michael kenna


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Is still my favorite photographer. If you are near the Columbia Museam of Art in South Carolina, you might want to catch Venezia before March 13th, and if you are not, you might want to look into some of his books. Not much on the planet nicer than gazing at superbly rendered good old meatspace black and white photographs.

Unless there are some extremely high end digital cameras and audio recorders I never get to experience, meatspace audio and visual, clunky mechanical, are still radically better. I know, for instance, that dealing with a turntable and vinyl has always been a damn drag, but music lovers are returning to them in droves, because EVEN if the vinyl is scratched, it STILL sounds like heaven over the digital. It is the same with photographs.

And it has always been that black and white photographs and film beat out color when you are in the realm of pure esthetics because of the infinitude of nuance on the way between black and white. They just pack all the punch. Have you ever seen a color picture of Yosemite that beats Ansel Adams' shots even yet? I haven't.

I've heard they are trying to do noir films in color, and, heh, with no experience at all, I'm thinking good luck with that, buddy. Maybe someday, but probably not.

I can't imagine anyone wanting virtual reality over reality itself.


pipe up any time....