One is photography, big surprise there, I�m sure. I need to get back to my roots in photography, which means leaving the digital at home. It�s simply too easy, it has no soul. And I don�t mean that in some neo-mystical way, it�s just that it�s too easy. It makes me lazy when I shoot and I am not, typically, a lazy person when it comes to photography. I�m very meticulous and exact, or I try to be. I�ve found myself saying �I�ll fix it later� when something isn�t just right. And while I�ve been pleased with the stuff I�ve been doing lately, to certain extents, it�s less satisfying as a whole then if I were to have shot them with film and thought out the processes before hand and developed a concise expectation. As it is now, I just shoot and fux with it until I get something I like. That�s not going to make me into a better photographer, it�s going to make me worse.
Now, for commercial shots, I�ll still use the digital since it IS so easy and I don�t care if commercial crap is easy. I don�t feel that, that will compromise my ability if I limit it to commercial. But first, shooting film costs money, and then I need access to a dark room on a consistent basis.. Both will come but in time so for now I�ll do what I can with what I have, but expect me to go back to film soon.
Oh, I lied, I actually did make a new years resolution. I promised that I would drink more, sleep less, and gain lots of weight. This way I can break my resolutions and it may be beneficial, otherwise I can be proud that I stuck with my resolutions. Either way, I WIN!
I saw something, somewhere, or read it, or something� But it had to do with women�s magazines. Or no, maybe it was about society as a whole.. I�m not sure what planted the bug in my head but it�s there. Oh it�s nothing new, the same old clich�, as it were, about how society tears peoples self image down to a point where they don�t value themselves nearly as much as they should and somewhere they lose the knowledge that they are, indeed, beautiful.
Why is that such an effective advertising method? Tear you down and then claim to prop up your shattered ego and be like these beautiful, happy people only if you buy our product? It�s an old method, nothing new. And yes, I actually understand how it works just fine, but I still wonder about this �humanity�. Are we that fucked ? Hmm, yes, of course we are.
This is going to be a strange year. The world climate is energized and violence is in the air. An age where the purported value of human life has never been so high and the question of �how to live� is being asked by less and less people on a daily basis and the old question of �why to live� is worming its way into places it�s never been before. Ideologies are becoming weapons of war and old archaic ways are fighting for their survival with startling new methods.
Yes, a strange year, indeed. Take a seat, all, and feel lucky to be around to watch the show.
-G