CONTEMPORARY EXPLORER

  More and more you are seeing media presentations incorporating the chaos of the street and life. Call them voices from the street. This includes platforms like street blogging, vlogging, advertising, and presentations. You can make a case that they have been around for a long time in major media, but not so much in mainstream business messaging.  A good example of this is the TV documentary series “How to with John Wilson.” Wilson takes a serious subject and mixes it with free for all street level scenes. Somehow it works, maybe because we all live, even thrive on the chaos of today. Either way, his messages get across. Others like the photographer Eric Kim’s blog site are recorded with him wandering the street, making his points sporadically, shouting out to his friends, noting sights along the way, all played against the music of life flourishing on all sides.  It makes you wonder about the presentations of old. How well ordered you tried to make them, how perfectly y...

  Eric Kim burst onto the photography scene a few years ago, becoming a noted street photographer. Following his photographs, career, blog, and philosophy since then, resembles  a bouncing ball. Some like his work and some don’t. Occasionally though, he comes up with interesting insights into photography. Such are his thoughts about “The Random Shot.” The unique scene you come across that does not fit the theme of your work or outing. Do you take the photograph or not? His answers is you should. If for no other reason, than it has spoken to you in some way. You sense the art there, but don’t completely understand the beauty yet. Besides you stretch your creativity and learn more about your camera. He discusses all this in his podcast “The Intrinsic Joy of Photography.” How art can be found in all things a photographer sees.

    One day you drive by and see deep forests of green. The next time only cleared land of a new subdivision. You spirit morns the passing of the green and wonders about the smartness of the new development. Why all the sprawl, you ask yourself. There are good things about subdivisions though. They offer more stability for growing families than apartment living. An opportunity to build your own life and home. Sometimes schools and areas are more safe than the city. Your money goes to build your worth, not the landlords. Not all is good though. Most subdivisions are isolated, away from the small commerce that often ties urban communities together.  Subdivision can break one of the three social legs phycologists say are important for well being. Family and friends are not enough. Random connections with other people are an equally key, but sometimes difficult in suburbia. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general says the need for the third leg of social interaction is deeply embed...

  We seek out patterns. Ones we hope will reveal rich paths and ideas to follow. The mere act of living leaves patterns behind. Some well ordered, some not. They are often just fabrications, signs of a battle won or lost, accidents, scrapes left by trucks, remnants of signs, and thousands of other things. Some patterns only attract a glance, others curiosity. Patterns studied can stir visions and creativity. Inspirations for stories, new horizons, and art. Their meaning left to the viewers eye… David Young “Search for inspiration in the dirt on walls or the streaked patterns in stones” - Leonardo da Vinci