skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I would like to put my “asterisks” here. First off, I don't want to come across as sanctimonious or pious in any way. My goal, both in writing and photography, is balance; all “either/or” creates is conflict. Secondly, I don't know the answer to evolution/creation question, and I'm certain no one else does either. My best guess is that they simply are one in the same. I do think that life adapts to deal with changing situations and to meet new challenges, but don't think it's reasonable that life and everything leading up to it is just some colossal accident.
With my little disclaimer out of the way, I suppose it's odd that these photos could have any connection at all, much this connection. Taken months apart, with two different cameras, one the day before I started this blog, the other well before I had even considered one. Yet, as often happens when filing slides here they were. Snaps that didn't resonate the first time under the loupe suddenly begin to make sense when held up to a window.
Seeing a machine like this in motion is at first impressive. No doubt, it is the collective effort the designers and engineers who brought it into existence. It goes so far beyond that, being, as many products are, the culmination of a journey billions of years in the making. With tools like this, it's no surprise that we think of ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution.
Humans, as far as animals are concerned, are really nothing special when you think about it. We're not that fast or strong, our senses are mediocre at best, except possibly our eyesight (and as a man with 20/400 vision, I'm not all that impressed). We're not very adept at climbing, swimming, and much past being able to walk upright, don't have any major physical advantages. We're not small enough to hide in holes, or big enough to be intimidating. Obviously we needed to do something to get this far.
If I can't outrun it, then I'll have to outsmart became the key. The question is, will we eventually outsmart ourselves right out of existence?
Of course, it leads to the question about our own evolutionary state. Are we really anything special, or are we just passing through? There is a tinge of arrogance to the idea that we are the peak of anything. We sure like to think that we've got this civilization thing all figured out...as long as you don't count the fact that we don't seem to be able to stop fighting for 10 seconds. Yes, it is our big brains that were able to concoct these amazing feats of engineering and technology, and we seem intent on using it to destroy ourselves.
For some time I've theorized that that in most cases, the advantage that we develop to avoid being voted off of the evolutionary island is what ultimately leads to a species undoing, and looking around, I don't think that we are the exception. We can look around and see genius taking all forms, and many of them are destructive. Here, we see a basic human activity, one that people who disagree on nearly every other aspect of what is considered healthy agree on, being replaced by a machine. Especially considering we live in a time where the state of our collective health is in such a rapid and dangerous decline, doesn't it seem odd that we would put the ingenuity we used to survive in the wild with animals that were far faster and stronger than we, into adding to our troubles? Some may think it's the nuclear bomb or the toxic gasses being pumped into the air that will bring our end. Though I suppose the question could be answered by something totally out of our control (c'mon asteroid), I look at things like this and see our evolutionary strength unraveling our species before our very advanced eyes.
It's easy to be an atheist when you don't think about where anything came from.
As mentioned, I don't know that evolution is even the case, though I'm pretty sure what people see as two separate things are really just two sides of the same coin. The idea of some power watching over us, pulling strings here and there isn't as out there as some would have us believe. I usually use my “coffee cup” analogy; a coffee cup didn't just happen to come together in it's current form. Someone conceived of it, designed it and eventually made it, right? Well, here I sit on this piece of rock, a perfect distance from a perfectly sized star, where we, life, have flourished in so many strange, colorful and wonderful ways. The parameters in which the diversity of life that has come and gone before us is so narrow; just a few feet this way or that way, and none of this would be. Is it really so far fetched to think that there is something or someone bigger at play here?
All things in balance I suppose. God, evolution and society each pull us in thousands of directions at once, and I wonder if, as these ingenious walking replacements whiz past my equally innovative (though admittedly dated) image capturing device, if the pulls of religion and science are here to balance us, or if they will ultimately pull us apart.
The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all. – Erykah Badu.
Sounds about right.
religion photography evolution science zen segue segway machine designers engineers civilization erykah badu tm t m cleland photograpy tmc@tmcleland.com www.tmcleland.com
We see ourselves every day. At first intentionally as we decide how we should look for the rest of the world. Then, throughout the rest of the day, we come across ourselves in everything from store windows to rain puddles. Each time we see ourselves, it is distorted by color and shape, constantly being molded by the cause, elements and situations that make up the reflection in the first place.
However, even in the perfect mirror, is how we perceive what is on the other side of the glass ever accurate? Sure, there is a likeness of what we think we look like staring back at us, along with a reversed image of otherwise familiar surroundings. Most obviously, the memory of our appearance that we take away from our daily observation is backwards. The slight asymmetries that give us character are on the wrong side, viewed and remembered exactly opposite from what those around us see.
Yet there are more subtle versions of this distortion. Whatever the source, our minds are also filled with all of the notions about what we should be, what we are, how we are or are not living up to whatever standards we have accepted. Society places its standards on us about how we should look and act, so while the person on the other side of the glass starts out as an image of a real person, it is filtered by the programming our brains have received.
Taking a sculpture that is entirely coated in a reflective surface gives one a more intentional twist on the mirror images we think are so commonplace. Yet this simple view, with the severely limited angle of view the camera provides, in many ways preserves more of what we remember a place like this to be. Even though we can only view at one time about as much as the lens on this camera could capture on a frame, our brains stitch the scene together into a memory. Elements that are otherwise in opposite directions become a single, continuous thing. Being able to see in many different directions, notably the skyline bending opposite the sun setting into the water, it turns out what we think is a twisted reflection created by the brilliantly orchestrated surfaces is in many ways less of a lie than the flat glass we use to prepare ourselves to leave the house in the morning.
Even as I was taking this photo, I was trying to put my own programming filter onto the final result, positioning myself to look as if I was not at this location at all. Such an obvious lie, yet one we seem to be willing to tell our viewers, and perhaps on some level even believe.
Though seemingly just a simple abstraction of a sculpture captured on film, it does serve to open our minds to the misrepresentations of all reflections, and open us up to being more honest with ourselves. Sometimes it takes a bent reflection to straighten everything out.
zen of street photography seeing ourselves more honestly reflections store windows rain puddles elemetns mirrors glass backwards symmetry diestortion notions should and should not be standards paradigms programming sculpture reflective surface twist camera mamiya 645E
fuji velvia reflections are a lie tm t m cleland photograpy tmc@tmcleland.com www.tmcleland.com
Day 1: Los Angeles --
If Los Angeles isn't my favorite city in the world, it's certainly in the top 5 (it frequently changes places with London). So it's somewhat sad that this is the best I was able to come up with photographically...
More >>
Day 2: In the Sky -- It just so happens that when I was growing up, I was constantly being told to get my head out of the clouds, a thought that returns to me whenever I fly...
More >>
Day 3: Shanghai -- So much for being zen in China. Sadly the only photos I was really able to take were from the hotel room and the glass elevator before my travel partner decided to have a little meltdown, developing a case of 24-hr agoraphobia...
More >>
Day 4: Shanghai (for real this time) -- Zen somewhat back in place, the meltdown finally subsided, I got out into Shanghai. While a smell that closely resembles rubber cement is still stuck in my nose, I do feel in many ways like I had just got magically sucked into a Discovery Channel special...
More >>
Day 5: Sea Day 1 -- For the most part, I've been fortunate that I have not been plagued with motion sicknesses. There are only two times I can think of that I've ever had seasickness. The first was a particularly choppy day on a sailboat...
More >>
Day 6: Busan, Korea -- If there was ever a day of shooting that fit right in with the basic concept of the this blog, it would have been today. Of course, I suppose that the whole enlightenment thing would imply that I should be able to have the same feeling of peace on...
More >>
Day 7: Hiroshima, Japan -- Living in the age of terror, holy wars and reality television, you would think that we would become immune to the capacity the human animal has to cause pain. Being of, albeit remote, British descent (a people who have made a fine art of concocting horrible...
More >>
Day 8: Osaka, Japan --
Another day in Japan is being rained upon, and it looks like it will be that way for the rest of my time in Japan. I know that so much of my anticipation about coming back to Japan was to see the culture of it with the perspective of being...
More >>
Day 9: Sea Day 2 -- Well, kind of a sea day. Technically, I had time to go back into Osaka for the morning, but decided that a sauna and breakfast (followed by another breakfast) sounded more like what I was after...
More >>
Day 10: Kagoshima, Japan -- Could it be? Could it really really be? Just when I had resigned to the fact that Japan was simply going to be a wet experience, it goes and gets sunny. It would turn out that, between a clear day and lots of volcano eruptions (the fun touristy kind, not the screaming melting flesh kind)...
More >>
Day 11: Sea Day 3 -- Again no photos. I suppose the only reason that I'm writing this is because I don't want there to be any gaps in this little blog-a-thon of mine. Also, there appears to be no internet given that everyone with iPhones are clogging the...
More >>
Day 12: Taiwan -- Quite possibly the most boring port of the trip, but in the best possible way. As my photos download in the background, I'm recounting today in my head realizing that we spent the entire day doing the most touristy thing possible...
More >>
Day 13: Sea Day 4 (The Last full day of the cruise) -- This is the part I hate. Especially given that there isn't a port to be explored today, I'm in that strange mental state between not wanting the cruise to end, and just wanting to get the **** off the ship. Of course, all of my...
More >>
Day 14: Hong Kong -- The day, as to be expected, started with a monster bummer as we disembarked from the ship. A lot of the people that I had gotten to know during the 10 days were staying on for a second leg in southern Asia, so I really felt more like I was...
More >>
Day 15: Flying Home -- Though perhaps not quite in this style, I have returned from Asia before. Anyone who's made the journey in this specific direction knows the disorientation that flying for 10 hours, only to have it be earlier than when...
More >>
Day 16 :: San Diego -- When all is said and done, home in one piece. I had decided that the extra day off wouldn't hurt to make sure I'm back on US time before diving head-first into real life. For better or worse, I'm going back on a Friday, which now that I...
More >> T32K6YYRTA9K
It’s inevitable. As anyone who fancies himself a photographer traverses the nation’s roads, countless photos will whiz by at 85 (wait…no…) 65 MPH. Despite my rather stubborn attachment to film, I feel it should be noted that this is where digital photography really gets the gold star. If I see something that I want to attempt to snap from the car window, there’s nothing lost if it doesn’t turn out. More importantly, otherwise missed opportunities wind up getting captured, where I may not have risked the cost of film and processing otherwise.
During a last-minute decision to head over to Phoenix, there were several instances where the long stretches of California and Arizona highways struck me as so incongruous with the stereotypical idea some may have of these places. I don’t imagine I’m alone in the vision of the endless megalopolises of California and Arizona. Here however, less than one hour outside of Phoenix (which seems to double in size every time I visit), I found myself clicking window-shot after window-shot of what seems like another place and time altogether. Super-cities aside, it does remind me that I do in fact live in the Old West.
The open spaces and crude fencing blur the usually distinct line between the modern life we know today and the drastically different world of less than 100 years ago. The two times, places and mindsets meld together seamlessly here. While the modern truck and graffiti do a little to keep the shot from being out a scene right out of 1910, the speed implied by the barbed wire fence is what completes the connection between then and now. The speeds at which we so casually travel everyday were nearly unimaginable such a short time ago, and yet for all of the advances like this, we find that some things are best left unchanged. It’s almost as if to say, “all your advancements do is complicate an older way that worked just fine. We had it right the first time.”
Of course, given the choice, I suppose I’d rather make these trips with Starbucks, Fiji water and Wireless Data coverage pretty much the whole way. Perhaps, it’s good to remember that simple ideas and the complexities of modern life are really just meant to complement each other. When the world starts to overwhelm, the old west is just a cell phone call’s time away.
travel time farm rural tractor truck graffitti california arizona phoenis modern life old and new tm t m cleland photograpy tmc@tmcleland.com www.tmcleland.com
I had actually taken this photo quite some time ago. I had just bought a new lens, so of course I wound up with a slew of unspectacular days in a row, a new piece of equipment taunting me the whole time.
Clouds or no clouds, I took a trip to La Jolla's Mt. Soledad, which if nothing else offers some nice views and some Aperture/Photoshop starting points. This was by no means my first visit to this site, and though I think the laser engraved stones were a fairly recent addition, I knew they were there.
I hate to admit that, initially, I was most impressed by the laser graving itself, until I took a look at such a wide angle of view, which compressed the sheer number of these memorial stones into such a small space. This was when I realized the scope of what I was really looking at. Equally impressive to me was the amount of exposed concrete just waiting to be filled in, as indicated by the blue tape around what appear to be recent additions.
If anything, the gloomy light I had been disappointed with helped to achieve the mood. While the large number of stones in place reminded me of the sacrifices that so many (honored by the thousands in sites like this across the United States), what I felt completed it was the little girl at play here on the site. As she runs off to join the people she's visiting with, the divisions between the stones multiply her reflection. It seems as if her carefree activity is a reminder of what's made possible by the acts of the people depicted in the stones. The reflection, however, makes her part of them. While she innocently plays around monuments to the fallen, it would be inaccurate to see her as separate, for she too will impact this world in what she does. It's impossible to know what sacrifices or contributions she, or anyone else, will make. After all, the men and women etched in granite were once as young and playful as she is now.
By the way, I'm planning on upgrading my camera body, so if you live in Southern California, expect rain.
tm t m cleland photo photography lens la jolla aperture mount mt soledad clouds laser engraving memorial stones playful innocent innocence military honor sacrifice granite
I suppose that it's true that simplicity is often the best approach.
Though I don't suppose there is particularly anything unusual or insightful about this photo, it just struck me as a pleasant find. The earthy color of the building seems to compliment the chaotic arrangements of the branches, which feel as if they are growing directly out of the equally chaotic arrangement of the conduits and piping along the wall.
I'm intrigued by the inherit warmness of this structure. Even though the individual elements of the photo, such as the padlock, the unkempt branches, and the painted screens inside the roughly cut portholes have a run down, almost hostile look, when combined they have a warm, almost inviting appearance.
Perhaps, there is something comforting in the idea of chaos itself. We really did just ascend out of chaos anyway. Perhaps amidst the grids, formats and dictation by external sources about the "orderly" way that we are supposed to be, a base part of us still finds comfort in it.
Perhaps, this is just Hillcrest's equivalent of a comfy old pair of slippers that you just can't seem to throw out.
Though, in keeping with simplicity, the most likely thing is that it's just an old building.
san diego hillcrest old building chaotic from chaos comes order simplicity padlock unkempt branches evolution
I love photos with movement in them. There is something intriguing about being able to capture a sense of motion on a medium intended for still imagery. This one was captured on a particular day when I didn’t think I would wind up with much, which except for this, turned out to be about right.
This one struck me as an example of finding that balance between creating art, and allowing art to happen. While the camera settings required to capture moving water were obviously intentional, this, the third in a series of shots, contained the unknown of what the people were going to do. Given this was a rather “chancy” setup to begin with (2 seconds @ ƒ32 handheld using a beam of the pier for support), it turns out they appear almost as if they are created by, and are somehow a part of the motion of the water.
movement motion beach pier rain balance art chance water tm t.m. t. m. cleland san diego pacific beach california
