Sometimes i have a hard time understanding how someone who purports to be a photographer says that the world around them never changes. This same person also says they are best at planning and working out compositions for photographs that include people as subjects of the work and that without this element they have a hard time making photos. Then I realize that this is one of those camera owners involved with what seems to be a rampant infection among people on Flickr, the 365 self portrait projects. And these folks seem to not see the world as an interesting possibility unless they are the center of it. Not one of them seems to show the slightest understanding that the number one problem in photography is not putting more of your self centered ass in the picture, but getting out of the way and letting the world present itself through the lens and your personal vision. Narcissism truly is a destructive disease, especially in relation to the arts. I have taken self portraits and also photos with myself in the frame, but have always felt peculiar about the results, that's just me. As a student of the history of photography and how photography has affected our understanding of ourselves and our culture, I am saddened by this culturally warped viewpoint.
Now as an addendum to the rant above, let me say that I have seen some absolutely stunning self portraits done by accomplished photo artists. Whether or not these are acts of extreme narcissism is dependent on their body of work taken as a whole to understand a particular artists vision. Then there are the totally self centered who's only work is about them and there uniqueness which is laughable considering all the unique people all doing the same thing. Over and out.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Howling in the kitchen
Well, the holidays are over. Now back to the grind and let the howling begin. Because we are like a good portion of the families in the world, some of her family is close by and some of mine is far away, we have to split up the seasonal celebrations into separate get togethers, this is OK, it's the way of the world. In the case of my mom, we don't see her but maybe two or three times in a year including Christmas. What does all this have to do with a picture of a howling dog. Plenty. Since we don't spend enough time around my mom and her faithful companion, Mitzi, she sees us as competition for my mom's attention and let me tell you she is one jealous bitch. I only call her that in the caniniest sense of the word. If I meant it any other way I would have called her "biatch!" I hope I spelled that right, I wouldn't want to offend anyone. Wait, the dog can't read, but she can sing. Patricia started to sing and the Mitzi said, Oh no you didn't! And let the games begin. I guess you had to be there, so the only thing to do is really look closely at the photo and notice the rounded mouth howling her displeasure. So, there you have it.
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