New arrival: Visual Soma

Posted by Dave Bonta on January 5, 2008 (last modified at 10:39 pm, 1/5/08)

the melt line

Color was returning to reclaim the world from black-and-white. It started on Sapsucker Ridge and spread down across the field. Soon it was right in front of my doorstep, where it paused for a while. I took that as a signal to go out, camera dangling from the strap around my neck like a shrunken head. It can see things I can’t. It can steal souls. I point and click, and sometimes, when I am looking for nothing in particular — “just looking,” as I always say to solicitous sales clerks — the miraculous appears. Or at least the pretty darn interesting. Or the mildly engaging. Or… well, you get the picture.

Why “Visual Soma”? Because when a regular reader of Via Negativa visited the then still tentative photoblog for the first time the other day, she thought I must be smoking something. And because a name like that will give me something to try and live up to: photos that alter consciousness. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try.

This is not a resolution, mind you, but an aspiration, keeping in mind the multiple meanings of that word. The breath itself is enough of a wonder. Who needs smoke?

Again, for those unfamiliar with the photoblog format: the front page displays the latest photo only. Click on it — or use the Previous or Archive links at the top — to go back in time. I’m paid up for a year, so the blog and all its archives will stay online at least that long. In addition to new photos, I have two years’ worth of photos that need a second look and in most cases re-processing.

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9 Responses to New arrival: Visual Soma

  1. marja-leena says:
    January 6, 2008 at 12:21 am

    Fantastic photos, as always, Dave. I’ve learned a new meaning for soma, a word I only knew as a biology term … interesting!

    Reply
  2. Anne-Mieke says:
    January 6, 2008 at 5:09 am

    Here’s a toast (or a smoke from Amsterdam) to Visual Soma!

    Reply
  3. leslee says:
    January 6, 2008 at 8:42 am

    I first assumed you meant the biological term, too. But it could work either way, I suppose. Have fun! Looking forward to viewing…

    Reply
  4. suzanne says:
    January 6, 2008 at 11:24 am

    I knew
    immediately
    you meant
    the psychotropic!

    Reply
  5. David Harmon says:
    January 6, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    Very nice! And yeah, those are kinda trippy….

    Reply
  6. Dave says:
    January 6, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    Thanks, y’all. I should’ve said that I was also influenced by “somatic,” inasmuch as the sorts of photos I’ve been featuring and would like to continue to feature there take a sort of tactile, texture-rich approach to imagery. Quoth the Wikipedia:

    In the philosophy of education, certain ideas that have to do with the body and the mind have been called somatics. According to the originator of this usage of the term, “somatic awareness allows a person to glean wisdom from within”. The usage of somatic as put forth by Thomas Hanna implies a truly integrated mind/body/spirit nature of humans. Thus far, the popular usage of this term has not fully realized this meaning, and a mind-body dualism still often occurs in disciplines describing themselves as somatic.

    Reply
  7. Dave says:
    January 6, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    tactile, texture-rich approach to imagery

    Ack! And I call myself a poet…

    Reply
  8. MB says:
    January 9, 2008 at 7:16 pm

    Some nice work there, Dave.

    Reply
  9. Dave says:
    January 9, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Thanks, MB.

    Reply

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