Tag: philosophy

by jad

Aquarian Eye

“Many people, when writing about photography say that it always shows what we already know—that which is common knowledge. I think this assertion should be corrected to say instead: photography always shows what we think we know.” (Luigi Ghirri) I woke up today to a message from a Lebanese visual artist that rattled me a little, given that we’d never interacted before, and that I respect their work. It said, in response to a thing about astrology I’d thrown up in my stories: “The aqua moon explains how I can never grasp your point of view through your photography. Not … Continue reading “Aquarian Eye” →

by jad

Nuclear Vancouver

We packed a lot into our very short time in Vancouver, but my favorite stop was the opportunity to visit and hang out with atomic photographer, filmmaker, and sole @uraniumfilm festival coordinator in Canada for the 2024 tour, Jesse Andrewartha, in his East Van home. Here we are in his darkroom. And here he is displaying the radioactive properties of his prized slice of polished uranium ore. Let me tell you: that crackling of the Geiger counter is an eerie basement sound! Jesse Andrewartha is a Canadian filmmaker, photographer, and visual effects artist specializing in historical & obscure darkroom techniques … Continue reading “Nuclear Vancouver” →

by jad

Infra-Politics & Photography

The thing about infrastructure is that it never just does what it’s supposedly designed to do. Infrastructure congeals and conceals social interest. It’s “inevitably imbued with biased struggles for social, economic, ecological, and political power to benefit from connecting (more or less) distant times and places” (Graham and Marvin, 2001). In other words, “one person’s infrastructure is another’s difficulty” (Starr, 1999). Highways, dams, and pipelines have always been flashpoints of protest when they displace and disrupt lifeways and communities; they leverage the same logic as that of nuclear “sacrifice zones” – those spectacular feats of dispossession for the national good, … Continue reading “Infra-Politics & Photography” →

by jad

Light Again

I’m thinking about light because it struck me the other day how I seem to be turning more and more towards words as my mood has darkened, less able or willing or interested in reaching for my camera as well. It’s like my field of vision has narrowed along with the aperture of my heart, my eyes fixated on a single point directly in front of me. Making an effort to look around me has been an exercise in self-care. I’ve been seeking out the light; the camera helps with that. Despite everything the world might be saying right now, … Continue reading “Light Again” →

by jad

Media Zap

In the 90s, it was trendy in media studies to think very deeply about the phenomenology of “zapping” between channels. You might recall that this was the era when the last of the single-station nations gave way to satellite television. Some predicted “a state of confusion and cultural shock” as the public lost its metronome. Others saw it “as characteristically postmodern in breaking up linearity, or subversively anti-capitalist.” I remember reading these texts about a decade later and finding them hilarious; how could what we did with our remotes have caused so much alarm? And yet, that’s the image I … Continue reading “Media Zap” →

by jad

Media & the Opiate of Despair

It’s about that time in the news cycle when the amphetamine of outrage begins to fade into the opiate of despair. And I say “news cycle” not to diminish events, but to relay them more accurately; because that is where you and I and virtually everyone who may ever stumble on these words resides: in the cycle of news consumption, a position we sometimes forget in our proverbial cave of projections, believing ourselves to be in the actual thick of things. We are in something, that’s for sure, just not in that. I’m thinking about Günther Anders, the Jewish philosopher … Continue reading “Media & the Opiate of Despair” →

by jad

In the Shadow of Hiroshima…

In the shadow of Hiroshima, Günther Anders argued for a renaissance of the imagination over mere perception: “Not only has imagination ceased to live up to production, but feeling has ceased to live up to responsibility. It may still be possible to imagine or to repent the murdering of one fellow man, or even to shoulder responsibility for it; but to picture the liquidation of one hundred thousand fellow men definitely surpasses our power of imagination. The greater the possible effect of our actions, the less are we able to visualize it, to repent of it or to feel responsible … Continue reading “In the Shadow of Hiroshima…” →

by jad

Either we have hope within us or we don’t…

“Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it is a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but, rather, an ability to work for … Continue reading “Either we have hope within us or we don’t…” →

by jad

Nō Photo

I’ve been thinking about the many masks I’ve worn on this platform; I say “masks” because I’ve just started to read a book on ‘Atomic Bomb Cinema’ where the author draws parallels between the act of writing, as literally reflected in his shadowy form on his computer screen, and the method of acting in Japanese Nō theatre: “Before going on stage, the actor sits before a mirror, with mask in hand, and meditates. This creates a state of ‘ma’ or emptiness within him, thus allowing the spirit of the character he plays to fill the vacuum…Through the actor, the tormented … Continue reading “Nō Photo” →

by jad

World Photography Day 2023

Today is #WorldPhotographyDay and it trips me right out to look back on how far I’ve come with whatever this is since last year, when I wasn’t sure why people kept giving me cameras or what the hell I was supposed to do with them. I took photos, of course, but I wasn’t sure if it was “photography” — and I knew I wasn’t a photographer, that’s for damn sure. But I’m not as sure anymore. x Someone who gave me the best compliment I could have ever received* about this silly little hobby of mine posted something the other day about … Continue reading “World Photography Day 2023” →