Shameless Self-Promotion

Vote! Now!

And that's the country where you're going to live?

Reading stories like this really makes me not want to move to the US. I could not have stayed as calm as Mr. Fazel had something similar happened to me. It hurts me as a human, as a future resident of the US, and as a photographer.

The Picture Wars

Your flickr pro-account account will expire on June 28...

Mer, my much beloved flickr has failed me, now for the second time. While I swallowed the obligation to associate my flickr-account with a Yahoo!-ID (Yahoo! acquired flickr in 2005), the recent change of terms of service that blocks content for users from certain countries is really pissing me off. I am well aware that this is by no means only flihoo's fault but rather a case of overcautious interpretation by company lawyers of stupid (German) laws. What is even worse than this mild form of censorship, however, is Yahoo!'s policy of cooperating with repressive regimes (no, I don't mean Germany) in prosecuting dissidents. I do acknowledge that any company must to a certain comply with local laws to a certain extent if it wants to stay in business. But, maybe in a similar fashion to the overcompliance to German regulations, Yahoo! has apparently shown absolutely no willingness to protect its users from the Chinese authorities. This has also become clear in last week's rejection of a proposed anti-censorship policy by Yahoo!'s shareholders.

What is to be done?

All this leads me to the conclusion that I'm not willing to renew my subscription for another year, for two main reasons. First, I don't want to give money to a corporation that does the things that I've mentioned above. Second, and maybe more important, I don't want to be stuck with flihoo for a whole year. Who knows what will come next!? Maybe you're asking yourself why the second reason is the more important one. Well, as a good Adornite I am well aware that “there is no right life in falsehood” and that the idea of making capitalism better by consumer choices is a burgeois illusion. I readily admit: I have Continental tires on my bike, I drink Starbucks coffee, I buy at Lidl. Therefore, it doesn't make a big difference if Yahoo! will get my 25 bucks or not. But paying 25 bucks for a product that might get drastically worse within the subscription period, with no chance of getting your money back, seems like a bad decision.

Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with leaving flihoo: flickr is not just some consumer product but it is a social network. Telepolis has an interesting article (German only) on how it becomes virtually impossible to switch from one network to another since this virtually means that your network disappears---my contacts, my comments, my favorites, my groups are all at flickr and not at ipernity, zoomr, 23hq or wherever. In addition, most of the alternative services simply suck when compared to flickr. Ipernity in my experience is the one closest to flickr but that's mainly because it is a very blunt knock-off, apparently even using “stolen” code.

So, in the end, what is to be done? I think I'll just wait and see. Flickr will deactivate the pro-features after the subscription ends but they can be re-activated at any time if flihoo will come to its senses.

First light, last light

I just realized that I haven't posted any pics in a while. Voilá: here is a result from my little Saturday photo expedition to the Plus parking lot. I had hoped to get some good shots of the selection of firewalls there but that didn't turn out so good. Well, these street lights with the amazing wall patterns in the background were well worth it anyway.



Please note that this picture is differently licensed than the rest of the blog!

Documenting vs experiencing

Spiegel Online features an article (German only) about yesterday's Non Photography Day. On their website the people behind it (according to Spiegel Online the photographer Becca Bland) explain the idea behind the day:

Non- photography day is an effort on my part to revive the moment by putting down the camera. It is a day to think about how life exists, in essence and not appearance and to understand the inadequacy of the photograph in describing this essence, to bring awareness of the perils of living through the view finder or the display screen…

Some thoughts about the issue: I have often thought about how seeing the world as a photographer changes your perception and your experience. I think it is important to keep these two levels apart: with respect to perception I see photography as a way to enhance the ways you see your environment. To have the photographic awareness, as it were, makes you turn your head around, not just look straight, it motivates you to look behind the corner, open that door, lie on the floor, walk behind the waterfall, or take the stairs instead of the elevator.

On the level of experience I somehow agree with Bland's criticism (though not with her essentialist, romanticist vernacular). The influence of taking photos usually becomes most apparent to me when I go to protests (or read about protests on indymedia) or on concerts. With the former you often get the impression that there are more people shooting pictures than people interested in the original purpose of the protest. While it is important to document police violence and to publish pictures of a rally that otherwise might not get any media attention, I often have the impression that "documenting" becomes an end in itself. And seeing yourself as the "documentalist" distances you from the protest and its aims.

On concerts -- usually hardcore shows in my case -- it seems similar. The tradition of documenting itself seems to be very widespread among subcultures. You have fanzines, people with large collections of video and audio bootlegs, and nowadays websites with often hundreds of pictures. Again: this is great and useful -- just consider what the great documentary about the rise of modern skateboarding in the 70s, Dogtown and Z-Boys. The plethora of Super-8 and other video material that they have been able to use is amazing and I suppose it had been mostly shot by the actors themselves. But when you try and be in the role of the person behind the photo or video camera or at the audio recorder yourself you quickly realize what a different experience it is than if you were in the moshpit: you have to protect your camera, you can't dance, band and audience become an object apart from you. This last point, in my opinion, points at something that the initiators of the Non-Photo-Day have failed to consider: not only is it the photographer on whom seeing herself in this role might have problematic aspects but also the objects of photography might influenced in ways that are not desirable. The awareness that you are being filmed, that pictures of you will soon be available to anyone on the internet certainly influences both your experience and behavior. In what direction is an open question -- maybe you want to be the "hero" of the documentary and burn that flag, make that audacious dance move that you practiced in front of the mirror, or be a first-time stagediver. But maybe you'll become inhibited, self-conscious, avoiding anything that might make you the center of attention of all those cam people.

So, my dear photographers: Continue to take your pics, on July 17 and the rest of the year! But think about what having a camera between you and others does to you and does to others. And know when it is time to put away the cam and jump off the stage, protect your fellow protesters, or just enjoy a marvelous scenery.

Running is bad for your health!?

I'm terribly bored because I have a stretched ligament from running which largely prevents me from leaving the house. The positive side-effect is that I get to process some of my older pictures. I've even found one thematically related to my injury, taken at Fort Lauderdale in December 2005.

The Sound of Nature

One of my alter egos has pointed out that 1) I haven't updated the air pumps in a while and 2) there are decidedly too few pictures in here.

Voilá! Here is both a new post and a nice (at least in my opinion) picture:



Shot on the way to the end-of-term BBQ at Katie's and Dave's place.

Suicidal Tendencies

Before I get back under my heap of books I wanted to share this great flickr set, The Lego Suicides. I guess this one is my favorite. Or this? This?...