The real kings and queens!

I've decided that seeing as though there are those out there who know a crap load more about photography than I do, that it seems a little . . . arrogant? . . . to write about my processes at this point. So - check out the links on the side of this blog for some really incredible photographers and photographer stuff.

Huh?

The world is full of random weirdness - this morning it was provided by the label on our milk bottle that says, "Living the good life: being a Fair Cape Free Range cow"!

Documenting the Self

Newsweek have an interesting article by Jennie Yabroff on what she terms the "Look At Me Generation". Yabroff talks about the differences between people born before and after the 1980s - those who are afraid of documentation and those who court it via flickr, myspace, You Tube, Facebook. She wonders, in her article, about the ill effects of such documentation on the youth of today: what does it do to our sense of privacy, does it engender the development of personas as opposed to personlities, what does it do to our sense of self, how do we really relate to others and develop trust?

I find myself occupying quite an interesting space when reading her article. I both self document ('publically' on my two blogs) and I document others through taking photographs of them. Is my personality compromised? Am I going to develop trust issues? Will my sense of self become emeshed in a cyberspace portrayal of who I am?

Unlike the kids of the 80s and beyond, I know that what I'm writing on my blogs is a represenation of certain aspects of my self. And I assume that the people (that little handful) who read what I have to say know that too. I know that until I've met someone my judgements on their trustworthiness are compromised precisely because of this partial representation of self that the net allows. And I know that I'm not that interested in spending hours creating and honing my online personality (or, in Yeboff's terms, is that persona?).

It is true that perhaps my knowing in all of these circumstances comes from the fact that I missed the 1980s time frame that Yabroff gives by a handful of years - my personality had time to form independently of the internet and cell phones and reality TV shows. But by the same token I do worry about some of the kids that I used to teach who spent about EIGHT hours a day playing WoW which in essence is just another form of self documentation - or self creation (where they found the time for eating, sleeping, socialising, school work . . . well, I suppose they didn't really). As I worry similarly about the kids who would rather sprout inanities and send round time wasting videos and quizzes on facebook, instead of actually spending time in the living, breathing company of friends.

But I also wonder about the potential for good that this self documentation holds. It puts us into a world where the private becomes public - a world where dirty little secrets have a habit of being placed in the public arena. A prospect that is shocking to some, but which also means that the power of the secret to shame and embarrass is lessened, even taken away. Imagine a world where abuse (particularly of children) is almos impossible because of the openess and forthrightness of society about such issues. (And cringe as I do to say this, Ricky Lake and Jerry Springer probably have a lot to do with the destruction of the veils of secrecy that traditionally shroud such issues).

I wonder too at the power of self documentation to help us shape our personalities / personsas (Yeboff sees them as seperate . . . but I'm not convinced that they are, or that we don't take what she sees as our personas into the 'real' world with us all the time) and to make meaning in our lives. I think of the kid who played eight hours of WoW a day. In 'real' life he was overweight and deaf in one ear. While immensely likeable and funny, the truth was that he was a bit of a non-entity in the social structure of the school. He played Warcraft because in that world, and to use his words, he was a god. The need for power and self aggrandisement aside, this is a world in which that boy felt needed. In which he had purpose. And if the counter argument here is that he is gaining those things from a world that isn't real . . . well, the counter to that is to ask: "How real is the rest of our life beyond the social value and meaning that we ascribe to it?".

The Hard Rain Project

Was anyone else disappointed by the project part of the Hard Rain Project? I went along on the weekend to Kirstenbosch to go and check out the exhibition and was really moved. The lyrics and images make for a potent combination. But all of that potency just dissipates when visiting the website. Here there's no real project behind the Hard Rain Project . . . well, unless you count the self aggrandisement of Mark Edwards, the man behind the concept and most of the images. Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe there's something here that I'm not seeing in amongst the plaudits and the praise for the book and the exhibition. One thing I'm really not seeing is a site devoted to concrete action. Which is what I was hoping to find. With an exhibition devoted to the virulent effects of humanity's greed on the environment I was hoping to find a project that does something to counter those effects. But no such luck I'm afraid. The exhibition is still definitley worth a look though.

The Red Glasses!

So I finally capitulated and did the 'colour object and the black and white photo!' Never thought I would, but I guess I was asked by the right client as so far my answer has always been no. Nico and Erna were in Cape Town to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary - they're just the nicest, most down to earth people that you're ever likely to meet - and when they asked if I could do the 'colour thing' with the 'black and white photo thing' . . . I said . . . yes.

So here's an example that I'm actually quite happy with. I spent quite a bit of time making sure that the transistion from black and white to colour was smooth - so once I'd picked up the glasses on the layer mask I put a 250px gausian blur on the mask so that there's a fairly big area around the glasses that has a tiny blush of colour. Then I carefully repainted the glasses on the layer mask and put a light gausian blur on - this time about 2px. I find that otherwise the line between black and white and colour is too sharp. And if you look closely at the colour (or the black and white image) you'll see that the distinction between the glasses and the other objects around it is not sharp. The other thing that I did was put a fairly light red photo filter over the whole image, but making it lighter in the centre and heavier on the edges. Again just so that the red isn't too jarring.

Power Cuts

I know it's a bit of an odd thing, but my husband and I are loving the Eskom power cuts - instead of sitting in front of our pcs or watching TV we're finding ourselves having the epic conversations of youth! It's remarkable! After fifteen years of being together (we were highschool sweethearts and we've effectively known each other for half our lives) we're suddenly remembering how much we like to talk crap. So much so that we've decided to have at least two days a week in which we're away from TV or pc screens entirely (if you think we're mad you should read what Dr Aric Sigman has to say about the effects of too much television in Remotely Controlled

So in between talking crap we've also started some rather Victorian pursuits - playing cards, playing chess and our latest, reading aloud to one another. Current book: Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Chapter 2: 'The Duce' is unbelievably funny read aloud! And chapter four, 'L 'Omosessuale' had me in tears!