It’s hard to say much with certainty about Shakespeare’s life at that point, but there is one fact we know with absolute certainty: in 1607, Shakespeare saw a comet. Everybody saw it and spoke about it. It was Halley’s Comet.
Tag: Photography
The Image of Whiteness, ed. by Daniel C. Blight
The task before me—a task which Daniel Blight sets not only for photographers and artists, but for light-skinned people generally—is to decolonize my seeing.
Nature Photography: The New Normal
There is a sense in which virtually every animal on the planet is domesticated. The cage bars aren’t obvious, but all animals roam inside the confines of a giant zoo and we are their mostly negligent zookeepers.
Suffering Photography
I grew up in the chilly arms of the Protestant work ethic which is stunningly devoid of grace. You can only deserve what you merit. In the photographic world, that means an image can’t be truly good unless the photographer suffered in its making.
Pale Fire
If the scene suggests a story, it isn’t for me to advance it; that task falls to the viewer. My work was done the instant I released the shutter.
Channelling Jimmy Stewart while Self-Isolating
I hate the thought of spending good money on a new lens and not using it. So, instead of stalking wildlife in Toronto’s ravines, I’ve played Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, propping my gear on a tripod and waiting to see what happens in neighbouring buildings.
The Children Of Men, by P. D. James
I wonder how we will return to normal. Will we allow our children to play freely? Or will we regulate public play? Maybe the state won’t need to regulate childhood interactions. Maybe it will be enough for anxious parents to hover on the edges of our playgrounds.
Chinese Wet Markets
The more someone like Trump points at China and Wuhan and wet markets, the more inclined I am to suspect that he’s trying to play us. It’s more of the same: sow confusion, ratchet public discourse into screaming matches, distract us from his acts of personal enrichment.
A Photographer Dreams in Lockdown
I went to work and my boss told me I’d have to start working from home. I said I was happy to go along with the new rules, but I did have one question: how do spies work from home?
The Consequences of Posting Photos on Instagram
Every year, personal autonomy in the arts suffocates a little more as corporate interests suck more oxygen out of the creative atmosphere.
Covid-19 Self-Isolation Self-Portraits
I think it was Jean Mohr who recommended that all serious photographers produce a self-portrait at least once a month. I can’t locate the source of the quote, so I don’t know the reasons for his recommendation. However, I can come up with some reasons on my own.
We All Are Superman
A standard question during a psychiatric intake interview is: Do you ever feel that the people around you can read your mind? I wonder if our cultural habits have rendered this question obsolete.
Social Distancing
What will be the longterm consequences of this pandemic. Will it permanently alter the way we gather in public? Will public authorities take greater care to manage crowd control? Will photographers ever again be able to follow Capa’s dictum as we try to document what happens in the streets of our cities?
After Babel, the photograph?
The following commentary considers After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, by George Steiner and asks whether it has anything to say about non-verbal forms of communication, most notably photography.
Remember when Covid-19 came to town?
How much should I allow the broader sweep of world events to impinge upon my narrower concerns? Like most questions I pose to myself, the answer that returns to me is: it depends.