"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man."
--Rachel Carson
24 May 2010
17 May 2010
15 May 2010
09 April 2010
Why Stop Time
William GIbson noted that humans are the only animal who creates prosthetic forms of memory that survive their creator: writing, music, dance, art, photography ...shadows on cave walls.
In counterpoint, Tonino Guerra, in his forward for a book of Andrei Tarkovsky's Polaroid photographs, recounted a story about traveling with the film maker Michelangelo Antonioni. In Uzbekistan, Antonioni offered three elderly men an instant photograph he'd taken of them with his SX-70. After looking over the image, the eldest handed back the gift and asked "why stop time?".
Why indeed.
Photographs stop time, though always imperfectly. And no camera accomplishes this feat of imperfection quite like the Polaroid SX-70 cameras and their decendants. Even when integral film and cameras were first introduced by Polaroid in the early 1970s, contemporary analog photography easily outperformed them --if accuracy and detail are alone the metric for a desirable photograph. But Polaroids produced images that were more often than not far from technically accurate but approached something oddly closer to emotional truth. Maybe that's why so many people cling to this magical, frustrating and peculiar technology despite the exponential ease and ubiquity of digital cameras. And why so many people have worked so hard to restore instant photography to the market.
I'm happy it's back in my life.
01 April 2010
23 March 2010
20 March 2010
The Suckers and The Mugs
"Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat, I talk about the suckers and the mugs - it's the same thing. They have their five-year plans, so have I."
Harry Lime, The Third Man
15 March 2010
09 March 2010
One Hand Stops Clapping; A Death In The Family
This morning one of my much-loved Beolab 8000 loudspeakers emitted a small pitiful 'pop' followed by an ominous and persistent 60 Hz hum. Some piece of its inner workings has apparently thrown in the towel.
I love these loudspeakers and after 14 years of reliable service can hardly complain about what I hope will be a brief, albeit expensive, illness.
05 March 2010
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