An artistic image

An artistic image
is once that ensures its own development,
its historical viability.
An image is a grain,
a self-evolving retroactive organism.
It is a symbol of actual life,
as opposed to life itself.
Life contains death.
An image of life,by contrast,
excludes it, or else sees in it a unique potential
for the affirmation of life.

Instant Light - Tarkovsky Polaroids / Andrey Tarkovsky