21 DEC 05
[part one]
14. The question, what is truth? 16. Nothing can be more affecting and exciting to the feelings of our hearts than to take to hand an excellent Daguerreotype portrait of a parent, a brother or a sister, a child, a friend or anyone else we love, after they are "far away" or dead.
22. I found the faithless pencil. The paper melancholy to behold. Now Light, where it exists. And, in certain circumstances, does exert. How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably, and remain fixed upon the paper!
28. Spirit is employed, a ready mixture. Pour it off. Give the plate a little motion. If there happen to be thinness or a want. The steady character of light.
52. As memorable fields. An undoubting faith. Disordered clothing shows his sufferings intense. His stony pillow.
58. I arise at 4 a.m.; feed the mule; shiver down my breakfast; mercury at 30 degrees, candle dim, cup and plate tin; my seat, the ground. After breakfast I roll up my bedding, carry it up to the property line to be loaded on the pack mule, water and saddle my riding mule, and by that time it is broad daylight. If negatives are to be taken on the march, the photographic mule is packed with dark-tent, chemical boxes and camera, and out we start ahead of our exploring party on the lookout for views.
80. If a man makes a hot day, he makes it like a hot day he once saw or is seeing. Make a fellow draw antique, not to see how beautiful those simple-hearted big men sailed, but to observe their mud marks, which are easier to see and measure than to understand. I love sunlight and children and beautiful women and men, their heads and hands. 116. How to see more than one does see? 118. Mystery corresponds to no doctrine, and does not deal with possibilities.
120. "You press the button and we do the rest." 140. It's logical to say that what I do is an act of faith. It came to me. And I worked it out. 154. Photography had not been invented when the Torah was written! I was forced to use a hidden camera, and there were other problems as well.
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