Does the hegemony of You Tube in "information space" almost make you think the written word is obsolete? I have mixed feelings about that. Maybe I would mourn for the written word if writers weren't so long-winded. And spelling was phonetic. Hell, if they even began making it phonetic, starting with the letter c.
But what about still photography? (What a sad term!) Everything has to be video these days, even when there are only talking heads in the video. Even when there is motion, it is usually rather uninteresting. Think of all the travel videos shot through the windshield of a car. Is that supposed to be exciting? Or the hikers plodding and trodding down a trail.
The truth is that most videos are just 'chewing gum for the eyes.' But still photographs are something that I will miss. It is one of my stump speeches on this blog to praise photographs as visual metaphors, while mocking postcards.
And yet, stopping to photograph something just because it is pretty is a humble but do-able pleasure that you look for anywhere and on any day. It surprises me how much much enjoyment I get from this sort of thing.
Or what about this morning, when the morning dog walk stumbled upon a scenic spot looking down into the abyss of the Salmon River canyon system, and a "love seat" was there for me and my Sweetie.
I'll have to repeat this photo next Valentine's Day.
In order for photographs to compete better against videos, perhaps we should use slideshows more often. One place where slide shows really work is with music videos. Recently I ran across this wonderful combination of music and photos:
I am not praising it for having 'purdy pichers', but rather, for choosing photographs that fit the mood of Brahms's melody.
The obsolescence of photography is a practical subject for me, these days. I have been thinking about buying a real camera because phone cameras seem so mundane. But is it worth it?
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