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Category: Self Expression
do you have the time?
unable to find it
where did the time go?
often killing it
thoughtlessly
stalking answers
to questions sans reason
killing and eating
time
will tell
or fly
really?
perhaps if I’d saved some
or spent less
if you have a minute
share it well
The above poem floated around in my mind for a long time. Last week I began to look at and move the words around on the screen; while also contemplating images that may accompany them. On Saturday I received a call from my friend Doug. He informed me that he was in Thiensville, my home town, attending a funeral for a former student; Rick Borkin, 42 years old, a volunteer firefighter in Thiensville for 16 years, died during a training exercise 12/8/08. Firefighters from all the surrounding cities and towns attended. The appropriate photograph appeared from my attending this solemn event.
Click here for a slide show of additional images
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“buzz” in world all a twitter
“…the age of Photography corresponds precisely to the explosion of the private into the public, or rather into the creation of a new social value, which is the publicity of the private.” – Roland Barthes, 1980
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So I opened my virtual eyes/ears to the twittering world; the virtual equivalent to walking into a room full of people; some you may know; some you’ve never met. Two weeks into this world of tweets, I still wonder if the time it takes to sift through the noise is worth harvesting a few charming voices and remarkable links they provide. But then I have a similar reaction at live networking events. I don’t consider myself antisocial; rather I like my socializing to feel rich and worthwhile.
Many of these twittering people seem to do it virtually 24/7. As in any social situation some of the people I’ve chosen to “follow” have valuable things to say and share; while others seem to feed a need to hear (or read) their own words between sharing useful or valuable information. One of several odd feelings I’ve experienced: invisibility when I’ve attempted to make connections; to “speak,” as in “reply,” to a number of those I follow; and my replies appear lost in cyberspace. Quite unlike a live networking event.
Another odd feeling I experience: akin to listening to one side of a phone conversation which I’m not meant to hear. Then all of a sudden a designer will drop a link to a fabulous collection of art; or a Non-Profit will alert me to a petition worth signing or some other worthy cause; only to return to what seems like hours of needless tweeting and chirping. Except, it’s not like birds in the trees. I feel a need to read (or at least scan) each tweet — in case I miss something of value. Puzzled. Reading. Listening. Looking.
How do you feel about the “new social media;” and how it fits or doesn’t fit into your life?
I’d love to hear your comments here or Twitter Imagist.
Thank you very much
“I said back off dude, just back away, nice and slow, that’s right…
yeah, now we both have something to be thankful for.” — Wild Turkey (not the beverage)
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Good morning winter
“I think the main ingredient, or a main ingredient for photography is curiosity. If you’re curious enough and if you get up in the morning and go out and take pictures, you’re likely to be more lucky than if you just stay at home.” – Elliott Erwitt
home
with camera and shovel
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Looking closer to find the portrait
“Like doctors, photographers work with what is present. I suspect our chief emotions are anticipation, frustration, and patience, balanced by a marvelous sense of elation when things go right — when we think we’ve captured within a photograph some missing feeling, some sense of beauty, or bit of mystery in the fabric of life.” — John Loengard
Sunday brunch at the Centennial. Watching Ann’s son and his partner as they listen to Ann speak (don’t remember what about, because now I look rather than listen). Not famous people. They probably won’t even like the photograph. No amazing action. Yet, they’re young and lovely in this window light. A 28mm Summicron on the M8. I slice one forty fifth of a second and a small span of five feet out of the infinite possibilities of space and time. Seemingly mundane. Then, examining the photograph on a computer screen, it seems that the parts equal more than their sum. That the individuals behind the eyes have nothing to do with one another. They seem to have more power, and beauty, when isolated. A closer look. Always looking. Closer.
Grant Park — 40 Years Apart
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago Illinois: 70,000 ticketed guests, with who knows how many additional participants, gathered to listen to President-elect Barack Obama; elected just minutes before. This group of hundreds of thousands of young and old, rich and poor, of all colors, genders, and ethnicities gathered to hear our first Irish-African-American President inspire them with a message of hope and determination to make the country, and indeed the world, a better place for our children and grandchildren. While not there, I watched this event on a screen, through tears of great joy; shared with Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson and Oprah.
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Wednesday, August 29th, 1968, Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois: Just 40 years earlier; just 4 years after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law; at the hight of the Viet Nam War and the military draft; as a twenty two year old photo journalist, I was in Grant Park with 15,000 others, including Jean Genet, Allan Ginsberg and William Burroughs (none of which lived to see today). Instead of tears of joy and hope; we had tear gas, clubs and blood to contemplate and record on film and in our memories.
Today the memories of 1968 blend beautifully with 2008 memories.
We wanted change then and we want it today.
photographs about secrets
“If I had to pick a single word to describe what my pictures are all about, I would say ‘secrets.’ As a child I always had a secret world and my favorite book was A Secret Garden.” — Joyce Tenneson
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Each time the shutter clicks I’ve always had that feeling; as if my little black box may have just captured something like a secret. Something no one else has seen. When I opened the above image I felt as if I’d stepped back in time, to those wonderful fall days, as a boy lost in fantasies of adventure, at the edge of land.
Trick (or treat) 08
“In our society, most of us wear protective masks of various kinds and for various reasons. Very often the end result is that the masks grow to us, displacing our original characters with our assumed characters.” – Clarence John Laughlin
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Click this link for a slide show of additional photographs from Trick or Treat O8
A photograph is not what is photographed
“…the fact of putting four edges around a collection of information or facts transforms it. A photograph is not what was photographed, it’s something else.” — Garry Winogrand
My good friends at the Leica User Group have created a tradition called Friday flowers. I offer these in the spirit of that tradition. The blue flowers are a mere 5mm in diameter. Both of these were photographed with a 20 – 30 year old 65 Elmar lens on an M8.
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Last week I walked to the mail box and found five of these walking about in my front yard. This one seemed to be saying, “dude – like back off!”
Fall has arrived and new forms and colors delight the eyes.
Click this link to view additional images on these themes in a flash slide show