink, damn your memory—for with all of that you still can’t think. —W. Eugene Smith In 1937, Albert Camus, then just 24 years old, publ… 090
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 25/08/2025guytal.blogClassical Photographers and Jazz PhotographersI’ll play it and tell you what it is later. —Miles Davis This is a re-edited version of an article originally published in the online magazine On Landscape. If you are not already a subscriber, I r… 170
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 01/07/2025guytal.blogFinding Creative Fulfillment – An Interview with Grant SwinbourneIt was my great pleasure recently to speak with Grant Swinbourne’s as part of his podcast, Landscape Photography World. My thanks to Grant for featuring me and for the excellent questions. Be… 050
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 26/06/2025guytal.blogDiscretionary TimeThis article is offered in response to an anonymous reader who wrote to say that they “would love to spend more time philosophizing, but who’s got the time?” Have a philosophical question you’… 150
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 08/05/2025guytal.blogRandom Morning ThoughtsMy thanks to those of you who sent me philosophical questions (see previous post)! Please keep them coming. I’ll have some answers for you soon. If you’d like to purchase any of my book… 081
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 18/04/2025guytal.blogArt and NihilismAnnouncements: Ask Me Anything Philosophical: Today’s post was inspired by Jason Pettit’s comments on my previous post, Sub Specie Aeternitatis. After many years of writing primarily about ph… 0120
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 20/03/2025guytal.blogSub Specie Aeternitatis — A Philosophical MeditationIf sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair. — Th… 030
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 08/03/2025guytal.blogBeyond StorytellingTo speak of “reading” a picture is appropriate but dangerous at the same time because it suggests a comparison with verbal language, and linguistic analogies, although fashionable, have greatly com… 1110
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 21/02/2025guytal.blogOn SeeingAccustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor.… 1162
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 04/02/2025guytal.blog/2025/02/03/c...guytal.blogComplex ArtArt is too complex and diverse to be explicable in terms of a single category such as the aesthetic. ‘Artistic value’ is constituted by a set of different kinds of value. The modes of appreciating … 0142
Guy Tal @guytal.com · 21/01/2025guytal.blog/2025/01/21/v...guytal.blogViewerly and ArtistlyAnnouncements: After prematurely announcing its final date a few years ago, the Moab Photography Symposium will be back in September, 2025! I will join several of my talented photo colleagues and h… 1231