Category: Photography
Without a doubt, this may be one of the greatest pictures I’ve ever seen. Lots of story – and history – in a somewhat simple shot.
Via: Flickr blog., from the Library of Congress. Say what you will about Flickr and their inability to sustain any kind of momentum – their blog is pretty fantastic.
Issues Considered: Photography
This is Abraham Lincoln’s hat.
It’s unadorned. “It’s just a hat,” you’d think, if you saw it in the wild.
If you saw it in a museum, surrounded by other items, you might think it was just another dead person’s hat. You’d be okay in thinking that. It’s no different from that Monopoly guy’s hat. Or the hat of any businessman from the late 1800s.
Even if it was labeled “Abraham Lincoln’s Hat,” you’d probably only give it a passing glance. Your eyes, distracted by everything else, would fail to grasp the importance.
But it IS important. This is Abraham Lincoln’s hat. Abraham Lincoln. Yes. THAT Abraham Lincoln.
You place it on a pedestal. It begins to stand out.
You devote the hallway leading up to it to spelling out the importance of Abraham Lincoln. It begins to gain context.
You show images of Abraham Lincoln wearing the hat. It begins to develop its own history.
Finally, you light it, dramatically, handing out a lasting image to whoever walks by.
It goes from being just a hat to being Abraham Lincoln’s Hat. Capitalized. Important. Worth Looking At.
And, in that time, nothing has changed outside of how you presented it. You took something ordinary – because, let’s be honest, it’s still just a hat, though most certainly a hat worn by a famous President – and provided the context, visual cues and legend that can only be assigned to something worth remembering.
Taking the ordinary and making it beautiful. That’s why storytelling is important. Why graphic design is important. Why creativity is important.
“It’s just a hat.”
No. This is Abraham Lincoln’s hat. Pretty impressive, huh?
Issues Considered: Content Strategy, Marketing, On..., Photography
Sierra got a camera for her birthday. A digital one: the VTech Kidizoom Plus. It takes real pictures and everything. She was excited. I was excited. We were all excited to get it going.
But it wasn’t the easiest thing to figure out. Part of that is because, in essence, Sierra also got the following for her birthday:
• A photo editor
• A game system
• A framing kit
• A slide show
• A movie camera
All in the same package.
Sierra is a three-year old girl. She likes to take pictures with her camera – not play games, not film movies, not put wacky frames on wacky shots. To her, this is merely a camera. To me, it’s a monstrosity in over-indulgence; some “design by committee” product spec that attempted not to make a great product but, in the way committees are wont to do, make a product that tries to appeal to every single demographic available.
Sierra loves her camera, and I think it’s pretty fun. Grandpa Dennis did a great job picking it out. We’ve already started a Flickr page with Sierra’s pictures. (They are fantastic, by the way, if you like blurry, off centered pictures of her family and the backs of their legs.)
But the insistence of modern manufacturing to pile on the features and added benefits – often to the detriment of the original reason for purchasing the product – is frustrating and, dare I say, ugly.
Kids want cameras to take pictures. They will be happy with a simple camera that takes good pictures and – here’s the kicker! – is easy to use.
That means no extra features to bog down the button landscape. Just a few buttons to work the camera, like the old Holga models.
Do people really want all the things on this camera? Or are they simply a way to create false competitive advantages in a crowded toy marketplace – competitive advantages that are then one upped by the competitors, which are then one upped by the original product, which continue ad nauseum until soon there isn’t enough room on the package to explain what the damned thing does.
Here’s the thing: it’s a toy. For a kid. Yet, it’s become so complicated that even I had a hard time working it.
Did we forget about the simple rules of making toys? Rule Number Two: TOYS ARE FOR KIDS.
It’s all I ask. Simplicity. Better design. Something Sierra will be happy with. Something she’ll have no problem grasping and understanding. Something we all can be proud to purchase.
And, thanks but no thanks, we’re okay without the wacky hat slide show.
Issues Considered: Annoyances, Photography, Sierra
If you consider what you do to be within the realm of the creative world and you DON’T find yourself crippled with mind-crushing insecurity, you’re probably not doing it right. That’s just how it is.
Art and writing and creativity – whatever that is – is subjective, which means it offers no good metric for success, and that means we rely on feedback, and when feedback doesn’t come it’s like the world has dropped from below us and we’re left scrambling to straighten our upturned confidence.
Today, I rediscovered a simple solution.
No phone. No e-mail. No Internet. No searching for confirmation. Nothing but sun. A cup of coffee. A walk. Some lunch. Maybe eggs Benedict. Some talking. Some friends. Some family.
Cut free from the grid and fire up the grill. Stand impressed, reminded; feedback doesn’t matter, life continues without it, and even an overcooked hamburger tastes better than whatever it was you were worried about in the morning.
Issues Considered: On..., Outdoors, Photography, Writing
I know they’re still young, but these two kids are friends, and that’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of.
EDIT: I hereby interrupt this nice sentiment to clarify that this picture has a texture on it. Our bathroom isn’t really that dirty. We promise.
Issues Considered: Isaac, Photography, Sierra, Vilhauer
Whenever we stay in a hotel – as we did last night – one of the highlights is the ability to wake up around seven and enjoy a newspaper. No kids. No work. No dog. Nothing. Just us, a foreign bed, a coffee and a newspaper.
Every time, I’m reminded why great feature journalism is both inspiring and necessary.
Case in point: the New York Times’ story about one Brooklyn pay phone and the people who stop by throughout a 24-hour period.
The lede to Manny Fernandez’s article, “Listening In on a Pay Phone in Queens”:
Benjamin Patir called his son because he was lonely and, perhaps more important, because he had a quarter. Robert J. Covelli called his son, too, to find out if, at some point during the more than 24 hours he spent in custody, he had become, for the first time, a grandfather. Frank Federico, fresh from a courthouse jail cell, called his mother, who spared him any lectures and asked him if he needed a ride home.
It’s not breaking news. But it’s not a throwaway puff piece, either. It’s just pure quality. And it’s why, as long as people are willing to think creatively for stories that truly interest their readership, there will always be an audience for great journalism – either online or in print.
Now, to only monetize it in a way that continues to support the craft without placing the onus of cost on the average reader.
Check out Piotr Redlinski’s pictures in the slide show (about half-way down the page: “Still a Quarter to Call”) for shots that perfectly capture the tone of the article.
Issues Considered: Journalism, Photography, Writing
Someone over at Graphic Content – the region’s premiere art and design blog – must have me confused with an actual artist. For the second time this month, something I’ve created has made the cut: this time, some photography from D.C.
Humbling, as always.
For more photos, I implore you to check out the photoblog (Much More Sure) or our Flickr page. And get Graphic Content into your feed reader, if you haven’t already.
Issues Considered: Blogging, Career, Linkage, Photography