AUTHORITARIANISM FRIGHTENS ME MUCH MORE THAN THE CORONAVIRUS.

I thought I might take a hike & do some photography during this time of quarantine, I’d really like to get outdoors. But I’m staying put instead. There is a petroglyph site near the Phoenix metro area. The trailhead is in a neighborhood. I figured I’d drive to Phoenix, park at the trailhead, hike one mile to the site & photograph the petroglyphs. Easy. Drive in the car alone, do the hike alone keeping six-plus feet away from anyone I might meet along the way. Hike back to the car, drive home alone. Easy & safe. The hike would give me some much-needed fresh air outdoors, and the new photos would give me something to work on while ‘social-distancing.’ 

But then I saw a video online of a woman who ‘violated’ the quarantine & went swimming alone in a hotel pool. The cops came, dragged her out of the pool, beat her up & arrested her. Not the best way to deal with the situation but not surprising in the least. That made me think of the ‘what-ifs.’ What if some asshole Arizona cop or sheriff decided I shouldn’t be there? Trump has already emboldened every redneck ‘authority’ figure in America, now with this pandemic, the cops are pretty much unlimited (like beating up the hotel swimmer). Do I need to risk arrest, detention or potentially being killed by a cop because I went for a hike during a ‘pandemic?’ Gun sales are up too. What if some local resident redneck decided I was ‘dangerous’ and shot me? (Rednecks do think guns are the solution to all problems.) Or, what if Fearless Leader Trump or Governor Douchebag makes some ‘declaration’ while I’m out & I can’t get home? 

These may be extreme concerns, but they’re not outside the realm of possibility. So far the Trump response to the coronavirus has been one giant fuckup with a pack-o-lies topped off with a big pile of fear. Only a fool trusts ‘the authorities’ today.

As much as I’d like to TRY to live a ‘normal’ life during these times I have to consider the dangers of BOTH the virus and ‘authorities’ actions because of it. 

So I’m staying home & I’ll be a studio photographer for the foreseeable future.

AUTHORITARIANISM FRIGHTENS ME MUCH MORE THAN THE CORONAVIRUS.

UNFRIENDED

I liked you better when I knew less about you.  Now that I know what I know I have to go.  Sorry but I can’t carry on, I don’t want to be guilty by association.  I don’t want to be your enemy, but I can’t be your friend.  Allow me to explain.

These are polarizing times indeed.  It’s a zero-sum game out there and you’re either with us or against us, it’s black or white, friend or enemy, there is no compromise.  We did it to ourselves with politics and propaganda, we’ve split into teams, or more like opposing armies; too bad so few realize it’s all us versus us.

Purposely polarized politics has laid bare the true hearts of hypocrites, liars, racists and rubes.  Your ignorance and hatred has always been there, but it’s been closeted and hidden away until an agreeable political party emboldened you.  What was once whispered among the like-minded now has a bullhorn, and the levers of power, and it’s OK now to express your hate.  Apparently you’ve always been like this, and now that you’re comfortable expressing it, now I know.  I can’t change you, but I don’t have to associate with you either.

I’m just fine with ending friendships or other relationships over ‘politics.’  In today’s world ‘politics’ exposes ones’ personal truths and those truths are often toxic, ill-informed and hateful.  I can’t be a party to hate.

Once I disagreed with a friend about a war that didn’t need to be fought.  He vehemently told me I “hated America” and hung up the phone without discussion or debate.  He never justified his position and I never called him back.  Once I knew his true heart, continuing any sort of friendship would have been disingenuous on my part.  I don’t want to be a fake friend.  And I don’t want to fight because I know any ‘fight’ or ‘debate’ would accomplish nothing, so I walked away from that ‘friendship.’ 

There was a time I would have let that slide and would have filed his warmongering enthusiasm away in the recesses of my brain but I’m too old now to feign acceptance of his mindset.  (Read my blog entry, ‘Now that I’m officially old.’)  I’m not desperate for friends and will no longer tolerate the inadequacies of others just to have someone around.  I’d rather be alone, happy and comfortable, than be in a ‘friendship’ with someone who makes me uncomfortable and unhappy because I know that, secretly, they hate [fill in the blank: Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks, Liberals, et al]. 

I’ve had to end another longtime friendship recently.  It’s painful to have do this but to protect myself against his toxicity, I’ve got to go.  Please note that here and in the opening paragraph I wrote I have to go.  I never asked anyone to change because I know they won’t.  I won’t argue or ‘debate’ these things with them because, again, they won’t hear it.  It’s on me.  I will go.  I ask nothing from them except, now that I know your true heart, please leave me alone, I am not like you.

The thing is, for this one, I’d let his subtle racist remarks slide by over the years.  When he’d called African-Americans ‘those people’ it made me uncomfortable, but I let it go.  I didn’t say anything.  Maybe he didn’t mean that in a racist way?  Later, when he blamed an uptick in local crime on ‘the Blacks’ I was pretty sure he had racist tendencies but I let that go too.  But I guess I didn’t really let it go because those statements got filed away in the recesses of my mind as part of my ‘personality profile’ of the guy.  Still, to keep the friendship, I let his past remark slide again and said nothing to him, but I was becoming more and more uncomfortable feeling that the guy’s true nature wasn’t something I really cared to have in my life.  His third strike came when he went after President Obama on social media.  He hated the ex-President although he never stated just why.  He never wrote, “I dislike Obama because of this or that policy,” his statements were just typical Obama-hatred.  When I read his words I was left to conclude that his Obama problem was not about policy since he’d mentioned none, but rather either Obama’s Democratic Party affiliation or the color of his skin.  (And I already knew he didn’t like Democrats or Liberals or Progressives.)  This all created an uncomfortable conflict in me (cognitive dissonance) and I had to take a mental step back and carefully, critically, analyze his words and his meaning.  Critical, dispassionate thought and analysis is important and useful.  Sadly the confirmation bias crowd eschews critical thought.  But I don’t and I thought about it a lot.  Reluctantly I came to the only conclusion I could based on his past statements his online Obama-hatred that is he’s probably a racist.

Probably is a passive word.  I never called him a racist specifically although I do believe he’s a casual racist.  ‘Casual racism’ is a kind of subtle, commonplace racism that has become normalized and is infused into society unconsciously.  I feel that casual racism is actually worse than overt racism because the casual racist does not believe they are racist.  The casual racist, like my ex-friend, does not even recognize the effect of their words and beliefs because they are commonplace and normalized.  They’re never called out for their subtle racism and they never critically analyze their quietly racist points-of-view.  This happens because they, mostly, associate with groups of like-minded people.  Within their closed-loop of casual racist buddies everyone agrees, so calling someone a racist epithet doesn’t even register.  It’s only when the casual racist says something offensive to someone outside their group, who they think agrees with them but doesn’t do problems occur.  Usually and ironically when the outsider speaks up and disagrees with them the group labels the disagreeable one an asshole!

Ultimately I did make a comment to one of his anti-Obama statements that quickly led to the disintegration of our friendship.  I commented, “I get that a lot from racists.”

I’d hoped that “I get that a lot…” would initiate one of those discussions we’re so loathe to have and he would defend and define just what he meant… but it didn’t.  Again, he never expressed, “I dislike Obama because of…”  He only expressed his unqualified hatred.  I’d hoped he would have tried to explain how I misconstrued his anti-Obama statement.  But he identified himself as a racist by reacting in anger –as if he’d been found out.  He chose to become angry, made some of the typical “I’m not a racist!” statements (because casual racists never consider their own racism) and unfriended and blocked me.  All the while likely thinking I’m the asshole!  I was left thinking: What’s wrong with me?  Am I such a bad judge of character?  What kind of person are you?  And, by association with you, what kind of person am I?

OK, fine.  Too bad.  At least it’s done now.  I will not compromise my morals or ethics.

And now we have ‘Supreme Leader Trump’ in all his orange glory aiding, abetting and emboldening every racist, misogynist, dumbfuck to go ahead and gleefully express their pent-up hatred --it’s OK because the ‘President’ is one of them! 

With an Obama-hating President and an Obama-hating Republican party that protects and empowers the Hateful Cheeto it’s no wonder my ex-friend is perfectly comfortable putting his anti-Obama nonsense on Facebook.  Except he didn’t figure on one thing: not all of his ‘friends’ agree with him and I call BULLSHIT.

During the run-up to the 2016 election and afterwards I’ve had to unfriend a lot of people, including most of my high-school graduating class, because of their politics.  Normally I would never unfriend or discontinue a friendship simply over politics –but we’re no longer living in ‘normal’ political times.  Now I find it easy (and relieving) to unfriend and avoid ‘Republicans.’  The simple reason for this is now, when one identifies as ‘Republican’ it means something different than a mere ‘conservative’ approach to government.  ‘Republican’ now means they’re comfortable with a ‘leader’ who rapes women and mocks the disabled.  They’re OK with imprisoning innocent little children refugees at the border.  They’re cool with replacing National Parks with oil wells and uranium mines.  Today’s Republican is just fine ‘criminalizing’ poverty-stricken employees while giving their low-paying employers tax cuts.  They believe in such nonsense as ‘windmill cancer’ and think they’re tough when they yell at an American Indian to ‘go home.’  And they’ve made it cool to be racist again.

None of this stuff is positive, it’s all bad and I want nothing at all to do with any one of you.  I don’t share your beliefs and hatred, I don’t want to be like you, and I’d rather not associate with you.  You’re toxic and any ‘friendship’ with you is demeaning to me.

Those of you who identify as Conservative, Christian or Republican need to take a long, hard look at what you’re advocating because all of it is BAD.  It’s not true conservatism and it’s not true Christianity.  We know that when you’re among your like-minded friends you don’t have to justify yourself but if you want to play in the big, real world you can’t just yell “Libtard!” and walk away.  You can’t yell, “Fake News!” when your opinion is opposite the facts.  You’re going to have to justify your positions and if you can’t do that you really should shut the fuck up.

You may be a member of the loudest chorus but that does not mean you’re in the majority.

Ending the friendship is on me and I accept responsibility for my misjudgment you, but I don’t owe you an apology, I thought you were better but you’re actually worse.

DBAD

January 1, 2020

ABOUT THE CLICHE

If your goal is ART, avoid the cliché.

If your goal is MONEY, embrace the cliché.

               

                When I think back on all the photos I did not shoot I have some regrets, I should have shot more.  I should have shot the obvious ones, the first things I saw, the clichés.  I tried too hard and took a pass on the easy ones.  I thought of myself as an Artist with a capitol ‘A,’ too good, too smart, too advanced and way too cool to take the easy shots.  In my avoidance of the cliché, I inadvertently avoided a lot of money!  A unique, original or innovative approach to a subject may bring critical acclaim but a trite expression or idea brings money.  In my later years I learned to embrace the cliché, but for most of my professional life I’ve avoided clichés for fear of being labeled ‘unoriginal.’ 

                There were times when I was working commercially when the cliché was the goal.  When working with advertising clients I was often ‘forced’ to produce clichéd images.  I tried my best to convince my clients that we could accomplish their visual goals without resorting to cliché but most of the time I lost the argument.  Advertising clients are risk-adverse and are devout inside-the-box thinkers.  Within their own self-imposed zone of acceptability they were looking for ‘their version’ of an already-acceptable image.  So I gave it to them.  I had no problem facilitating their cliché-dreams because I was paid to do so.  It’s a job, I’m a hired gun, here’s your cliché, thanks for the check.  The only time I created cliché images on spec was occasionally in the 1980s and 1990s when I was earning the bulk of my income through the licensing of stock photos.  Inexpensive, already-produced stock photos fulfill the needs of no- to low-budget clients and their needs are most often for something they can ‘relate’ to, as in pre-approved, already seen clichés.  Stock photo clients, like the ad agencies and so many other commercial picture-users don’t really want to expend much energy ‘thinking’ about an image.  They use images that require little to no thought and convey their message quickly as one flips through magazine pages, barely paying attention.  (Nowadays, there’s less flipping of magazine pages and more ‘scrolling’ of websites.  Cliché, relatable, seen-it-before and simple imagery works best on tiny screens viewed by high-speed scrolling.)  The stock photography market demands clichés and you can make money at it if the client chooses your cliché from the thousands of similar clichés offered.  Yeah, they’re all basically the same so you’d better hope someone clicks on yours, otherwise you’re just another in a sea of sameness.

                When I transitioned away from commercial photography to fine-art in the early 2000s I thought I was done with clichés (not that I’d done that many).  As a fine artist I’d be following my own, anti-cliché aesthetic exclusively and avoiding hackneyed, commonplace and banal imagery altogether.  New, original and innovative was my goal.  I tried very hard to create new images, in a new way from things we already know.  To accomplish this I was constantly rejecting the familiar, exploring the unknown, trying to see ‘old things with new eyes,’ and continually narrowing and narrowing my ‘vision’ to find, or create, the unique things I’d not seen before.  This is not an easy task and requires a great deal of mental effort ---and it’s an effort that few artists, and even fewer viewers, care to undertake.

                There are clichés and forms of clichés everywhere and there’s some subjects that, essentially, are clichés no matter what.  A cliché is the result of two main factors, familiarity and comfort.  Everybody’s comfortable with the familiar.  Because everybody’s a photographer nowadays the ‘photography workshop’ business has exploded.  Now you can write a big check to spend a week with a bunch of photographers, just like yourself, all go to the same place, at the same time, and take the same picture.  Everybody in the workshop can get ‘their’ version of whatever cliché the workshop is about.  Go to Yosemite and find Ansel Adams’ tripod marks!  Go to Antarctica and photograph penguins that look like every other photo of penguins ever shot!  Guides will show you where to place your camera in Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, The Palouse, Death Valley or any other pretty place on Earth.  Your resulting pictures will in no way be original but they’ll be your very own version of that picture you saw and everybody already liked!  And your images are critic-proof too because we’ve already seen that shit a thousand times and we like it.  A purveyor of clichés can be ‘creative’ and risk-free all at the same time!  You may feel good about winning a camera-club photo contest with your clichéd, hackneyed photo but you ain’t gettin’ a gallery show.

                Or, maybe you will.  Part of my motivation for writing this now is the rejection I got from a gallery earlier today.  It seems the gallery was seeking clichés and I stupidly submitted fine-art.  I’ve seen it so many times it’s laughable, I call it ‘the big, hairy-but rejection.’  It goes like this:  “…your work is amazing, but…,” “…really cool stuff, but…,” “…beautiful photography, but…”  Whatever comes after “but” means you’re not getting to show.  In this particular case I had a conversation with the gallerist who said she was seeking “…salable landscape imagery that’s a little different…”  OK, I’ve got that, I have a series of surreal landscape imagery that’s been exhibited often enough to have developed a positive sales history and I submitted it to the gallery.  My works were rejected in favor of, “…the downtown and surrounding area in order to sell… If you shoot some local stuff...I am really interested!!!!”  What she said and what she meant were two very different things.  The talk was about unique fine-art but the walk showed she really wanted ‘postcard art.’  The worst advice was, “…shoot some local stuff....I am really interested.”  Decoded that means make pictures you wouldn’t have otherwise (make her pictures) and maybe I’ll include it in my clichéd offerings of downtown pictures.”  That’s terrible advice and no artist should follow it.  If you do, all you’ll accomplish is shooting pictures you don’t like, on spec, for someone who’ll most likely reject your works anyway.  Unless it’s a commercial job and you’re guaranteed to get paid, don’t do that shit! 

                Just for fun I once entered an online photo competition with the subject matter of barns.  To me a barn is a cliché in and of itself.  You can hardly take a picture of a barn that’s not a cliché.  A barn is just a cliché-ready object.  I recall shooting the photo (and no, I don’t ‘capture’ ‘images,’ I shoot photos), in the middle of a green field was a red barn with a blue sky above it.  I raised the camera to my eye, looked through the lens and thought, well that’s a fuckin’ cliché, I shouldn’t shoot this.  But I did anyway while promising myself I’d never show it to anyone.  Then the photo competition came along and I thought I’ve got the cliché they’re looking for and entered.  And I won!  Great, now I was being rewarded for taking the stupidest, most ordinary, unimaginative picture ever!  All the photographs I work so hard to make original are for naught while the lamest, stupidest and most pedestrian of them all is held up as ‘award winning.’  The most astonishing thing were the comments:  “beautiful… amazing… fantastic… fabulous… wonderful.”  I thought, really, seriously? It’s a fucking barn!  I guess people just love things they’ve already seen before.  Oh well, the subject was the barn-cliché and I had the ‘best’ cliché.

                What I eventually learned after a lifetime of making photographs is that, as much as they say they appreciate innovation, people are really comfortable with what they already know about  ---clichés!  This includes the so-called fine-arts as well. 

                My advice to young artists working in any medium is to go ahead and shoot, paint or otherwise create the cliché.  Don’t actively work at it but do it when the cliché presents itself.  Make your own art and do the clichés too.  That way if your incredibly original fine-art fails to find an audience you’ll have something to fall back on.