Monday 7 March 2011

Fred Ritchin Says...

What a wonderful answer to the question What's Next, which is Foam's 10th Anniversary Project. Below is two paragraphs taken from Fred Ritchin's answer to this exact question and what amazing, inspiring thoughts they are. As you will know I am one of the contributors, but I felt it was important to bring forward some of the best points, (in my eyes) so far.


“Instead of becoming a photographer, figure out what to do with the enormous numbers of images - how to find the relevant ones, present them, contextualize them, link them, meld them with other media, use them effectively. This too is 'writing with light.' And then take a deep breath (never forget to breathe), and start making the new kinds of imagery that a digital/quantum/code-based/abstracted/semi-virtual/problematic world requires.


So what do we do to remain sane and to survive? Filter the overwhelming amount of imagery in such a way that it might be useful, first having decided that usefulness is a priority, as opposed to distraction. If we are, in a sense, in a boat with holes trying to stay afloat (there is no shore), we can either diagnose the problems to try and fix them, or pretend that the holes, and the boat itself, do not exist - or prematurely resign ourselves to our inability to fix anything. In a consumerist society this would be viewed as normal behaviour (just buy another one); last century we would have called it nihilism.”


Fred Ritchin, What's Next at http://www.foam.org/whatsnext#9491


No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive