The language currently applied to photographs as distinct from other kinds of images is derived entirely from the jargon of technique; it is a form of shop talk which pertains to the manufacturing of photographs as objects rather than to their workings or effects as images. […]
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Follow me on Mastodon:
@adcoleman@hcommons.social
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Globally, there is now an enormous population of camera users, only a tiny fraction of which actually practices photography. The two functions, initially integral to each other, have been severed in what I can only suggest is the photographic equivalent of pre-frontal lobotomy. […] Photographers on every level, from the rankest amateur to the most experienced professional, are being offered something that’s coming to be known generically as “decision-free photography.” I’m surely not the only one who finds this phrase unnerving. Decision-free information? Decision-free perception? Decision-free self-expression? Decision-free communication? By their nature, these cannot be decision-free — at best, the decisions they involve can be deferred, left in the hands of others. […] |
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Birthday Musings 12/19/17
According to the stats provided by my gym, over these past two years I have lifted more than 600,000 pounds, which equates to 76 elephants. This year I’m taking those pachyderms as symbolic of the Republic Party’s crushing weight on democracy; so, to quote Allen Ginsberg, “America, I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.” […]