Upcoming Ebook: Future Hindsights I am happy to announce that I am in the final stages of producing my next Ebook: Future Hindsights / Selected Writings on Photography and Experience. This will be the first in a series of 3 upcoming titles (the other two will focus on Photography and Art, and Photography and Philosophy). From... Continue Reading →
Amor Fati—Part IV: Nature and Music
Without music, life would be a mistake. —Friedrich Nietzsche Previous installments in this series: Amor Fati—Part I: Introduction Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebellion In his poem, The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry confessed, “When despair for the world grows in me […] I come into the peace of wild... Continue Reading →
Amor Fati—Part III: Acceptance and Rebellion
Don’t ask, “Is my attitude toward life the right one?”—to that question there is no answer. Every attitude is as right as every other, all are a part of life. Ask instead, “Since I am as I am, since I have these particular needs and problems which seem to be spared so many others, what... Continue Reading →
Amor Fati—Part II: Vastness
If we lose ourselves in contemplation of the infinite greatness of the universe in space and time, meditate on the past millennia and on those to come; or if the heavens at night actually bring innumerable worlds before our eyes, and so impress on our consciousness the immensity of the universe, we feel ourselves reduced... Continue Reading →
Remembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the Present (cont.)
It seems to me that the most damaging restrictions on an artist’s liberty are self-imposed. So often, what may have begun as fresh thinking and discovery is turned into a routine and reduced to mere habit. Habits in thinking or technique are always stultifying in the long run. They are also contagious, and when a... Continue Reading →
Remembering the Future — Part III: The Future is Shaped by the Present
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. —Walt Whitman Previous installments in this series: Remembering the Future — Part I: Introduction Remembering the Future — Part II:... Continue Reading →
Remembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will Come (cont.)
Whether art and beauty can really make man better and stronger is an open question; but one thing is certain: that like the starry firmament they remind us of light, of order and harmony, and of “meaning” amid chaos. —Hermann Hesse Previous installments in this series: Remembering the Future — Part I: Introduction Remembering the... Continue Reading →
Remembering the Future — Part II: The Future Will Come
To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future. —Bertrand Russell This continues Remembering the Future —... Continue Reading →
Remembering the Future — Part I: Introduction
I live in a time of fear and the fear is not of war or weather or death or poverty or terror. The fear is of life itself. The fear is of tomorrow, a time when things do not get better but become worse. This is the belief of my time. I do not share... Continue Reading →
Classical Photographers and Jazz Photographers
I’ll play it and tell you what it is later. —Miles Davis This is a re-edited version of an article originally published in the online magazine On Landscape. If you are not already a subscriber, I recommend it highly. (Note, this is an unsolicited, unpaid personal recommendation, not an advertisement.) ~~~ Ansel Adams spent much... Continue Reading →