Pierre Bayard’s formulation applies no less to photography than it does to books. To what extent do we ― and, if we teach, do our students ― talk about photographs we don’t know at all, or have looked at carefully sometime in the past but since forgotten, or have only glanced at, or have merely heard of? […]
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Pierre Bayard’s book, “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read,” represents a spirited defense of ― nay, an energetic advocacy of ― talking through one’s hat. Nowadays we use a more blunt locution the name that act: Bullshitting. […] This blog, its parent website (The Nearby Café), and the three other websites that form the consortium Photo Education Online have become a Go Daddy-free zone. With that said, the cause on behalf of which Go Daddy collaborated in the making of and endorsed SOPA — prevention of internet piracy — is one in which I believe. I’ll continue to sail the online seas and hang anyone pirating my IP from the virtual yardarm here. “Arrr” yourself, matey. You’ve been warned. […] This boycott, and the threat of massive further customer migration, led Go Daddy to reverse its stance and officially withdraw its support of SOPA on Dec. 23, effectively apologizing to the internet community for approving it in the first place and promising to endorse revisions of this legislation, or any similar bills, only “when and if the Internet community supports it” — which, knowing the “Internet community” as I do, will happen on the proverbial chilly day in the hot place. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |
Return of the Prodigal
I’ve begun to consider the possibility that my brain does manage to wrap itself around these evolutionary shifts in digital technology without extreme difficulty. Which in turn suggests that perhaps this recurrent process helps to keep my brain active and young (or, more precisely, youth-like) by pushing me to learn new skills, to replace old habits with new or revised ones, and in one way or another to get some exercise for the mind. In short, I’ve begun to weigh the mental-health benefits of living la vida digital, with its steady reconfiguring of my neural pathways. […]