Reminiscing in the time of the pandemic

Screengrab of the Clubhouse group in flickr
Screengrab of the Clubhouse group on flickr 2020-05-21 at 08.55.08

Lately, my social media habits have drifted away from the big platforms. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. So my news and information sources has returned to pre-social media tools. Things like email, and their associated newsletters, as well as RSS feeds. One constant for me though since 2004 has been Flickr.

I try to upload one picture a week every week. Sometimes I post more frequently. There is a method to my uploading. Flickr once a hive of social activity now is a far quieter place. There are a handful of groups that are vey engaged. Some even stray a long way from photography which is at the core of what drives flickr. I had reason recently to visit an almost dormant group called the clubhouse. Another member had popped in and left a message to see who else was around. There has been 2 response, one from me and one from Chris. I then started poking around the archives of this group and found some thoughts I had shared there in 2006. As the group is ‘private’ all I can do is copy the post itself.

Here it is

Interrelationships are what I’m finding the most intriguing for me at the moment, form and light have always been a driving force behind my work too, as have the “marks of man”.

Frederick Sommer’s quote, “some speak of a return to nature, I wonder where they could have been”, now rings true even more in my mind now as I wander the streets and suburbs of Melbourne, perhaps it’s an age thing?

However a question that may never get answered is what of the photograph as an ‘object’ unto itself, in this day and age of LCD’s CRT”s and bits and bytes, combined with the wonderfully democratic process of digital capture and global encompassing online communities such as this one?

The future is indeed bright.

Well here we are all these years later and I still have no answer for that question. There has however been reams of literature written exploring the idea.

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Wordless Wednesday #20200513

Melbourne's skyline from West Melbourne in 2005
Melbourne’s skyline from West Melbourne in 2005. This view no longer accessible. As the Metro tunnel work s have repuposed the land and denied public access generally.

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TyYAT [2000-05-12]

still from 20 years ago today
Still life from 12th of May 2000 19:35:36

In my early years of studying photography this kind of image would not have been considered. The success for me about this image is the mixed lighting sources firstly. Secondly the brief moment where the woman is glancing down on the CRT TV. These things combined with the kind of meta reference of the shadow of the tree outside. As an indexical marker a nice reminder of the light outside.

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Meanwhile on Flickr

Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2013-11-02 14:43:30
Spencer Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2013-11-02 14:43:30

My flickr stream is one that is highly curated. I look for similarities or disparities that tie the images together. I treat my flickr stream as a 24/7/365 gallery.

Using Lightroom it is easy to duck and weave around and collate worthwhile images that can then be later drawn upon to upload. Tools like Lightroom and Aperture have made the process possible. Otherwise locating specific images in my unwieldy 200000+ image library would be nigh on impossible.

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Self Portrait #20200429

Self Portrait
Self Portrait 2020-04-29 09:21:21

This forms part of my view most days from around 7:30 to 4:30 each day. The space is shared with me by either one or both of our kittens Spike & Smudge.

This room has a Northerly aspect. I get to watch the light all day. It’s marvellous. The kittens are good company too.

I recently read somewhere, perhaps in a Bryan Formals newsletter, that one way to cope with the overwhelming news of the Pandemic, begin one’s day by Output rather than Input.

So this morning I went out and made pictures in the still wet backyard, we’ve had tons of rain here, it cried out to have some pictures made. Then I wrote this blog post. I have yet to open my email or a webpage other than flickr.

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