“Have you been quiet?” a colleague recently asked, “or have I missed something?”
Referring to my blog, he was, of course. This was very shortly after my philosophical rant about Afrikaans poetry … something I’m glad to have rediscovered (at least in part) this year.
(But that is a next post, in Afrikaans and dedicated to my Grade 9s.)
Here is something I’ve long been interested in: Ruin Photography.
It might be known by a few other names as well. At this point in SA, ruin is almost blasé. A number of times I’ve hypothesised that if I were a true artist I could take a picture of my desk (at home, not really at work) at any given time and that it would be something, somewhere within the same genre … Of course, so far I have failed. But I don’t give up that easily, just give me a little time to think — which I don’t always have when I’m marking papers … that ever inevitable, fatal division of attention, often the ruination of many a well-intended project.
It would also only be fair to admit that once I start marking papers I am also at my most creative. I constantly fight the battle of soldiering on through the abyss of idiocy and discarding all reason to indulge completely into the pool of discovery.
OK, not all my students are idiots (it was an idiomatic expression, for Pete’s sake, I didn’t call anyone an idiot) and not all of what I find in my creative folds is worthy of light, let alone sunlight.
Too much talking. Google “ruin photography” and you’ll see.
In the meantime, though, I’ve taken to photographing flowers past their sell-by date. Using the D7100 to creative effect and voila … I’m fairly satisfied with the results. Yeah, it does feel too easy.
I might try a bit more of this.
Hate it or like it, feel free to comment … ignorance is not that bliss.
Love dit! Interessante konsep.