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This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

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Entries from September 1, 2008 - September 30, 2008

Tuesday
Sep302008

man & nature # 46 ~ outside lies magic

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Leaves and suffclick to embiggen
Over this past weekend Aaron, The Cinemascapist, was in Woodstock (yes, that Woodstock) to attend a workshop at The Center For Photography At Woodstock. The workshop was conducted by David Hilliard, a photographer who has been helpful to / generous with Aaron with his time and advice over the past year or so.

Aaron also got to spend considerable time with the CPW director, thanks to an introduction from Cornelia Hediger, recently highlighted here on The Landscapist, with whom Aaron has been having a conversation.

Aaron came away from the weekend with a Xerox copy "teaser" of the first 19 pages of a book (handed out by Hilliard), Outside Lies Magic ~ Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places by a professor from Harvard, John R. Stilgoe - "... a book about the acute observation of ordinary things, about becoming aware in everyday places, about seeing in utterly new ways, about enriching your life unexpectedly."

The book is not about photography. It is about the "art of exploration" - the subject that he teaches at Harvard. From the little I have read, if I were in his neighborhood, I might be inclined to see if I could monitor his class. I like what he has to say:

Abandon, even momentarily, the sleek modern technology that consumes so much time and money now, and seek out the resting place of a technology almost forgotten. Go out side and walk, a bit, long enough to forget programming, long enough to take in and record new surroundings.

Flex the mind, a little at first, then a lot. Savor something special, Enjoy the best kept secret around - the ordinary, everyday landscape that rewards any explorer with magic.

The whole concatenation of wild and artificial things, the natural ecosystem as modified by people over the centuries, the built environment layered over layers, the eerie mix of sound and smells and glimpses of neither natural or crafted - all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in. Take it, and take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unproggramed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic.

Sound familiar?

Stilgoe goes on to say:

And I hope this book makes each reader aware that education and entertainment media teach nothing about being original, about being innovative, about being creative or inventive. How does one learn to be creative? How does one develop the ability to produce lots of new ideas, to respond to problems easily and energetically? I think the answers lie outside.

Exploration encourages creativity, serendipity, invention.

I find it interesting, as I have stated before, that a book about "exploring", not about photography, not even about art, might be one of the best books a photographer might read to grow and develop as a picture maker. Consider this spot on advice for a photographer:

Explorers quickly learn that exploring means sharpening all the senses, especially sight. See intently means scrutinizing, staring, narrowing the eyes ...

A statement not unlike that of Walker Evans when he opined:

Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.

And, as a somewhat timely addendum to my recent entry about time and photography, man & nature # 40 ~ time in a bottle, there is this from a review of the book:

Stilgoe provides a fascinating pocket history of the American landscape, as striking in its originality as it is revealing. Stilgoe dissects our visual surroundings; his observations will transform the way you see everything. Through his eyes, an abandoned railroad line is redolent of history and future promise; front lawns recall our agrarian past; vacant lots hold cathedrals of potential.

Let me say that from reading these few excerpts of his book, I'd swear that Stilgoe has been following me around for the past decade or so, somehow reading my inner thoughts and ideas as I have pictured my way through the magic outside.

Any comments (on a non-politic thought)?

Monday
Sep292008

man & nature # 45 ~ the big delusion / count # 2 - see entry below for count # 1

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One of the many reasons I live hereclick to embiggen
The current conventional political wisdom in good 'ole US of A is that we need "change". One candidate won the primary based on that "platform". The other co-opted it later (because he's a genuine I vote with my friends 95% of the time "maverick").

Whatever the merits - personal and/or political - of these self-adopted agent-of-change labels may be, they both primarily revolve of around the same mass delusional notion that "change" needs to made in Washington, DC. That the "problem" resides there and with them. That the "problem" is a top-down one. That it resided outside of the collective self, AKA, the American people, themselves.

I completely disagree.

It's been said many times and in many ways before, but let me quote one of my favorites by Timbuk 3:

Assholes get elected because assholes get to vote.

Or, this from George Carlin:

Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.

And don't forget the time-worn classic:

The American public gets exactly the government that they deserve.

It's really as simple as that. Our government and its attendant politicians are nothing more or less than a reflection of who we are as a people. Or, at least, who we are as a people as determined by those who vote.

And, on the whole, we are a selfish lot. Especially so since the Reagan Revolution wherein a majority of us were sold the bill of goods that "government is not the solution, government is the problem". That it is the government that stands in the way of us getting whatever we want, when we want it, and in employing whatever manner we choose to get it.

There are 2 key delusional flaws in that idea:

1). You just can't have whatever you want without consequences of some kind.

2). And, more importantly, it is our government that binds us all together. It is the glue that holds it all together. Without it, we have anarchy.

In a culture and society as large and diverse as ours, it is the government's responsibility to regulate, and, yes, dare I say it, control competing private interests which, left unchecked, would have the power to tear our country apart. And, it is the responsibility of citizens to engage in non-rancorous conversation and debate about what to and how to regulate and control.

That said, who the American public has been electing over the past 3-4 decades are representatives - left, right, Democrat and Republican - who believe (or are afraid to stand up to those who believe) that we should just deregulate everything and let the "invisible hand" of the market make all our decisions for us.

Why do that? Why not? We have been told, again and again, that the market is the best place to get whatever we want, whenever we want it, and at a price we can afford. And the key word employed in that notion is the one that labels us as "consumers".

That label has become the operative imperative in our society and culture - terrorists attack our country? A big part of the suggested solution is to go out and spend. The consumer economy is on a tailspin? A big part of the suggested solution is to go out and spend. Don't have enough money to go and spend? No worry, the taxpayers will just give you some. Just get out there and be patriotic consumers. Forget about "traditional values" like actually saving money. No. Not that. Just accept that fact that consumer debt is the natural order of things.

Why is it that no one in the electorate ever seems to notice that our elected leaders, corporate heads, and the economic academia, never talk about us as workers? Could I be that that conversation might lead us to the realization that we, the people, are more than just consumers. That in order to get what we want, when we want it, at a price we can afford, directly and dramatically effects our lives as workers.

It would be really difficult to figure out how people haven't made that connection except for the fact that we have been conditioned to be ravenous consumers whose desires know no bounds and that the frenzied state of satiating these unbridled desires keeps our minds off of the fact that there are real and serious consequences to our lives and our society from this selfish, self-centered avarice.

Wake up people and shed the big delusion - the problem isn't "them", it is "us".

My despair with the current offerings from the political class is that none of them are willing (and most likely not even able) to give us the bad news - that the "change" we so desperately need must come from the bottom, up - although that idea doesn't negate the influence that a "real" (truthful) leader can provide in shaping that approach. That we, John & Sally Q. Public, need to look in the mirror and recognize the grotesque caricature of a human being as a "consumer" that so many of us have become.

The point is rather simple really - if we are selfish and self-centered then there will be a never-ending stream of self-serving and greedy politicians and captains of industry standing ready to assume the mantle of "leadership". All the while assuring us that they stand ready to give us what we want when, in fact, it's really all about what they want (hint: power and money).

Monday
Sep292008

man & nature # 44 ~ 2 questions in need of answers

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The top of the heapclick to embiggen
Once again, we have set new benchmarks for comments here on The Landscapist and, once again, it is in response to things political. The fact that this happened over the weekend, a time when page views, visits, and comments are normally quite low, is also worth noting.

That said, I guess it's not surprising that, here in the US of A, interest in our own peculiar Quadrennial Bacchanal of the Cult of Personality is running high. And, that said, I am especially appreciative of the fact that so many of you picked up the anti-demagoguery and paranoia banner and ran with it. It appears that at least one person who was inclined to engage in that kind of behavior has been goaded or convinced to engage in dialogue about issues rather than rant about personal vilification. How about that?

All of that said, let me reiterate my desire for The Landscapist to carry on as a photography blog, not a political one, but, today's entry, on 2 counts, will still be slanted towards the political although not entirely so.

count # 1 - Healthcare. Ron raised the issue of government managed universal healthcare "bankrupting" the country. IMO, opinion, and that of many others, the current system of privately provided healthcare is / has already accomplishing that objective quite well.

The cost of healthcare is, if not bankrupting, at the very least stretching, to near the breaking point, the budgets of most municipalities (large and small) and school districts. American corporations are staggering and falling into a status of uncompetitiveness under the costs of employee healthcare. Retirees and workers are asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of healthcare as their pension benefits are being reduced.

And, guess who's paying for it all? You and me. If not directly, then every time you buy an American-made product or service. Every time you pay local school or property taxes. Every time you pay federal taxes. The enormous cost of healthcare in this country is "hidden" in virtually every monetary transaction you make.

And, have no doubt about it, our costs are the highest on the planet - current best-estimates put our cost at $7,000 per person. Compare that to England and France, where the costs are $1,700 and $2,200, respectively. Canada spends $3,300 per person. And, the US of A stands alone in this group - it is the only country without universal healthcare.

Obviously, something is out of whack. Now, I am not a healthcare policy wonk but let me mention one obvious factor. In France, England, and Canada, corporate profits are not a very big part of the picture. Not so in the US of A. So, for me, the questions we need to ask and address are simply these:

1.) Is healthcare just another market sector, like selling cars as an example, that should be nothing more than an unregulated money-making machine? (FYI, I am not talking about doctors or any other individual healthcare providers making a living).

2.) Should access to healthcare be a universal "right" or should it be limited to a class and/or income based privilege?

Find a consensus on those notions and we are capable of working out the details needed to make it work.

Saturday
Sep272008

civilized ku # 108 ~ THE BIG LIE

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An imposing edificeclick to embiggen
In yesterday's entry I mentioned the radical right fundamentalist rote we're - on - the - road - to - socialism response that addressing topics like those raised inevitably draw from the "true believers". And, right on cue, we have this comment:

...elect Obama so we can put an end to free markets and the United States of America.

And, just to put an exclamation point to that spurious form of paranoia, this was also added:

...Our problem is liberalism. It makes you feel good. You have compassion for your fellow man (unless they disagree with you). It allow (sic) you to have personal freedom. To do what you want to do with no constraints .... The idea that you can do what you want and not effect any one else ... Liberalism lead (sic) to me, me, me. A selfish society with no morals will collapse.

I, for one, am sick to death of the radical right fundamentalist's BIG LIE. Anyone else out there feel the same way?

First and foremost, I am sick of being labeled a "liberal" - my political views are a much more complex mix of views and beliefs. Some come from the "left", some from the "right", and then there's a bit of the libertarian and the progressive mixed in. It draws, in part, from religious traditions - Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, to name a few.

So, as far as I am concerned, if the radical right fundamentalists can't deal with that level of complexity, they can take their simpleminded label and shove it.

I am also sick and tired of being insulted and slandered as having "no morals" and the idea that I "do what you (I) want to do with no constraints" or that I am "selfish" and care only about "me, me, me". In other words, I am as sick of hearing the BIG LIE as I am of hearing the brain-dead Pavlovian response of a - socialist behind - every - bush nonsense.

Let's set the record straight - NO GROUP - religious, political, cultural, racial, (take your pick) - has anything resembling a stranglehold on right-living. They are all made up of equal opportunity sinners. And, the opposite is also true - NO GROUP - religious, political, cultural, racial, (take your pick) - has anything resembling a stranglehold on wrong-living.

In truth, the ne'er-do-wells are spread out pretty equally across all of society.

But, of course, that fact doesn't serve well those who need to foster THE BIG LIE for political, social, religious, racial gain. No ... in exactly the same manner as the Nazi's employed to demonize the Jews in order to rationalize their murder, the radical right fundamentalists are fixed upon demonizing and de-humanizing demagoguery in order to propagate their specious world-view.

So, even though this is a civilized ku, I am not inclined to be very civil. My response is simple ... shut the fuck up. How dare you presume that you even know me well enough to label me as anything. How dare presume to know or judge whether my life is moral, ethical, or right-living. Your paranoia and demagoguery serves no constructive purpose for society at large.

Do us all a favor - pick a state, any state. Build a wall. Put up gates and defend the whole thing - paranoia and demagoguery included - to the death. Just leave the rest us alone unless you have something constructive and informed to say.

Friday
Sep262008

civilized ku # 106-07 ~ a theory of moral sentiments

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2 differing views of similar aspirationsclick to embiggen
Have you ever heard of the book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments?

My guess is that most of you have not. I find this more than a bit curious in these perilous economic times because the book's author, Adam Smith, considered this book (his first) to be his most important work - much more important than his most oft quoted and mentioned book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Surely you have heard of that one - the one from which most current economic theory and principles are derived.

The book that free-market radical fundamentalists base (erroneously) their contention on that free-markets, driven by self-interest and the "invisible hand", tend to "get it right" without government intervention - laissez-faire economics - a notion that Smith never expressed nor inferred.

Smith merely observed the fact, especially as it applies to economics, that most individuals do in fact act in their own self interest and that this self-interest is not intrinsically or necessarily bad. However, in no way did Smith claim that all self-interest was beneficial for the community. In fact, when considered together, his 2 aforementioned books state quite clearly that self-interest untempered by moral sentiments - prime amongst them the notion of sympathy for one's fellow citizens - is almost always destructive for the community.

Now, IMO, it's not much of a stretch to say that Smith was, even in his era, merely stating the obvious. Think about it - dating back to well before the time of Adams, are you aware of any religious philosophy that did not in some manner teach/preach against the "sinful" notions of (amongst many things) greed, pride, acquisitiveness, or avarice - the seductive operative principles of self-interest gone awry much in evidence in the actions of those responsible for our current economic mess?

I mention all of this because, as our government tries to decide what form of intervention it will proceed with in order to attempt to begin to solve our current economic crisis, the cries and caterwauling from the radical free markets fundamentalists regarding government intervention in the free-marketplace is the primary impediment to getting things done.

Their rote we're - on - the - road - to - socialism response and objections are getting to be very tiresome and old. And speaking of "old", they seem to believe, not unlike the John Birch-ers and MaCarthy-ists before them who saw a communist behind every bush and under every bed, that there are "socialists" in all the same places just waiting to undo and subvert all the goods thing of American life.

I just wish they would get real and give it all a rest. I'm sick of hearing it. Why can't they just get on with finding things that work.

But, no. Instead, all they want is for the market, by itself and employing market mechanisms, to get it done. "Market mechanisms" - their favorite umbrella euphemism for things like unemployment, loss of jobs, loss of homes, business failures due to the collapse of credit markets, business failures due to the deflation of personal purchasing power, increase in poverty and want, the devaluation of personal assets such as 401Ks and retirement incomes. In other words, personal dislocation and misery employed as "market mechanisms" so the unrestrained and unregulated free-market can "work" its invisible hand, voodoo magic. You know the free market that I am speaking of - the one that has served us so well in arriving at this mess.

I really do wonder what Adam Smith would think of that "theory". No, wait. I've actually read his books and have a really good idea what he thinks about that.

FYI, I offer no apologies for getting a bit political. The US of A is truly at a crossroad and the time is at hand when we must choose what will drive us into the future as a country. Unfortunately, in our presidential popularity contest, we are offered, at best, the evil of 2 lessers.

My advice - vote Obama/Biden, if for no other reason than they are not McCain/Palin, who, IMO, are absolutely nothing more than unapologetic agents of notions and ideas that have landed us where we are today.

Thursday
Sep252008

man & nature # 43 ~ moving through time

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Views from a moving trainclick to embiggen
Here in the Adirondacks we are experiencing some grand autumn weather. Foliage is at 50-60% in some locations. In some ways it's hard to believe that we are approaching the end of September.

That said, I have to get out and enjoy it, so here are a couple things to think about:

In photography, the two words I like most are "simplicity" and "authenticity". I try to see things with authenticity, in natural manner : no cheating in order to show things as they are. This is the way in which I would like to see things. My ideal point of view. ~ Yann Arthus Bertrand

and:

...I felt that photography ought to start with and remain faithful to the appearance of the world, and in so doing record contradictions. The greatest pictures would then... find wholeness in the torn world. ~ Robert Adams

Wednesday
Sep242008

civilized ku # 103-05 ~ The NYC Waterfalls

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The Brooklyn Bridgeclick to embiggen
I would imagine that if one wanted to make a project of the Brooklyn Bridge, one could spend years picturing it. Last Saturday, in just a few hours in DUMBO, I managed to picture it about 20 1044757-1949486-thumbnail.jpg
The NYC Waterfallclick to embiggen
different
times and that's only because I deliberately limited my picturing.

It would have been easy to just fire away. I would also bet that one would never have to repeat a view. The possibilities are endless - daylight, night time, rain, snow, fog, topside, underneath, waterfront, neighborhood views - the list goes on and on. And if those possibilities are not enough, there's always the NYC Waterfalls that is lurking under the bridge.

Are there any NYC people out there in the group who have spent any time picturing the bridge?

Tuesday
Sep232008

civilized ku # 102 ~ disconnected

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Connected isolationclick to embiggen
One key ingredient for "success" in picture making, is for the photographer, with camera in hand, to be fully in the moment.

As I have mentioned, for me, that means to stop thinking without falling asleep - to achieve and maintain a state of receptive awareness with as few distractions as possible. That is why, with the exception of commercial assignments, I don't venture out looking for picture possibilities. I don't want to paint myself into a corner with notions of what I am looking for for - rather, I want picture possibilities to find me, to surprise me, to deliver to me the unexpected.

One could say that I strive to establish connections to the world around me without the prejudice of preconception.

However, I have begun to realize that by striving to connect and then picturing that connection, I may, in fact, be establishing a disconnect of sorts at the actual moment of picture making. In a very real sense, when I am picturing, I am primarily responding to external visual stimuli in a Pavolian type response. A response that is conditioned by internal subconscious reactions to external events / stimuli.

In most cases, I am not aware of those subconscious connections until well after the fact of picturing. It's not until I have "processed" and printed a picture that I begin to see and understand at least a hint of what connected me to the referent, what caused me to respond in such a way as to make me want to make a picture of something. And it is through this process of instinctive response and eventual thoughtful discovery that I begin to make sense of the world and my relationship to it.

That said, I have also become aware that to do this with any degree of regularity requires that I adopt a very dispassionate persona during the actual act of picture making - in a very real sense, an attitude of cool distance and conscious disconnection.

The contradiction is obvious and very disconcerting to me. In my attempt to connect and integrate, I must, in real time, disconnect and distance myself from the real life that I encounter. And, in a bizarre twist, I must find my connections in the traces of the things themselves.

I do consider myself to be an observer. As Chauncey Gardener said, "I like to watch." I understand more fully now that it is through this intense "watching" that I see things that many do not and that it is with my picturing that I attempt to make visible that which is often seen but never looked into.

When you began viewing the world through a camera lens, your senses sharpen as your mind and eyes are forced to focus on people and things never before noticed or thought about. I discovered that even if I didn’t always take a picture, the simple act of carrying a camera and searching for something to photograph greatly sharpened my powers of observation and allowed me to experience much more of life. ~ Kent Reno