May, 2016 - PhotoTrice

Fresh Frozen Reality

Lately photo web sites are abuzz with indignation over dastardly manipulation of images. Indeed, how could anyone do such a thing as corrupt the truth in a photograph? A better question is how can a photo represent reliable truth? The general notion persists that photographs represent reality. We are so easily deceived into thinking they are true depictions of something. Even if you discount all the decisions and or biases of the photographer you are only left with a fraction of a second of frozen ‘reality’. Anything we know from a photographic image has been interpreted, composed and extracted by the photographer then reinterpreted, recomposed and committed to memory.

I wonder what truth was being represented hundreds of years ago by the maker of the rock shelter petroglyph? That person didn’t have a camera but he did have a world view which framed his interpretation of reality as surely as we frame our own. Native peoples were as intelligent as us and just as capable of depicting the world using the technology available to them. You can easily see that they had cultural bias. Should we think that we are less biased because we have a better way to portray detail in our images?

It is good to remember that 99.99% of all photographs are not made for evidentiary documentary purposes. We are free to select what we see in front of our camera lenses and to interpret the images we capture. The fraction of a percent of images that we deem to be inviolable as historical documents are an edge case when compared to the mountain of images made for other purposes.

The camera is an instrument for capturing light not truth. The finished photo is something interpreted before and after capture. It is important that we set our own limits for what is appropriate when creating finished images. Others should be free to do the same thing.

To Feel Free

It is spring in Texas which is usually more like summer in most places. Normally about this time of year high pressure settles into the atmosphere keeping the weather predictably hot and dry. This year something is different. We have endured a severe multi-year drought that has now been broken by intense El Niño conditions. We are rich with rain which is good but we do love our sunshine. Maybe a more even climate cycle would make things easier to manage. Then again, be careful what you ask for.

This time of year my thoughts turn to traveling on two wheels. I can’t ride any longer which is my loss. Even so, it is hard to shake a thirty year long obsession with the road. Now I make pictures of motorcycles and enjoy the sights and sounds as they ride along. It is a distant second in terms of experience.

V-Twins of various brands all competing to be loud and obnoxious are most common on the roads in the Texas Hill Country. Never rode those kinds of bikes myself. I was strictly a long distance rider. If you take touring seriously you want a quite smooth machine that handles well without fuss. In my case something that could handle both challenging high country back roads and the interstate when necessary. Back to back five hundred mile days that you can enjoy take a special machine and excellent gear. Those who do that sort of riding will know what I’m talking about.

It’s not all bad these days just different. Few people get to experience more than a hundred thousand miles on two wheels. Free of major accidents I will add. I’d guess most bikers log at most a few thousand miles between watering holes. Either way riding a motorcycle that moves by diving and leaning in space is more than most people manage. In the end I suspect we all ride because it is such a thrill to feel free.

Heat

We are born of fire. It separates us from the rest of the animals. We have overcome fear of the flame. We play with fire. We have passion for fire. Fire describes the desires we feel as humans. We dance as close to the flames as possible. The danger makes us feel alive.