Enlightened Librarian: Flickr is not my friend

Flickr is not my friend · Aug 24, 05:51 PM

Forgive the absence.

Several months ago I succumbed to the allure of emulsionless photography. Forget over a century of chemical refinements, arduous craft and halide-blackened fingers. Now I can take pictures and see them instantly! All colour and no weight. Not even a hair’s breadth between the thought and the act.

And I have become addicted to Flickr, which has become the flickering, convulsive mass at the agitated centre of the world. Heroin connects you to an intricate chemistry and infrastructure of supply. Flickr connects you to the most intimate blinking and yearning of millions of other minds. Nothing passing through you but shouting colour: a massless high.

Go there now. See everyone’s photos. Press reload. Again. This is a pipe through which the world flows. Inhale. Baby sunset drinking flower street wedding flower holiday lonelyselfportrait beach fruit alley dog. And repeat. Subway cherrytree building dance lonelyroom neonsign dog arminarm waterdrop doorway graffiti flower stiffportrait mountain.

Flicker and buzz.

Digital counterfeits the world and streams it through your senses. And it is easy to become addicted to the stream. Because the stream is so much like the world.

My camera is a beautiful thing. I want to take beautiful pictures. Maybe once or twice.

But let me not lose my bearings.

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