["Open Mike" is the often off-topic Editorial Page of TOP, in which Yr. Hmbl. Ed. is sometimes forced to come up to 2025, despite the fact that, for him, not only was 2001 in the future, but 1984 was too. He actually loves being a geezer, but for that whole "death getting closer" deal. Otherwise, being an old guy is da bomb (<—very dated expression that Ed. imagines is still hip.) "Open Mike" appears on Sundays, when Ed. remembers.]
Luke (who was the self-described "lab drudge" at the original Imaging-Resource website for a dozen years, when it was the main competition for the original DPReview) wrote a fascinating comment here a day or two ago. He mentioned a number of new terms that have become current since I personally kinda stopped paying so much attention*. This is fun stuff, so let me just go down the list briefly:
Reverse selfie: If most of the pictures you take are selfies, featuring yourself mugging for the camera in a variety of settings and with a variety of people, pets, food, swag, etc., then the opposite might become a whole new category; a reverse selfie is, as Luke wrote, when you "aim the camera AWAY from yourself." What a concept—a picture in which my I doth not appear?
I remember when most photographs—the overwhelming majority—were actually all reverse selfies! So much that we didn't even have the term "selfie." Imagine. (I'm being arch**.) We used the more formal term "self-portrait" then, and it was a perfectly honorable genre, albeit probably not something that most people would make a whole project out of, let alone a whole career. At least, until Cindy Sherman came along and owned it. (She still owns it, smartphone selfies aside.) The peripatetic Lee Friedlander, who I've called the most important American photographer (or shall we say the quintessential, to avoid the value judgement) of the second half of the 20th century, did a whole book called Self Portrait. Lee's self-portraits, however, don't convey classical little-n narcissism and self-love (Ye, formerly known as Kanye, and who now wants to be known as Ye Ye, has a line in one of his raps about how "people be snapping my angles"), but rather the strangeness of inhabiting a body and the extent to which our observing consciousness is alienated from it.
(The 1970 original of Self Portrait is unobtanium, and the 1998 Second Edition is getting expensive. I'd recommend the updated version, from Yale, which has a great many more photographs. Strangely, no other self-portrait projects are coming to mind for me here.)
I had to do a self-portrait as a school assignment at the Corcoran, and I wish I could put my hands on it to show you. It was not very good. Not very creative, either. And not my thing—definitely. Like a lot of photographers of my era, I don't like having my picture taken. I'm all into the reverse selfies and what they can tell me about the look of the world when the camera is pointed outward.
Actually, reverse selfies contain a lot about the photographer even thought he or she is not in the picture. You'd never look at a Michael Kenna and think it was a Helmut Newton, or a Helmut Newton and think it was an Ernst Haas. But no hate to those whose thing is exploring the look of themselves; it's a perfectly legitimate thing and I'd look at it as soon as I'd look at any other thing. I'd love to see some curated, deliberate, consciously-made bodies of work of smartphone selfies by persons of artistic temperament and skill.
I once tried to recreate this Lee Friedlander self-portrait using myself. I thought it would be easy. It was not easy. I did not get close. I also mailed him a letter and offered to trade prints, one of mine for one of this. I have not heard back yet, but he has only had about 32 years to consider my offer. I think I ought to give him a few more years.
Handheld tripod: A.k.a. a selfie stick. (I heard once of a little kid calling it a "selfish stick," which maybe isn't too far off base.) While not unknown in days of old, when it would more likely be called a handgrip tripod or just a grip, the term divorces "tripod" from its meaning as a three-legged stand that sits on the ground, and hangs on to its meaning as something attached to a camera that puts the camera at a location in space where you want it to be. My only question would be, why the newer term when "selfie stick" already serves the need? But that kind of rational consideration is not always how culture works.
Lens filter: A filter made of glass, usually colored, that actually physically screws or clips on to the lens. Because as everyone knows, a filter is a digital preset that you apply to a file to give it a predetermined look or to create a particular effect. If you used the word "filter" to describe a glass screw-on filter, people might misunderstand. Hence lens filter.
2D printing: This one really floored me! Am I behind the times. But it is instantly obvious what it means and why it exists. Since AI is not copyrighted (having no conscious human creator), I believe I can reproduce this here. Just the first sentence would be enough, but it's all pretty amazing:
AI Overview
2D printing is the process of creating two-dimensional images or text on a flat surface, typically paper. It involves using a printer to deposit ink or other materials onto a substrate, resulting in a flat, visual representation. Common examples include printing documents, photos, or artwork on paper using inkjet or laser printers.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Two-Dimensional: 2D printing creates images or text that exist only on a plane, lacking depth or volume.
Flat Surface: The process typically involves printing on a flat surface like paper, but can also include other materials like fabric or film.
Ink or Material Deposition: Printers use various methods to deposit ink or other materials, such as inkjet sprays, laser toner, or other specialized processes.
Examples: 2D printing is used for a vast array of applications, including:
- Documents: Printing reports, letters, and other textual information.
- Artwork: Creating prints of paintings, drawings, and photographs.
- Labels and Packaging: Printing product information, barcodes, and designs.
- Signage: Producing posters, banners, and other signage materials.
- Publications: Printing books, magazines, and newspapers.
Relationship to 3D Printing: 2D printing is fundamentally different from 3D printing, which creates three-dimensional objects by layering materials.
I love that it doesn't even bother mentioning under "other specialized processes" that you can create a 2D print on light-sensitive paper by projection. Perhaps because that's so 1870s. And I especially love that last bit—having to specify that 2D printing is different from 3D printing. I've written many times about the amorphous interrelationships and ambiguities involved in all the "print" words, noun "verse" verb, print, printer, printmaker, printing, printmaking. This new thing adds to the happy melée in a way that, perhaps opposite from what you might expect, delights me.
So there, that's your dispatch*** from the former future on a halcyon Sunday in June. How come nobody's written a book called 2084 or 2054?
Mike
*In the 1970s, in the suburb of Bayside, Wisconsin, there was a guy in his 50s who tried way too hard to act like he was in his 20s. He dressed like a Bee Gee, down to the gold chains and white bell bottoms, and drove a white Corvette Stingray T-top. I actually heard him say "hey hey hey" to one of the girls from my high school, which was as much a cliché as a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. I decided then and there that I would not grow up to pretend too hard that I was younger than I was. It's a mark of respect to young people for older people to go ahead and act their age. In my very humble opinion.
**Adjective, meaning 2: "Marked by a deliberate and often forced playfulness, irony, or impudence." (Merriam-Webster.)
***Younger readers are going, "What." And older readers are going, "Wow."
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