I don't know if the spirits of Caboclos that walk with me understand english, but I wish they do so they can read this and be as amused as I am. One of your best essays, Tom.
That's a great essay, Thomas! I spent some time in Spain two years ago on a wilderness retreat. The experience was profound but I couldn't make full sense of it at that time.
After two weeks I returned back from this remote place in the Spanish Pyrenees to Barcelona and what surprised me the most was not the busyness of the city but – guess what – my own reflection in the shop windows. I hadn't seen myself for two weeks.
It was incredible to realize how much time I actually spent with "thinking about how I look" in my every day life. Just about every time I go into a bathroom. There is always a mirror.
It is only now that I realize what made this experience so profound. Without constant "mirrors" (analog and digital) I could simply be. Be me. I didn't have to be something for someone.
Thanks Christian, and thanks for taking the time to drop by here and leave a comment.
Man, that’s an amazing experience being away from your (reflected) self to be in the wilderness and possibly gain a greater understanding of your (actual, inner) self. I strongly suspect there is a companion piece to be written to this essay about that idea of mirrors and the reflected self image versus our internal image and so on. Maybe I will have a crack at that at some point but in the interim if you chose to write about that wilderness experience at more depth I would be very keen to read it.
Yes, although photography can be an aid to memory, the very act of thinking ‘oh, I’ll take a photo of this/ myself here’ has a way of pulling ourselves out of the moment in question. Which interestingly enough makes us less present-appearing in the subsequent image itself.
Interesting thoughts on this Tom, I agree that the native Americans’ opinions on photography were taken on face value and not explored on a philosophical level. Your points on social media are especially interesting. I’ve noticed the rise of “Instagram face” – more and more filters used to present a manipulated face to levels of uncanny valley. At a certain point it’s not attractive, but a warped sense of what looks good. Then, people surgically alter their real faces to try to live up to this ideal. I wonder how that fits into this framework?
I also wonder how native Americans reacted to drawn images, and if they created visual images themselves in this way. In sketching, you build a much deeper relationship with your subject, remembering details, but perhaps capture the essence of the person even further, showing their personality in the image. There are some cultures where drawn imagery is banned due to religious reasons, though there are speculations that this is due to stopping people transcend language barriers rather than acting as a god.
‘Instagram face’ is fascinating in a quite macabre way. What came first the fillers or the filters? The urge to pull a duck face or the duck faced people doing disproportionately better metrics wise? I suspect there is an entire academic career to be had by looking at these and similar questions.
And yes, at the risk of banging the same drum I end up banging every two to three weeks here about old technology being better, there is certainly something about sketching and being sketched. It focuses the eye of the drawer and makes the subject feel like they are truly being ‘seen’.
I used to joke that when I became rich from my writing that I would egotistically commission an oil painting of myself to celebrate. I now think that this would actually be an interesting experience and worth documenting/discussing as the painter/painted relationship is something that you simply don’t hear being talked about as much any more.
Thanks as always for your excellent comments here, Madeleine.
You know Tom, sometimes the Luddite boomer in you really shines through. Fortunately, those are the moments I particularly enjoy. Which probably marks me as a poor specimen of a zoomer, but oh well.
The distaste for pictures is a mutual emotion, but I suspect mine is more due to a lack of “photogenic-ity” as it were. So selfies simply aren’t done.
But lately I’ve come to look upon photos with more favour. Especially their particular capacity to act as single-destination time machines. People with a whole lot of pictures have digitised memories to visit whenever they want.
Clearly that’s something I miss out on. As someone who shares my aversion, do you look at a lack of pictures as meaningful loss? Or do you think it’s something worth losing out on for the benefits it’s absence provides?
I agree with your point regarding photographs being an aid to memory. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a world where photography didn’t exist. Sometimes I bite the bullet and reluctantly agree to be photographed (my Mom likes a family photo opportunity) and I end up being glad that I did.
Maybe the solution is to revert back to those old disposable cameras with 27 shots on the the film roll. The finitude of that forces you to be more selective with your shot taking and would make it an occasional aspect of a holiday, say, rather than an omnipresent feature of it.
All’s I know is that I have years worth of digital photos sat on my hard drive that I never get around to developing. I can feel a future essay on this bubbling up already.
I don't know if the spirits of Caboclos that walk with me understand english, but I wish they do so they can read this and be as amused as I am. One of your best essays, Tom.
"The camera has taken your soul.
The tribesman weeps a single tear.
Until next time..."
That's a great essay, Thomas! I spent some time in Spain two years ago on a wilderness retreat. The experience was profound but I couldn't make full sense of it at that time.
After two weeks I returned back from this remote place in the Spanish Pyrenees to Barcelona and what surprised me the most was not the busyness of the city but – guess what – my own reflection in the shop windows. I hadn't seen myself for two weeks.
It was incredible to realize how much time I actually spent with "thinking about how I look" in my every day life. Just about every time I go into a bathroom. There is always a mirror.
It is only now that I realize what made this experience so profound. Without constant "mirrors" (analog and digital) I could simply be. Be me. I didn't have to be something for someone.
Thanks Christian, and thanks for taking the time to drop by here and leave a comment.
Man, that’s an amazing experience being away from your (reflected) self to be in the wilderness and possibly gain a greater understanding of your (actual, inner) self. I strongly suspect there is a companion piece to be written to this essay about that idea of mirrors and the reflected self image versus our internal image and so on. Maybe I will have a crack at that at some point but in the interim if you chose to write about that wilderness experience at more depth I would be very keen to read it.
Cheers.
Tom.
This is True , even in modern societies. People being photographed lose their sense of Presence and become conscious of them being photographed.
lose a sense of Natural flow and activity they were engaged in. This takes the beauty away from the photograph
Yes, although photography can be an aid to memory, the very act of thinking ‘oh, I’ll take a photo of this/ myself here’ has a way of pulling ourselves out of the moment in question. Which interestingly enough makes us less present-appearing in the subsequent image itself.
Good observation, Anurag.
Interesting thoughts on this Tom, I agree that the native Americans’ opinions on photography were taken on face value and not explored on a philosophical level. Your points on social media are especially interesting. I’ve noticed the rise of “Instagram face” – more and more filters used to present a manipulated face to levels of uncanny valley. At a certain point it’s not attractive, but a warped sense of what looks good. Then, people surgically alter their real faces to try to live up to this ideal. I wonder how that fits into this framework?
I also wonder how native Americans reacted to drawn images, and if they created visual images themselves in this way. In sketching, you build a much deeper relationship with your subject, remembering details, but perhaps capture the essence of the person even further, showing their personality in the image. There are some cultures where drawn imagery is banned due to religious reasons, though there are speculations that this is due to stopping people transcend language barriers rather than acting as a god.
‘Instagram face’ is fascinating in a quite macabre way. What came first the fillers or the filters? The urge to pull a duck face or the duck faced people doing disproportionately better metrics wise? I suspect there is an entire academic career to be had by looking at these and similar questions.
And yes, at the risk of banging the same drum I end up banging every two to three weeks here about old technology being better, there is certainly something about sketching and being sketched. It focuses the eye of the drawer and makes the subject feel like they are truly being ‘seen’.
I used to joke that when I became rich from my writing that I would egotistically commission an oil painting of myself to celebrate. I now think that this would actually be an interesting experience and worth documenting/discussing as the painter/painted relationship is something that you simply don’t hear being talked about as much any more.
Thanks as always for your excellent comments here, Madeleine.
You know Tom, sometimes the Luddite boomer in you really shines through. Fortunately, those are the moments I particularly enjoy. Which probably marks me as a poor specimen of a zoomer, but oh well.
The distaste for pictures is a mutual emotion, but I suspect mine is more due to a lack of “photogenic-ity” as it were. So selfies simply aren’t done.
But lately I’ve come to look upon photos with more favour. Especially their particular capacity to act as single-destination time machines. People with a whole lot of pictures have digitised memories to visit whenever they want.
Clearly that’s something I miss out on. As someone who shares my aversion, do you look at a lack of pictures as meaningful loss? Or do you think it’s something worth losing out on for the benefits it’s absence provides?
I agree with your point regarding photographs being an aid to memory. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a world where photography didn’t exist. Sometimes I bite the bullet and reluctantly agree to be photographed (my Mom likes a family photo opportunity) and I end up being glad that I did.
Maybe the solution is to revert back to those old disposable cameras with 27 shots on the the film roll. The finitude of that forces you to be more selective with your shot taking and would make it an occasional aspect of a holiday, say, rather than an omnipresent feature of it.
All’s I know is that I have years worth of digital photos sat on my hard drive that I never get around to developing. I can feel a future essay on this bubbling up already.
Thanks as always for stopping by, mate.