A Decade In Search Of Truth

In 1999 I began one last project, one that I thought would define my career as a photographer, and nudge forward perhaps my career as a writer. It started off to be my journey, a last journey with cameras in hand. A few years later I was, I thought, embarking down Frost's road less traveled.

Now, a decade later, I found myself looking back to the future. Wild Orphans once again is surfacing as my photographic savior, my sanity check, I need it. As NY Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich, "A decade that began with the “reality” television craze exemplified by “American Idol” and “Survivor” — both blissfully devoid of any reality whatsoever — spiraled into a wholesale flight from truth." As the last hours of 2009 flicker out, I realize I need 2010 to be a flight back to truth.

Appropriately, the decade's last December epitomized our collective disengagement from the truth - Tiger Woods, the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and the US sending 30,000 more troops to "win" a game that has no finish line, buzzer or top-of-the-ninth - or maybe our decade of delinquent decision-making was exclusively due to “bad intelligence,” (to coin a phrase by Bush administration alumni), that pushed us into these fiascoes. Unfortunately the tigers of truth, print journalists, are as rare as their Asian counterparts, and as the decade comes to a close, we are watch their habitat disappear as well. In Washington DC they opened the Newseum — "a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits." As the director is quoted on the Newseum's own website, "Visitors will come away with a better understanding of news and the important role it plays in all of our lives,". Frighteningly we don't build museums to the living and vibrant, but to the vanishing and disappeared - is news habitat gone?

Much of 2010 I will be back on the road, exploring this planet, personal and public perambulations. In search of truth I already have some sense of where to look, but know many new roads will appear--filled with excitement and that tingling trepidation when perambulating on a precipice. But the search for truth will be alive, and that's what I crave and that's why so much of life is "blissfully devoid of any reality whatsoever — spiraled into a wholesale flight from truth." it's not alive. It's as if we have become our own avatars. Gleefully cocooning ourselves into our make-believe reality. And most frightening of all... as the climate conference in Copenhagen insanely pointed out - inside that reality we don't need to care.

I care. I have but this solitary existence. I have no guarantee of second chances, no do-overs,no redemption after missing the warning, or as the chorus rings out:

This is it
Make no mistake where you are
your back's to the corner
This is it
Don't be a fool anymore
This is it
the waiting is over

No room to run
No way to hide
No time for wondering why
It's here, the moment is now

So about Frost's road less traveled. I only know roads are man-made, and that any new road is not so much littered with leaves unworn by human footfalls, rather shiny tchotchkes of world blinded by it's own make-believe reality. "Follow them, use them and forget them.... Don't park. [roads] will get you there, but I tell you, don't ever try to arrive. Arrival is the death of inspiration." (Ernst Hass) Truth lives in inspiration.

A poster ad featuring Tiger Woods forebodingly chimes, "tougher than ever to be a Tiger." Paradoxically over the past decade the world has discovered that too, hiding from one lie, while not questioning the other. The caption on another Accenture Woods poster reads "It’s what you do next that counts." True enough for Tiger in 2010, but not just Tiger. Inside the cocoon I think it's easy for life to imitate art because you can never stand back far enough to get a proper perspective.

Nike’s chairman, Phil Knight, told The Sports Business Journal, in perhaps the most prophetic quote of the decade's closing month, that when Woods’s career "is over, you’ll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip." Decades hence I think we will look back on this first ten year span of the new Millennium and realize there were too many "blips", I hope not too many for us too survive. Those blips, like the make-believe reality TV shows that launched the decade, held no truth.

Tomorrow morning is just another morning, but it begins a departure. I have reconstructed a camera bag - filled with all new Canon gear, three decades Nikon left behind; I have the love of my life that will see me through my days on this Earth; I travel first to India for a friend's wedding, a global wedding in a sense; then to Europe to understand why we are willing to suffering to know the truth about ourselves; and to East Africa in search of where all new roads began.

It's no secret I love animation and the mind of the animators that, "boldly go where no man has gone before", or what ever Capt. Kirk uttered. Well here is another one my friend Jenn's brother Craig just sent over (Craig has the enviable joy of seeing this stuff a lot in his job at Pixar). This one is from the mind and scribbling of animator Alan Becker - a battle of digitally galactic proportions - click on the image above to see the action.

Anna's not convinced of global warming - but definitely climate change

Okay, I'll admit, this is a rant of sorts - but it's keeping me warm, my fingers moving and the blood boiling.

As I sit here doing research for another project, one a world away in terms of importance to the eventual legacy of humankind, I'm shuttling forth and back to the kitchen every half hour to switch out the magic elixir, the sugar water of life for a trio of flying lilliputian. Three Anna's hummingbirds, along with a host of other avians have decided, or perhaps by my maintaining their food supply, been coaxed into staying the winter. This week they may be seriously reconsidering their decision. In a bone-chillingly rare bash of icy windy weather the temps have plummeted into the teens at night and disparately grasp for the 30 degree mark by day - this is far from the norm for Portland. Or am I dillusionary and this is the new norm and I clinging to an old norm out of denial?

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition was a story with climatologist, some would say evangelist, James Hansen:

Scientist: Urgency Needed On Climate Change Action

Just as I was finishing his op-ed in the NY Times, the NPR story began I was clicking on the BBC online news to a story on the same topic:

This decade 'warmest on record'

According to the World Meteorological Organization the first decade of this century is "by far" the warmest since instrumental records began some 160 years ago.

Well, the tiny Anna's hummingbirds sitting at the warm sugar water feeders outside my window would adamantly dispute that fact. They would surely ask - "Where's the heat? Bring it on!"

And that's the issue. I have been saying for years that until people wake up in the morning, put their hand on the door and get burned because it's too hot out (or alternately freeze) then can't leave their homes for days on end, they are never - NEVER - going to get it, climate change.

In reaction to Hansen are other, not all conservatives as you think - like Paul Krugman, in his own piece

Unhelpful Hansen

What is clear to anyone who has traveled this planet for the past quarter century of more - and I'm not just talking about to one frigg'n conference after another - really traveled the back roads, back alleys and forgotten corners - is that we are in deep climate change shit! And the only way to even hope of shifting the course is stop the bullshit conversation about "what ifs" and get on with changing the way we function with our planet. Millions of people, poor people, die everyday on this planet because of the changes we have brought about in the last century, and Mr. Krugman they don't give a damn your thoughts on cap and trade - "What the basic economic analysis says...", or what your magical chart shows - to them it's all "crap and trade offs".

And that is the crux part one - it's climate change - not just warming. A year ago I was in India and farmers were complaining about drought in one part of the country and too much rain in another - in each case the experience was not the norm. This is no longer about economic survival - it is about survival.

Part two - we don't really give a shit. If we really did there would be no doubt where to spend the $700 billion the Obama Administration just got back from the bank bail out - DEVELOPMENT OF NON-CARBON RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES. It's, as Hansen says, about too much carbon being pumped into the atmosphere. And the average person in the developed countries (read - over consuming) and developing countries (read - trying to consume more) has no clue WTF is going on - or cares frankly. This week is the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, another summit where rich nations will promise to do a little and promise to give just enough to keep poor nations from complaining too much. And the pontificated proclamations on changes regarding the climate? At least Copenhagen will benefit from all the week of hot air - it's just above freezing there this week.

Which brings me back to that possible case of - clinging to an old norm out of denial? Denial: "a state in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence."

Krugman closes his blog post with:

"Things like this often happen when economists deal with physical scientists; the hard-science guys tend to assume that we’re witch doctors with nothing to tell them, so they can’t be bothered to listen at all to what the economists have to say, and the result is that they end up reinventing old errors in the belief that they’re deep insights. Most of the time not much harm is done. But this time is different.

For here’s the way it is: we have a real chance of getting a serious cap and trade program in place within a year or two. We have no chance of getting a carbon tax for the foreseeable future. It’s just destructive to denounce the program we can actually get — a program that won’t be perfect, won’t be enough, but can be made increasingly effective over time — in favor of something that can’t possibly happen in time to avoid disaster."

In this case I agree with you - sorta. "...this time is different." Neither of you should be professionally in this discussion - it's not about economics or physical science - it's about biology! You should be only in it as living human beings. The only discussion we should be having is about things living and dying. Other wise the dieing will eventually be very tormented and excruciating because we run out of drinkable water, clean air, arable soil, livable space. So, "a program that won’t be perfect, won’t be enough," - sorry, this time is different, we need perfect and we need enough.

And what about real change on the climate - the only real change will be too uncomfortable regardless if we accept it or reject it - hotter hots, wetter wets, drier drys and tomorrow it will be clear and friggi'n cold again here and the Anna's better evolve in a hurry - I'm running out of warm sugar water.

"Quick, quick, quick, like a cat"

(similar post over on my bike blog)
Last night was the Awards for the 2009 Bicycling Northwest.com Bike Photo Contest presented by Pro Photo Supply. Despite a civil war football game distraction we had a nice group of the winners and friends gather at the Lucky Lab NW for a bite, a pint (or two) and a look at all the entries as well as those that carried home the winning swag.

Taking top honors was a great shot by photographer John Rudolff - the crash of cyclist Joe Dengel in last summer's Portland Twilight Criterium. The photo epitomizes the old adage, " luck is opportunity meeting preparedness". Photographically many elements come together quite beautifully in this shot - three in particular that make it work for me. Most critically in my mind, and many of the judges, is the expression on the young girl's face in the upper left corner. Without that this photo doesn't have the same voice. With it, it has what Henri Cartier-Bresson use to refer to as the moment you must go click, "quick, quick, quick, like a cat".

In that sense cycling photography is like wildlife photography and unlike so many other types of sports photography. Planning is crucial, preparadness mandatory, understanding your subjects behavior essential, and then realizing you are at the mercy of the universe to bring all the elements together before your lens... that last bit is the hardest part to be patient and accept. If you have never tried photographing cycling - criteriums are the best starting point. Unlike most other cycling events, they are contained within a set "small" manageable playing field - usually a half dozen blocks of city street. You can move freely around the perimeter of the race and take advantage of multiple photo opportunities.

If you are a wildlife photographer and looking for another challenge - even just to keep your eye and index finger sharp - give crit cycle racing a go.

Congratulations to everyone that entered and all the winners!

We will be putting up all the winning images on Bicycling Northwest.com over the coming week - as well, they will be displayed in large print format at Pro Photo Supply later in spring 2010 when we announce the opening of the next contest (I'll post a note here on the blog).

Thanks to Canon cameras for sponsorship of the prizes.

PS - Joe Dengel, the cyclist, is fine and cycling again - the crash did ring his bell a bit.

Perspectives

Here is another wonderful animation to share. Very different from the Kudan animation I posted a couple months ago. The below work is a captivating perspective on the idea of a book, and words, and an interpretation of moving through a space. The light throughout is wonderfully created - worth watching multiple times.



Discovering this piece comes on the heels of a couple hours scrutinizing the quality of light and reflective surfaces in the latest Pixar film UP. They have become masters down in Emeryville at bring life to two-dimensions through reflective surfaces and indirect lighting. If I were currently teaching photography and/or film-making I would spend half the class immersing students in great animation, both variety and depth.