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Marisa Livet | all galleries >> All My Galleries >> Times of the year >> Daily prescriptions to survive summer. > Praise of ephemeral existence of useless things...
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25-JUN-2008 Marisa

Praise of ephemeral existence of useless things...

Nyon - Vaud (Switzerland)

Let’s think, - just lightly, it’s too sultry to think deeply- let’s think of newspapers articles.
I don’t mean just crime news or society gossip column, or sport page.
I mean good , well written, meaningful articles , accurate prose by talented journalists, who are professional writers, intellectuals...someone qualified, who can properly and elegantly use words, this is what I mean, just to avoid misunderstandings.
Well also these articles of high standard live the same ephemeral life of all the rest of a newspaper.
They are valid only on the very day they are published and the day after they are already obsolete and neglected like the rest of the newspaper,
which becomes old in only 24 hours, just good for its paper quality, to wrap up vegetables
( if someone still wrap us vegetables in newspapers in the age of plastic bags).
Usually thinking of that made me feel a bit melancholy and I could see a reflection of this principle, this urge to burn out all what is not brand new, also in PBase.
I speak of PBase because here we are and also because it’s a fascinating microcosm where we can perceive many features of real life.
It made me slightly melancholy and quite annoyed to realize that the greatest majority of visitors paid attention only to the most recently update picture.
This kind of anxiety for new is mutual and we can see it not only in visitors, but also in photographers, who feel the need to create galleries called “My most recent photos” to always feed visitors’ curiosity with something new, considering quite logical that all what is a bit older could be deprived of any interest.
Of course it’s not an axiom that our most recent photos must be necessarily better than some of our old ones, but their nearly a little overwhelming and petulant presence in foreground creates a screen which prevents the other one to be more noticed.
I have started, without any specific plan, this interaction between scattered thoughts and casual images and I’m aware that if a couple of patient visitors might take the time to read and look, their attention would be very probably limited to the most recently posted picture, the one of the day.
It means that practically none will go back to give a look at the former ones, which will become even more useless than old newspaper, since it’s impossible to wrap up vegetables into a virtual page.
So all what I’m doing here, without considering the objective lack of worth, is useless because of its dramatic ephemeral quality.
And you know what?
I don’t feel melancholy anymore and I don’t feel like giving up either.
I’m starting liking this immaterial, inconstant, ephemeral dimension.
Words are a nearly imperceptible breeze which slips away on the surface of an imaginary lake,
where also waves are quite ephemerals, always repeated, never the same twice.
It’s not frustrating; it gives me a sensation of lightness.
I think I have already told that, it’s just my attempt to think over by writing.
I don’t know if I succeed, but it’s already good enough to try.

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Ann Cleeves26-Jun-2008 09:28
Very interesting prescription today.....nicely expressed in the image. I too share your thoughts on pbase, but also empathise with the last comments. I have only recently got into the habit of trying to view my all favourites' latest images everyday. Otherwise I don't get to visit their galleries for weeks, sometimes months, and felt guilty and also that I was missing out. However I do feel frustrated about not seeing all of a person's work, as I do about others not viewing all of mine...just the current last image, which is pure chance as to what it is. I think I shall now do a combination of both habits...keeping in touch via everyones' recents, and trying to spend some time in their galleries every so often. I don't know what the answer is......time is a problem, and pbase could become a full-time preoccupation, excluding other worthwhile and/or pleasurable activities.
On a different angle, the tendency to neglect what is not new.... I find I have no desire to read a book or watch a film , for example, again after the first time, until several years later, when it feels fresh and new to my memory again...same goes for photos too. Any sooner, and they don't hold my interest. As someone else has observed,,,,,,just one facet of human nature, I suppose!
globalgadabout26-Jun-2008 02:24
lovely landscape with a dash of origami...your text is detailed and complex...an image can indeed be as ephemeral as a glance, but may still be memorable...think of a beautiful person you passed three days ago, or the view from a hill you experienced last summer...as for looking daily at the 'most recent' images from other pbase photogs...your analysis rings true...for some of us though..time is a limiting factor..there is simply more to life than photography and pbase..I find it difficult just to keep up with my 'favourite artists' latest posts....just counted and today there are 27 new images...at a couple of minutes each there is an hour of viewing and commenting and clicking about...there might still be a moment to upload one's own image...and write an appropriate title...all this before engaging in daily life...breakfast, quick log-on, commmute, a day of work, commute back home, email, voicemail, snailmail, make a meal and feed the cat, shopping, gardening, reading, music listening and making, sweeping the steps and depositing the compostable remains...walking around with the camera...and on top of that the demands of family and friends...as well as the important consideration of just how much of the day is spent in front of an electronic screen...time is scant...the number of images on pbase and the amount of data on the internet is huge...I sense your frustration..and have already made a similar observation regarding how involvement in a site like pbase can play out...perhaps it's just 'the nature of the beast'...and we have to recognize that and live in peace with it....
Jola Dziubinska25-Jun-2008 23:15
This little boat is dreaming of floating away to the wide waters :)
Guest 25-Jun-2008 18:42
As a retired journalist, I like to think that my words, my writings, were good. Certainly they were enjoyed at the time of publication. But, as you write, they quickly fade into the past and out of awareness. I used to save some of my writings, particularly those columns about raising my son. But even now those are stored away I don't know where. And my son never asked about them. They are already, as you say, "obsolete and neglected." But, this also happens to us. We, as humans, fade and become "obsolete and neglected." Such is the way of man.
Guest 25-Jun-2008 18:05
Very good idea and work. Good luck for small sheep!
Michael Shpuntov25-Jun-2008 16:51
Wonderful image. Excellent idea for the front end subject. Vote