There is no why.

When police asked him why he walked on a wire between the two towers of the WTC in NY, Philippe Petit  said, “There is no why.”

Philippe Petit, 1974.

An action of beauty and wit, explaining it is absurd. But humans desire explanations.

I did a series of B&W photographs in my junior year in art school. They were done with a bellows medium-format camera (basically macro photography with a very short depth of field). Only one small part was in focus, and the rest was a lovely, warping fuzz. I photographed everyday objects, concentrating on shape and light, rendering the objects unrecognizable. During the critique, many classmates were frustrated and wanted to know what the objects were. I refused to say, because if I did that, they would never be able to see them the right way again, without context. That was the whole point of the photos, anyway.

There’s beauty and freedom in suspending your reason. Silliness and random enthusiasm are baffling to many, but are gratifying ends in themselves. Here’s to no why.

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.” – Albert Camus