Today, the mobile phone makes everyone a photographer. But how many people can create what they actually visualize in their head? For Ansel Adams, what he saw in front of him was different than what he pictured in his mind’s eye. So he created the ‘zone system,’ allowing him to play with the aperture to […]
Tag Archives: photography
Google street view mirror selfies
We’ve gone from the invention and proliferation of 15th century mirrors to human iPhone selfies, to the Google street view robot taking pictures of itself off mirrors. Progress.
‘Photography is a kind of virtual reality’
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world. Steven Pinker
Nassim Taleb: ‘The best way to verify that you are alive is by checking if you like variations.’
“The best way to verify that you are alive is by checking if you like variations.” Nassim Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
The thrill of online publishing
There’s a little bit of a thrill in publishing online. Thinking and writing out loud makes you vulnerable to criticism. But if you ship something new every day, you’ll get better at connecting with people and clarifying your ideas. Sometimes it’s better to be done and then be perfect. So many people make excuses for […]
Write a memoir to make sense of your life
“Why write? To write. To make something.” Claude Simon Most people think of writing as a creative outlet. But it’s also an instrument for coping. According to recent studies, writing your own memoir has various psychological benefits. Whether for private eyes or for public viewing, writing extensively about traumatic events helps you break free from the cage […]
‘Life is a movie; death is a photograph’
“Life is a movie; death is a photograph.” Susan Sontag, from her first published novel The Benefactor (1969)
Seen but diluted
The proliferation of images undermines our ability to pay attention to any single one. So we keep skimming, scrolling, consuming more and understanding less; all the while contributing to the chaos to avoid missing out. On top of this, all Instagram images tend to look the same. It’s easier to conform to selfies, food porn, […]
Between convention and originality, Vivian Maier’s color work
Amid convention and rebellion, the artist vacillates from Jeckyl to Hyde. The artist uses cash to pay for the sex — the stuff they wish they were doing for a living. Vivian Maier was a babysitter who in her off-hours roamed the streets of Chicago with her 35mm color camera capturing beautiful everyday moments. Maier didn’t […]