Developing. A Photographic Memory.
Wherever I go there are people with smartphones - festoons of small high powered cameras snapping at my heels. Really. I've seen images of my heels. I studied a bit of photography at college. I've forgotten it all. I love my Leica's and also my iPhone though. They go with me almost everywhere. I never forget them.
Automatic cameras seemed to take all the craft away - they made it possible for anyone to snap a great shot. Well maybe. That's not such a bad thing but it made it less intriguing for me. It stopped me from being that bothered for a long while. Now the buzz is back.
The whole world has gone visual.
I've become hooked on photography again.
Perhaps as much because of what it teaches me about myself as much as it is a creative thing. To me the creative part is no longer the snapping bit – it's the observing bit. Coupled with the pressure bit. And now I'm a bit worried that there is an obsessive bit. It's all about the bits these days. A bit.
Link photography to sharing (Instagram/Extragram - building a bunch of folk who seem to appreciate it) - 'say cheese' - and you have a whole new way of communicating 'you'! If that's your thing of course.
Where this goes? - who knows. What's with the shares? - who cares.
All of this has reminded me about what I notice and what I don't. And what is intriguing and valuable in the litter of everything. In fact I can easily see art in the litter. Litterally.
I've always loved graffiti. I love what it represents. To me life and looking at everything is to observe the graffiti of life. That’s how I experience my life. The wabi-sabi, the mess, the chaos, the disarray of it all. That's what make it natural and vital. That's what drives me and makes me want to grab it.
Interesting thing - noticing. It's like a drug once it grabs hold. I've noticed.
Thing is it tricks you. Did I notice something that isn't there? Something that wasn't said? Well that's something else I think. That's projection of a kind. It's dangerous. Projection is wishful noticing. Projection is a big part of photography but only when you are proud of what you have and want to show it off.
Noticing is a special skill and brings responsibility.
To notice is in some way to judge something and if recorded faithfully then that's a good thing right? I store it in my brain in chemical pixels. What I'm noticing is that an image is a tiny record of an experience that was in my mind - I wanted to grab hold of it in case I lost that thought. Or I thought that I wanted to share my thought with people who might like it. Or I could get back to it again as if it might spur me on to something else. The literal nucleus of an idea. That one dot - a single but nuclear power. A carousel of chemi-pixels. Mercurial. Gone.
I need to be sure my photographic memory is in good shape before I'm ready to publish an idea – a shot. I need to be happy with it. I need to make really good decisions about it. It always needs more work before it meets that projector.
It's also increased what I notice in language. I think I have increased what I notice when listening or reading. The meaning of a word or phrase is also an image to me because I represent it in my mind with those crazy atoms. The pictures are in a mad orbit - and my mind always wants to pick something from them. I mix them all up.
Mixellation.
That's a whole lot of pixels! Each pixel a time-bomb of stimulation. All likely to send a surge through my visual cortex without warning.
Watch out Cloud my memory is on its way.
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