Ecclesiastes. Photo-interpretation by Dmitry Brickman.

Russian version: https://youtu.be/MpAgvMPdsPw
Hebrew version (subtitles): https://youtu.be/kDHTceujXJg
English version (subtitles): https://youtu.be/tqySIFQKIoQ
Armenian version (subtitles): https://youtu.be/goZgE-p9gqk

Dmitry Brickman photo gallery: http://www.dimabrickman.com
Mail: dimabr@gmail.com

"Photo-interpreter's note"
I had really fathomed this book, for the first time, at the outset of my forties. Of course, I'd tried to read it before, yet I didn't truly comprehend it back then. There is a world of difference, indeed, between "reading" and "comprehending. A human cannot actually 'see' something if he doesn't know or understand it. As for me, it seems, things had started to clarify and get in focus as I stumbled into my forties. I remember closing the last page of the book then turning numb for nearly twenty minutes. Afterwards, when I'd regained my senses, I immediately went back to re-reading the book. In its entirety. From the very beginning to the very last passage. All 12 chapters. Merely 222 verses. One of the most controversial texts of the Bible. One of its most humanistic parts. And obviously, one of the Bible's cornerstones. One that can never be taken away, try -- and the rest falls apart. Reading it, I recall, felt like sitting in a smoke-filled rowdy bar listening to an old, wise, time-weathered sage narrating his confession. I don't know the man -- he is a total stranger. His face is deeply furrowed with trench-like wrinkles. He had lived through a lot, seen much, and understood a great deal. Still, the old man didn't waste away his ability to feel the pain of others, his compassion, his love of people and of life itself. Ever since, I would re-visit the book again and again. Not just every year, not even every month -- much, much more often.

For quite some time, the two phenomena,"Ecclesiastes" and my passion for photography, had co-existed in my life but did not cross paths. At least it'd seemed they didn't. On a roller-coaster called life, a sundry of outwardly unrelated things occur simultaneously. However, repeatedly, as I looked through my camera's viewfinder getting ready to take a photo, and then later, when I would leisurely glance at the new photos, I had a fleeting sensation that certain images look strangely familiar. Not a person or a setting, but the image. Strange feeling. Vibrant and blurry at the same time. Somewhat reminiscent of an attempt to recall a dream. As a rule the feeling quickly eroded and disappeared. It has been happening for quite a while and didn't really bother me that much. After all, who can register all those vague sensations and emotions that touch our souls every day! They pass, seemingly, without a trace. However, it only seems that way as nothing passes without a trace.
Everything came together for me in one moment - with my camera's shutter button...
( read more: https://www.dimabrickman.com/ecclesiast-en )
Dmitry Brickman

http://www.dimabrickman.com

Видео Ecclesiastes. Photo-interpretation by Dmitry Brickman. канала Dima Brickman