Week 12 Journal Assignment

Q: What moral obligations (if any) do photographers have?

Photography should be used as a means to share with others the way you see and experience the world around you. In doing such we can learn not only to better understand ourselves and each other, but the world and life itself. This is productive. If there is any moral obligation that is to be set upon photographers, suffice to say it's to utilize the medium as a unique platform of communication. Pictures can say things words cannot, no matter how prolific the writer. Capturing occurrence and visceral experience is to capture something sublime. Speaking of sublime; music really
is food for the soul, anyone who claims otherwise is lying to you.

Week 11 Journal Assignment

Q: What do you wish you could have a photograph of?

The late stand-up comic Mitch Hedburg once said:

"One time a guy handed me a picture of himself and he said. "Here's a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture of you is when you were younger. Here's a picture of me when I'm older. How'd you pull that off? Let me see that fucking camera."

I wish I had a photograph of myself 20 years from now (which would make me 41). Would I still be alive? I hope so. If not, would anybody be able to tell me (from looking at the image) how long ago I had died. I suspect that carbon-dating cannot be performed on photographs. If chance should have it that I am alive and well, it would interest me to see what I look like. Did I gain weight? Do I look happy? Am I alone? Was I involved in a freak automobile accident rendering my face hideously deformed (like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky)? The next, and probably more important, question would be whether, or not, my awareness of this destiny played a role in the actual occurrence of it.
I suppose in the grand scheme of all the photographs I could potentially wish for, this is a slightly frivolous pursuit. Nevertheless, it’s my wish and I’ll do as I please with it. However self-indulgent it might be, I would find it impossible to resist. A window providing a glimpse of the future is, as far as I know, a rare privilege. Who am I to turn it down…?

Q: What are some differences between a photograph of something and thing itself?

Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte once painted a picture of a pipe (entitled “The Treachery of Images”). While the image itself was simple, the message it conveyed was anything but. A caption within the painting read simply “This is not a pipe.” Now that Magritte has told us what it is not, I am going to describe what it is. It is merely visual representation of a pipe. What prevents it from being an actual pipe is the lack of physical properties*. You cannot hold it, or smoke it, or even throw it at someone you don’t like. It exists only within a 2-dimensional universe you will never be a part of. The same concept can be applied to photography. Had Magritte used a photograph of a pipe, the message would have remained unchanged. However, I think that this provides a productive challenge to photographers. Photography can allow us to view the world from a completely unique perspective. If it is, in fact, just a visual depiction of a pipe, then depict the shit out of it! Like nobody has before. There are an infinite number of ways to look at something, find one that’s unique. The camera’s eye sometimes has the ability to capture images ours cannot, and it would be foolish to ignore these powers. What I’m suggesting is a departure from visual representation into visual creation.

*Most pictures these days don’t even exist within the 2-dimensional, physical world. Rather they exist virtually within the screen of your computer. In this case, the pipe has become a clusterfuck of tiny electronic pixels. In his book "A Man without a Country", Kurt Vonnegut writes:
"Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different."
Pixelation is destroying the world, go smoke a pipe.

Week 7 Journal Assignment

Q: Are you better in front of or behind the camera? How does it feel to be photographed?

Some people hate being photographed. This is a trend I have never been able to understand. Do these people hate mirrors? Reflections? I’m guessing not, so why do they have to hate on cameras? I realize that there are such things as bad pictures, or perhaps more accurately, inaccurate visual depictions. This is because photography captures a split second in time, and it is entirely possible that in this split second you just happened to look like a derranged orangutan experiencing an orgasm. The point is, we all know what we look like, and if this representation is, in fact, inaccurate, that’s just the luck of the draw. But, you know, there is a productive way to deal this situation… Fucking laugh at it! It happens to everyone. Despite what you may believe, the camera is not out to get you (it's not going to add 10 pounds out of spite and malice). Cameras just aren’t that cunning. So let's all just chill out, it’s just a picture. I have seen plenty of unflattering pictures of myself, but I still love getting my picture taken. I love taking pictures. I love getting my picture taken while I’m taking pictures. You can’t hide from the way you look, people can, and will, see you. If you are unable to come to terms with that, I hope you have a nice, spacious closet. You’re going to need it, because I have a camera, and I am looking for you. Pictures are fun, have fun with them.

Week 3 Journal Assignment

Q: What’s Truth? An Idea? Reality? Abstraction? Can it be represented in (an) image(s)?

Truth is undeniable. Truth is pure. Truth is not reality, it’s the other way around: reality is truth. Existence (reality) is undeniable and pure, even though at times it may seem as though it is not. You are here, and alive, and that cannot be argued. This is the truth. Nature (the world, the universe) is truth, because it exists naturally. The functions and constructs of society are not the truth. They are not a lie because they do, in fact, exist, but these notions are arbitrary. Human emotions are truth, so long as they are detached from description. Society, media in particular, masturbates the idea of emotions and we get caught up in the ideals of them as oppose to the feelings themselves. Our feelings and emotions, in and of themselves, are undeniable and pure. The words and ideals we attach to them are arbitrary, and simply constructs of society. They serve as a tool of communication so we may attempt to collectively understand them. While this is, in most cases, beneficial, it is secondary to reality (truth) and experience itself.