Flickr, Part 2.
..and the heart of my desires.
The real mindblower about my revisit to Flickr has been the viewing of my Flickr Favorites via the slideshow function. Tonight they have been rolling for what seems like several hours and now it is getting late. The impulse to write about them is gripping, but instead the silent computer cursor winks back at me waiting for my thoughts to take shape and I must declare that I am finding it almost impossible right now to describe the deeply visceral effect they have had upon me.
3 days have passed since the last paragraph and I am now convinced these Flickr Favorites are, in fact, a detailed map of my unconscious mind, a giant self portrait sourced exclusively through other people's photographs. They are filled with my private thoughts and secret wishes for photography. All of them are beautiful, miraculous and improbable images which I could not ever manifest for myself, yet believe all of them to be true. My Flickr Favorites are where art has happened for me, where I have found myself transported and my consciousness expanded. Where the edges of myself and my knowing has been pushed out into new creative territories.
Without a doubt, with 147 desktop pages containing over 14,000 photographs, my Flickr Favorites are a super highway back into my own history of seeing and the heart of my desires. During my 5 year experience of Flickr, between 2008-2013, they represent today my visual education there. They track and log every photograph that stirred something in me. Being able to track and see one's own favorite photographs online, and to view those of contacts too, feels fundamental for a photography platform - it speaks to the photographer's personal aesthetic and taste and a lot can be learnt from this, but no other platform that I am aware of has this feature and it's a shame too.
Viewing my Flickr Favorites is like traveling through a wormhole in which I have loved becoming lost. Jumping from one contact's Favorite list to another can take an explorer to far off corners of the space, sometimes lighting places which we might have preferred stay hidden from us. Other times these portals take us to new and inspiring discoveries which resonate with our own work and enrich our everyday lives, which, at the end of the day, is what it is really all about..
Never thought of Favorites as a travel into the unconscious. It seems very relevant to me. Favorites are another type of self-portrait. Maybe one type that is more revealing than the pictures the person shared in his/her name. For example, people who only likes very conventional hdr photos, people who only likes very dirty porn, people who likes many different things with an open mind and with a sense of aesthetic, people who blindly likes almost everything just to attract the attention back on themselves...
ReplyDeleteI also saw in my Flickr stats that most of my viewers come from other people favorites. That might be something specific with Flickr: a place where we discover artists through the virtual art collection of those artists.
I agree with all that you've said. I thought about mentioning the politics of making favorites, but avoided it bc it would take me away from my original points of interest. Perhaps in a future post as there is much to say about this too.. I do not have access to the stats as I do not have a pro-account, but I am sure viewing them is really interesting.
DeleteInterestingly enough, when I logged back in to Flickr after 5+ years long hiatus, I also first went through pages upon pages of my favorites and it was a strangely emotional experience. Then I looked up people whose work I used to follow and many had left the platform and it was a strangely sad feeling and then I searched some of them to see what they are doing now and a few have continued to photograph and have gained success (commercial and artistic) while many just moved on. And given COVID and all, I also wondered who may still be with us. All in all, many layers of feelings.
ReplyDeleteI have followed your flickr account and also your flickr pool "Altered States of Agoraphobia" . It's been a 'road trip' for me as I followed along looking thru your lens. And the journey continues.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jan, Yes, you have followed this blog from the beginning, I was reading some of your past comments here just the other day. I am planning another Flickr post about my ASA group. Stay tuned.
Delete