June 9, 2017

What is the goal of ever human being? Is to express themselves and to be understood. But in today's climate of instant gratification we have lost that need to be ourselves and to express our own view on this suffocating reality.

When do you feel separate from others?  Is it when you are connecting with a subject and this subject has your complete interest.  At these moments the facade of life doesn't matter you are alone with your unique perceptions and it is your vision, your personal perspective that is driving you to see deeper into the subject and yourself.

Separateness, that feeling of being on your own, alone in this world could cause a sense of being isolated with a melancholy.  An overwhelming feeling of betrayal, no one will ever understand you fully or care about you like you do yourself. Early understanding of your separateness gives you the ability to be part of something and yet able to analyze the situation and determine your values and your response.

Experience to proceed naturally, not through a consumer ad fest but alone through self-awareness and then letting go of your desires for more and accept life as it is, a necessary vehicle for you to rule and believe in your self, belief where by the world forms around your talents, your drive, your thinking not someone else's. Spontaneity is a gift to take advantage of.  If you don't respect yourself, you lose your inner value.  We must think and be proactive to perceive this world through original eyes.

Silence seems to demand more in this 21 century.  Lazy minds look for stimulation and don't realize that breathing is a good start.  We need excess in order to feel alive, visual movement with oppressive colors and sounds of people screaming.  We find the ugliness of life a stimulus to revel in and this ugliness focuses our attention away from self and puts others as the problem. All focusing your attention away from self to an outside force, making your behavior acceptable in this universe of many tongues (this tower of Babel) and the minutiae of details you look at continuously, which solves nothing, does nothing but sells ads.  What is your life in your constant addiction to a small screen that doesn't inform but is tool to sell you something you don't need.

We give away our personal information, we give away our images and thoughts just to be
liked by strangers. Nothing is sacred now, all is ready to be exposed at the drop of a hat.

John Berger in his book "Ways of Seeing" dissects the historical influence paintings had on our subconsciousness and how this effects are present day manipulations to get us to buy, buy and buy some more.

Freedom now is envy of the wealthy.  We are discouraged that we can not afford the commercials we see everyday on the tv, cell phones and our computer.  This is our democracy now, not real freedom but freedom of choice on what to buy. That is what our democracy has become. In order to be happy we must shop and buy.

John Berger, "Publicity to each of us is that we transform ourselves, or our lives by buying something more.  This more will in some ways make us richer, even though we will be poorer by spending our money."

With everything for sale, we become the ones for sale, we are the ones that will get the barrage of ads, products to buy even though we can't afford them.

Look at the commercial and you will see (as Berger explains) actors that seem to be transformed by buying a product, a product that changes their lives.  As a result we are envious of them and we want the same, to be transformed into something new and better than who we really. Publicity and a good face allows us to dream that we to can become one of the glamorous people.

John Berger, "Pleasure of benefits is what to be enjoyed from the things it advertises.  Publicity is effective because it feeds upon the real.  Publicity is never a celebration of a pleasure in itself.  Publicity is always about the future buyer."

We are at a critical stage in our democracy.  Why are the ads overwhelming the senses? The ads are for the ones that have money not the ones that are struggling to survive. This is the last gasp of the ad men to squeeze as much money out of us as possible before they move their ads overseas to say China, or the collapse of the economy.

How can the ordinary be ignored as we push ourselves to see more, travel and be more than who we are, yet when all is said and done when we come home from the adrenalin distractions of fear of death, we return to ourselves and still have to live with us. We return to our shallow frame without a core belief or an answer to what to do to fulfill our lives, where is our goals, who do I want to be?   These questions are never asked.

The ordinary becomes a focus of image creation just because the ordinary is not seen, it loses its value but not to a photographer that goes under the obsession with status and power to create images with purpose and with the hope to shake awake the populace to begin to see their lives for what it is unique and beautiful.