The human being, as cohabitant of this planet often does not realize particular natural phenomena or the variations these phenomena can cause. An example is natural light. Light travels at the speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. This means that light travels more than 1,000 billion kilometers per hour. Let’s think about that for a second. While you do this light has traveled 300,000 kilometer. Nothing is faster than light. To see it more clearly; in the second that you thought about this, light circled this planet more than seven times.

The largest light source is the sun. The average distance between the earth and the sun is 150 million kilometers. The light of the sun needs 8 minutes to reach us. When we look at the sun we do not see its current light, but that of eight minutes earlier. To travel from the moon to earth light beams take only 1.3 seconds. This means that the moonlight registered by our eyes has departed from the moon 1.3 seconds ago. As regards the stars the same principle applies. Stars are at a great distance from the earth and that is why we only see tiny spots of light. Due to the large distance that light has to travel to earth stars are actually located somewhere else than where we see them with our eyes.

What is so particular about this natural phenomenon is that due to the high speed of light, with respect to space we continually look at the past and never in the present.

Giving this described phenomenon some thought makes photography so special for me. More in particular: with a relatively simple apparatus, a camera, and with only a few simple actions, namely the desired adjustments and positioning and a push on a button, you can literally catch the fastest moving phenomenon on earth, natural light, and this particular moment of light can be written, respectively recorded for a longer period of time on material of my choice.

For me these are moments to enjoy. Therefore I choose to make time to record some of the moments I encounter in life so that I can share these moments that are special for me with others, in the present and in the future.

The echo of time.

At the moment that light is given to us, in other words when we are born, no one realizes the real value of natural light. In my case this value revealed its true worth when my first son Nigel was born, more than nine years ago. The emotions I felt at that moment caused a perceptible change in my own life. The appreciation for life with all her natural beauty was only strengthened with the birth of my other three children, Sven, Thymo and Faye. To consciously experience the miracle of birth four times changed my life. The beauty of nature in her full extent began to play a central role in my life. As is so often said I only started to realize this when I turned forty. In that year I noticed that I faced life differently and that the light that reflected on my retina revealed another image than in the forty years before then (during which I enjoyed life in another way). In short, as of that moment I had a lot more respect for life and nature and for the light that constantly gave it another shape.

What I mean to say is that the echo of time as I call it, taught me to open my eyes more consciously in order to perceive the different variations of life and the light phenomena, and to record these with photographs. After all it is obvious that in life one cannot reach highs if one has not experienced downs; and this also applies to me.

Carpe diem!

Gerrit Scheper