Nothing can resist the force of this current of technical images—there is no artistic, scientific, or political activity which is not aimed at it, there is no everyday activity which does not aspire to be photographed, filmed, videotaped. For there is a general desire to be endlessly remembered and endlessly repeatable. All events are nowadays aimed at the television screen, the cinema screen, the photograph, in order to be translated into a state of things. In this way, however, every action simultaneously loses its historical character and turns into a magic ritual and an endlessly repeatable movement.
From Vilém Flusser’s Towards a Philosophy of Photography (1983)Although it may not always be obvious here that I am interested in doing anything other than posting photographs and writing a sentence or two that shows how witty and cultchah'd I think I am, I am motivated by things greater than my fine teeth, and shiny hair. For almost seven years now I've been obsessed with thinking about and have been trying to understand, how people use photographs to construct, recall, tell, live, and cope with their lives and how these uses affect our every interaction with the (seemingly) non photographic world.
There is a very good essay by David Levi Strauss in the July/August issue of The Brooklyn Rail, it's where I got that good quote up there. Strauss is pretty far along in understanding these things and I'm going to make more room for his books on my shelf. There is also a good interview conducted by Hakim Bey here.
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