Summer has been slow, and it’s about to get slower…I’ll be out of contact for about a week and a half beginning today. In the meantime, a couple of interesting photography-related discussions have been surfacing around the web. Ed Burtynsky’s proposal to establish a permanent gallery in the 10,000-Year Clock in Nevada asks what a long perspective of human artistic endeavor would look like and how it would be stored, organized, and curated from now until end-time. As a part of his proposal, Burtynsky has updated the carbon transfer photographic printing process and created prints that should last 10,000 years in archival conditions without any deterioration. Not bad. But detractors say that the artist’s use of rare ores undermines his supposedly environmental stance. Check out the comments on the post for more details. (via MAN)
In other news, 2point8, the street-photography blog, recently posted an essay announcing its boredom with the majority of contemporary street photography. When the most prominent blog devoted to a specific genre pronounces the genre in critical condition, that can’t be good news. I haven’t been a fan of street photography for quite a while–it strikes me as mostly formulaic and not really conveying any new ideas or information. 2point8 thinks that a shift away from the decisive moment is the solution. I think that shift has been explored, and I’m not sure that’s enough. The decisive moment has been overdone, the indecisive moment is more or less there…what’s left? I’m not sure. When your genre depends on finding new subject matter or new ways of approaching subject matter, you will eventually run out of options. To paraphrase Vilém Flusser, the possibilities of the photographic program are finite. But a lot of people are weighing in in the comments section, and it’s worth a read and a ponder. (via Conscientious)
See you again in mid-August.
