The Etymology and Relationship Between Credit and Believe.

I do what I love, and I love what I do. This is utterly true to me, and I share this with you, from the most genuine of places in my soul. 

Art is not to be taken for granted in any way. Not yours, not mine, not his and not hers. Art is sacred to the artist. It is sacred to me, because I do not do it for money, or fame, or ego, or appreciation. I do it because I inherently love it. It is intrinsic to me, in the deepest of manners. It really is. 

I shoot from my heart, from my soul. And I know that, because the eye is the channel to the soul; the only black hole that really reveals everything about us, about the nature of our stature. 

I don't take pictures. I captures moments that in no possible world will ever seem the way they seem - right here, right now. And the power of the image, its force to resonate in our hearts sometimes years after it was taken - is divine to me. Much greater than just the 'us', and the 'life'. It is deep, it is healthy. 

But please don't get me wrong -- this is not just about art. It's about ethics, and morality, and respect, and a conduct based on goodness. 

We need to innocently believe in what we do, with an attempt to most sufficiently minimize background noises of others who presumptuously invest their energy in telling us otherwise; or rather, take the credit of our work, and shamelessly make it their own. 

The reason why I use the words 'believe' and 'credit' in this context results from an inner debate, or might I say stormy discussion I had with myself earlier this morning. 

Look how beautiful this is:

According to the online etymology dictionary, 'believe' literally means 'to hold dear, to love.' Nice so far. Now, as we type in 'credit' in the same search bar we discover that it can mean 'to trust, to entrust, TO BELIEVE.' So if the above are true, or at least emotionally logical, then I safely infer that to CREDIT is TO LOVE, to hold dear. 

When a person fails to credit your work, not because he forgot.. not because he wasn't aware.. but because he was soaked in his reeking juices of egocentricity and infringement - that is when you learn that that person has a foundational malfunction in what we call, loving. 

I do not just hold dear my art to myself. I consciously exercise, really to my best ability - the art of relating to people's emotions and art, credit [i.e. believe, that] what they have worked so rigorously and tenaciously hard to arrive at. With that belief, I learn to deepen my love and to really hold dear one's creative originality, original creativity. 

I learned an important lesson last night. And I intend on growing stronger from it, better from it.

I do what I love, and I love what I do. 

Matan Tzinamon | XiMT Photography

Why XiMT?

Kurosawa's striking film, Rashomon, left one of the deepest impressions on me. It was filmed in 1951; a time when social media was not even an idea. 

Rashomon deals not directly with a rape case, but with how one event can be seen so differently through human eyes. One incident, different interpretations. I encourage you to watch this movie, it really throws you off, slaps you in your ethical face. I will not dive into details regarding the movie, but hear why I introduced it.

One fact, one case, one incident, one photograph. Endless interpretations. This is what I strive for when I click. I document what happens around us. It only happens once. No instance in the world will, or can ever repeat itself in the exact same manner. Whether it's the light that changes, the clouds that sexily dance in their unpredictable way, or the human body that forms time and again differently, as our cells vanish and appear every millisecond. 

My photos are not designed to tell the story that I want to tell, they are designed to blow a fresh, soothing gust of air into your emotional sails, and carry you to what you freely interpret. 

There is no right, there is no wrong. 

So far, I've found myself smilingly submerged in conversations of the most elevating type, revolving around a picture or two I had earlier taken. What she said and what I thought, what he realized and what I had not - was educating. We see the world differently. That's why it's beautiful. That's also why it can be dangerous. 

As I present one of my photos, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, or preferably (soon) in a gallery, the various interpretations cross. Each person with her or his unique, distinct interpretations. From that I learn; from that I develop. 

X is for cross.

i  is for Interpretation.

M is for Matan.

T is for Tzinamon. 

XiMT.

Come interpret me and my work like crazy goats, it's fun. I promise :)

XiMT Photography by Matan Tzinamon.

Expose Yourself, Stand in the Light.

It's not easy, but it's the right way to go about it. 

My art is sacred to me. It's the way I communicate with the world; the way the world communicates with me. When the communication is smooth, the frequencies we broadcast on align, and a novel sensation of clickery takes over. 

Later when I align my eyes with the bright screen, Timujin playing in the background, an emotional process begins. Similar to the one that took place when I was photographing at the scene, but different. I am not ripe enough to successfully express what it is that I feel, but it feels authentic, primitive, in the best way possible. 

The photos I took talk to me, and I talk to them. We laugh, she cries, I frown, it ties. Like a DJ's equalizer, like the equalizer of life, I play with contrast and exposure until our emotions feel right. The photograph's, and mine. 

Now comes the tricky part. 

Social media became not only a tool for spreading your art, but also a tool for receiving affirmations. Affirmations in the form of 'thumbs up' or 'red hearts'. The more, the better. Or is that true. 

Well, Although the quantification of likes and hearts doesn't go unnoticed, it ought to be taken with a grain of salt when you're sincere when it comes to the relationship between you and yourself. Put your art out there for the purpose of gifting the ones you love, not for gifting your ego. 

The verbal feedback that you get, the personal texts those who care for you and your art send out is what really matters. Emotional fuel. "your picture touched me" ... "What am I SEEING?" ... "Just keep it up please" ... When what you think about your art meets people's hearts, it's ok to allow the feeling of relieve entrench your soul. 

I am who I am, and I do what I do. I breath what I do, and only today do I feel confident enough to showcase it as my emotional, artistic extension. I feel connected to myself more than ever. 

Stepping in the light felt counter-intuitive at first. But the warmth of this light is making the organism that I am develop a little more. 

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." -Plato
 

Matan Tzinamon | XiMT Photography ©