The Soul Behind the Lens

In the readings for a recent photography course I stumbled across this quote from Wim Wenders that echoed the premise that all photographs are self-portraits.  I began to wonder if I could convey that concept…

The camera is therefore an eye capable of looking forward and backward at the same time… Yes, forwards, a camera sees its subject, backwards it sees the wish to capture this particular subject in the first place, thereby showing simultaneously the things and the desire for them.  

If, thus, a camera shoots in two directions, forwards and backwards, merging both picture so that the ‘back’ dissolves the ‘front’, it allows the photographer at the very moment of shooting to be in front with the subjects, rather than separated from them.  

Wim Wenders