consumptive.org
James Luckett is an American expat living in Tokyo. His weblog, consumptive.org, is a valuable source for photographic links and for what it is like to live in Tokyo.
Weblogs Archives
July 10, 2002
July 24, 2002
Blogging
Informationweek has an article about blogging. True to their style, all they care about is that "web journals could have business value." Needless to say, that is a pretty sad statement. But it follows the general transformation of the internet from a big source of information and human interaction to a gigantic shopping mall with streamlined contents provided by the very same media companies who already control all the other media. Contrary what those Informationweek people think, there's more to blogging than just being an "independent information entrepreneur." What's more, they don't realize (or want to realize) what the obvious limitations of blogs in terms of journalism are. But when you find snippets like the one about "the left-leaning, biased media" you know where they're coming from. And you can guess what they're after. The "independent information" they're after is the one which exactly serves their sole purpose, namely to make money and only that. Pretty disgusting.
September 10, 2002
newphotography.co.uk
I found newphotography.co.uk on consumptive.org. It's a weblog with lots of "blurry" photos. Needless to say, I love it.
January 5, 2003
Spitting Image
James Luckett not only runs the fabulous consumptive.org weblog but also one called spitting image - which is all about images and whatever else is cool. The other day, he asked me whether I wanted to sign up - there are a few more contributors already. I certainly wanted to, so if you find the time go and look at it. It has a lot of cool stuff.
If, however, you found your way to this weblog via either consumptive.org or spitting image - which is way more likely given the obscurity of this one here - then I certainly hope you'll enjoy 'conscientious', too!
March 27, 2003
Weblogs
In an article about weblogs and news during wartime, the German weekly Der Spiegel notes how hard it is to find the truth about the war - despite (as probably most people would argue) or because (as is getting more and more apparent) of all those weblogs. I haven't seen a single unbiased weblog - and this includes in particular the overhyped and overrated The Agonist. I guess we'll have to wait until after the war to find the truth somewhere, when courageous journalists start to investigate what really happened.
July 23, 2003
Two Photologs
It's about time to point to two photologs. Zabriskie Pt. is a pure photolog with lots of quite unusual photos. deFocused is a photolog for all those who love it blurry, and there also is the occasional link to other sites. Check 'em out.
August 4, 2003
Bill Maher's Weblog
Bill Maher has a weblog: "President Bush is off to a month-long vacation at his Crawford, Texas ranch. What is he, French? Americans dont take month-long vacations or if they do, they spend them behind the wheel of a Winnebago. This will be what they call a 'semi-working vacation' for the President, which means hell get a daily briefing, attend some fundraisers, and maybe do some light conniving. But no big lifestyle change, really. Instead of formal deception on a national level, hell just be lying around the house."
August 7, 2003
Two weblogs to look at
Two more photo weblogs to regularly look at: eye-imagine.co.uk and pretty serendipities.
August 14, 2003
Speckled Paint
It's probably a fair statement to note that I've lost the plot as far as weblogs Speckled Paint and Solipsistic (or The Solipsistic Gazette) are concerned. Maybe somebody can fill me in. Anyway, I'm pleased to see that the former is up again.
August 28, 2003
The dullest blog in the world
There is an official "dullest blog in the world". On the other hand, I'm tempted to think that competition is quite tough. Many other equally dull weblogs are less terse, though.
September 7, 2003
fiatvera
For various reasons, I have neglected the photolog scene here and I think it's time to look for the gems. I can't really tell you what those gems look like - I got a pretty good idea what they do not look like - so this is going to be anything but easy. Let's start with Albert Song's fiatvera. Albert also lives in Pittsburgh but, you know, that's hard to tell from the photos - especially since like in any other US city they're very busy building strip malls and condo complexes which basically look like any other strip mall and condo complex in the country. Strip malls, condo complexes and The-Gap clothes really are the Mao uniforms of US capitalism. Of course, something like this is a complete shame for a city like Pittsburgh with such an amazingly rich architectural heritage. Oh well, I'm digressing...
September 29, 2003
fishbucket and swen's weblog
Did I ever tell you to check out the fabulous weblog fishbucket? I didn't? Well, then I'm doing it now. Those of you who like music should add swen's weblog to their lists of bookmarks!
PS: Does anybody know what happened to iconomy?
PPS: Check out a most curious marmoset...
November 10, 2003
carte blanche pedicure
carte blanche pedicure just got re-designed and re-located. If you haven't had a look at it before now's the time!
November 13, 2003
consumptive.org
Having solved lots of technical problems - computers make life so much easier, don't they? - consumptive is up again.
November 19, 2003
Spitting Image
spitting image, another weblog I have been contributing to, is back. Unfortunately, all the old entries are lost, but there'll be lots of new ones.
December 1, 2003
Grid blogging
Ashley B initiated something she called grid blogging, "a group of bloggers tackling a specific topic on a specific day/time. [...] Temporary in nature, the first grid blog is set to happen today. The topic is the 'brand'." It seems like there'll be lots of contributions - you can find a list of participating weblogs here.
December 3, 2003
Dublog and iconomy are back
December 19, 2003
Happy Birthday, Consumptive!
I almost forget: consumptive.org - the weblog that inspired this here - is a toddler now.Three years! Happy birthday!
January 20, 2004
Camembert Magique
Time to brush up your French and to look at some nice photos: New weblog Camembert Magique Photolog by Nicolas Cuissard (don't panic anyone, it's bilingual!).
January 25, 2004
coincidences
I like Robert Mirani's photography weblog coincidences a lot. It has easily become my favourite photography weblog with tons of interesting entries. Make sure you re-visit it if you haven't done it already.
January 28, 2004
sublimate
sublimate is one of those weblogs that I should have linked to a long time ago.
February 1, 2004
Why blogging?
Why do people write blogs? Blog Heart @ Work's editor Lois invited other bloggers to write about it. Go and read it, it's quite interesting.
February 2, 2004
Digital Photography Blog
If you're into digital photography you might have detected a certain bias here. This author isn't exactly drooling every time some company announces yet another cooler better more sophisticated digital camera - that, a few months later, will then be soooo yesterday. I feel photography is not how you do it but, rather, what you do. This was one of the reasons why I started this blog. If you buy pretty much any photography magazine - apart from the ones that specifially cater to niches - you're in for a big disappointment if you don't use a fancy SLR with tons of equipment. And if you're looking for contemporary cutting-edge photography you really need to buy a(n import) European art magazine - or visit this site (just kidding).
Anyway, if you're interested in digital photography and especially in cameras or books or whatever else it is that's exciting about digital photography you might want to check out Visually Speaking, a blog about digital photography.
February 9, 2004
Don Brice's weblog
Professional photographer Don Brice does a lot of "toy camera" photography, mainly with Diana cameras. He has his own weblog where he's showing lots of his photos and talking about how he is doing them. Recommended - regardless of whether you use the Diana or not.
February 19, 2004
evenings on the lake
Check out photography weblog evenings on the lake.
March 3, 2004
Two Photoblogs
There gotta be a few good photoblogs out there, I thought today, and I started looking for them. Of course, it's hard to define what "good" means - as usual, it's all a matter of taste. Anyway, I came across making happy which has a nice mix of panoramic and Holga photos, plus some explanatory words along with them. chromasia's photography is different but nice, too.
March 30, 2004
neurastenia
Check out eye candy neurastenia.
April 15, 2004
coincidences (again)
I have mentioned coincidences before. If you haven't looked at it go and do it now. There's a lot of photography to be seen there that you won't find here. For example, in general I am not very interested in fashion photography. I also cover the purely commercial sector (by "commercial" I mean mainly editorial stuff) sparsely because most of the stuff bores me. coincidences has regular features on that kind of photography. Oh, and Robert is also a much better writer than I am.
May 4, 2004
gmtPlus9
Even though I pulled a few links from it already I never talked about one of the finest art-related weblogs around, gmtPlus9. If you've never gone to look at it do it now! I don't know how whoever is behind the weblog manages to find all that stuff - it's truly impressive!
May 7, 2004
phototalk
phototalk is a photography weblog that I came across the other day. A lot of stuff to read, a lot of information about all kinds of professional photography. Check it out!
May 13, 2004
Photorant
May 29, 2004
Expose
Expose is a new weblog about photography. It's good to see that photo addicts can now shop around. And, hey!, Expose starts with an "e"!
June 1, 2004
AK47.tv
June 6, 2004
Conscientious' first 1,000 entries
It's, well, anniversary time here at Conscientious with a total of 1,000 entries so far - at least that's what my computer says. I yet have to go through the uncategorized entries and maybe do a bit of pruning here and there but 1,000 entries are still 1,000 entries. Thanks are due to everybody who has contributed one way or another to Conscientious. I'm sure that if I attempted to compile a complete list of those people I'd forget some. So let me just thank James for the inspiriation, Mark, Jimmy, and many others for the support, and Stan and especially Tobias for sending in suggestions and links.
June 23, 2004
Alternative Photography
Check out today's post on coincidences for a fairly interesting set of photographers doing alternative (non-standard) photography.
June 25, 2004
The Branding of Polaroid
The Branding of Polaroid is a weblog by Paul Giambarba, "the man responsible for Polaroid's identity and packaging back in the sixties and seventies."
July 16, 2004
Matt Balara's PolaroiDiary
Matt Balara's PolaroiDiary is the ultimate "fotolog": The photos are all taken with a Polaroid camera.
July 20, 2004
eye-imagine.co.uk
Check out eye-imagine.co.uk.
July 31, 2004
the space in between
the space in between is a new weblog, created by Stacy Oborn. Stacy has an M.F.A. in photography so (unlike yours truly) she knows what she's talking about!
(found on consumptive.org)
September 16, 2004
consumptive.org - an update
One of the finest weblogs has been morphing into a new shape: "consumptive is back. a lot simpler, a lot more blank." James said that he would "update with something new every week or three - the sort of things you'd see if you were to visit my studio or look through a sketchbook, except that i don't have a studio or sketchbook. i just have this website." - and this is what he did. Check it out.
September 26, 2004
"Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail"
Today, the New York Times Magazine featured an article about political weblogs (note that depending on when you try to look at it it might have already disappeared in the commercial archive - at the time of this writing, it hasn't). Unlike Conscientious, major political weblogs get thousands of visitors per hour and actually make money using ads. However, they tend to have a vastly lower signal-to-noise ratio (or maybe that's just me).
Continue reading ""Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail"" »
October 29, 2004
BZKMag
November 29, 2004
orbit1 photolog
I very rarely look at or link to photologs. One the best - if not the best - photolog I am aware of is orbit1, which I pointed out earlier. Having looked through it again today I feel I need to repeat my recommendation to look at it.
January 5, 2005
Losing December
A fine photo blog with tons of nice photos: Dave Jackson's Losing December. I especially like the first set of the 'December 04' photos.
(thanks, Tobias!)
January 12, 2005
Shutterbug about Photo Blogs
There's an article about photoblogs in Shutterbug. I haven't been talking too much about the kinds of photoblogs mentioned in the article so if you're curious go and read the article. I think I've said this before (but I'll say it again): I find that most photoblogs - apart from a tiny number of exceptions (for example John Perkinson's orbit) - are really not very interesting in terms of the photography. Photoblogs actually discourage what is most important in photography, namely editing one's work, and that shows in most photoblogs.
February 7, 2005
pretty serendipities
After a hiatus of about a year, Elena Karo's pretty serendipities is back.
February 11, 2005
"Blogs vs. Mags"
There are a few interesting points in this article (and discussion) about the role of blogs. I have never wasted a moment of my life on thinking about what the role of this blog is, whether it is competition for photo magazines... well, OK, that was a lie - unlike most American photo magazines this weblog is not a glorified catalogue for the latest photo gizmos that throws in a few photos to keep some facade up; and I'm actually proud of that - even though it also means I'm not seeing any money for my efforts.
Money obviously - what glorious times we live in! - is one of the big criteria used for the arguments, even though I am very tempted to think that at least for a photographer there is more to the art than making money (easy to say if you don't make one!). Which brings us to some sort of divide: There are blogs like this one, run by hapless amateurs, and blogs run by people who make every effort to tell their readers over and over again that they're journalists. I guess the discussion mentioned above is more about the latter blogs.
However, I'd be more than willing to argue that many of us amateurs can easily compete with what the self-proclaimed pros have to offer. But in the end, the final decision rests with the reader; and boring the reader with long rants about the role of weblogs might not really be the best thing to do.
February 15, 2005
Nick Kilroy RIP
March 30, 2005
"Photobloggies"
The photoblog community now has their "Photobloggies" - a well... best of where you can vote for your favourite photoblog. Or not. As it says "Nominations are open to everyone" but "Voting in the finalist phase is open only to the finalists themselves". I guess they couldn't possibly make that more self-congratulatory, could they? (Sort of reminds me of the electoral college...)
Update (22 March): The finalists have been posted and you can vote for them. Yes, that's right, they changed the rules. Conscientious endorses orbit1.
Update (30 March): For once, Conscientious endorsed the right candidate. orbit1 was voted "Best American Photoblog" and "Best Studio Photography of a Photoblog" and "Best Portrait Photography of a Photoblog". Conscientious also announces the winner of "Best Awkwardly Named Categories in a Blog Competition", it's.. well, what do you know... "Photobloggies". Congratulations to all!
April 8, 2005
PDNedu
"PDNedu is a print and online publication produced for the student photo community. We were founded by Photo District News magazine in 2002."
April 12, 2005
Happy birthday, Andrew!
Andrew, creator of the amazing gmtPlus9 weblog, celebrates his birthday today. Happy birthday, Andrew!
If you've never visited his weblog there's something for you to do while Conscientious is dormant for a week!
May 5, 2005
Why blog?
I just discovered a series of very interesting interviews that Melanie McBride (of chandasutra) has been conducting with bloggers, some of whose blogs I have been reading for quite a while.
June 20, 2005
jonZfoto
There's a new blog jonZfoto, which deals with different aspects of photography and culture. Those familiar with the cassandra pages definitely might want to check it out (even though I bet they already have).
June 21, 2005
Things you didn't know about this weblog
I participated in the MIT weblog survey.
Continue reading "Things you didn't know about this weblog" »
June 29, 2005
Worksongs
As regular visitors know, I rarely - if ever - link to photoblogs for a variety of reasons. But I'm more than happy to make the occasional exception to the rule, if I come across something special. Worksongs contains quite a few very interesting photos (those who wonder what I am talking about might want to start here and click on "Prev" to look at more).
(Thanks, Tobias!)
August 2, 2005
Photo/Art Blogs
If I was to invent a product "Instant Art Scene" it would contain a bag with some powder in it, and after you pour hot water over it, it would result in a smallish group of people who only talk to each other or to people wealthy enough to buy art, using mostly code - a language that makes only limited sense in the real world. Of course, I'm just kidding. Anyway, there are some interesting art blogs out there, written by professional art critics (as far as I can tell), and it's always worth checking those out. I just discovered Edward Winkleman's blog, check it out!
The term "photo blog" is often used for blogs where people post their own photos. As is obvious, this - and many other - blogs does not fit into that category. You could probably start a discussion about whether blogs like this one are meta-photo blogs but I don't want to be mistaken for belonging to an art scene (kidding again). Somewhere in between are blogs like Martin Fuchs' who is "currently doing a 6-months internship at the renowned photo agency Magnum Photos in their New York City office" (sponsored by Canon - now there's an idea for me! however: why would anyone want to sponsor this blog?). If you're interested in what's going on at Magnum and what it's like to be part of that crowd, have a look at Martin's experiences.
February 13, 2006
1mag3
It's about time to point out 1mag3, a beautifully designed weblog with lots of links to interesting photography. Reading through it, I realized (yet again!) what a silly name choice "Conscientious" was: People keep misspelling it. I really should have opted for something simpler!
February 24, 2006
'Meet Me In Ataxia, Baby'
If you feel like discovering a good photo/art/life related blog visit Meet Me In Ataxia, Baby. I have no idea what "Ataxia" is, and I'm beyond the age where sober people would contemplate calling me "baby", but Ms. Ragna's blog is one of my daily must-read's. Maybe it'll be yours, too.
July 27, 2006
éclectique
There's an exciting new photoblog in town, éclectique, written and compiled by Taylan Özdere.
September 7, 2006
More weblogs to watch
I'm sure most of you are already aware of these following two blogs. First, there's Alec Soth's blog, all new and sparkly. And there's Christian Patterson's blog, not quite as new (but newly added to my links here, on the side), but about as sparkly.
October 12, 2006
Critial Mass? Critical Mass!
I have the feeling that blogging about photography - not to be confused with photoblogs, where people regularly post their photos online - has now reached critical mass. To be honest, I was a bit pessimistic a few years ago, when there was but a small number of blogs like this one, many of them even disappearing with time. But now, with so many high-profile photographers having their own blog, things appear to have changed - I am actually worried about losing track of all the blogs! Now that is a problem I enjoy having!
October 23, 2006
Overheard Starbuck
Overheard Starbuck is all about what Christopher Guest is interested in: "I am interested in the notion that people can become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They're so earnest about it."
December 14, 2006
American Photo's Photo Innovators of 2006
American Photo's list of Photography Innovators of 2006 features bloggers (including this one) - it really looks like photo blogs (like this one) have finally become a part of the photo world that is accepted. I am quite pleased about this, since one of the things that has made me spend lots and lots of hours compiling this blog was/is my belief that the internet can contribute a lot to making cutting-edge contemporary photography more widely known.
December 31, 2006
Yeah But No - You Can Finally Talk Back
I received many requests for comments to be enabled. I have had a whole set of reasons why there were no comments, some of which technical, others non-technical. This blog is using a somewhat outdated version of Movable Type, and - unlike most other people - I am not willing to replace something that is working very well with something else that might (or might not) be working very well, especially since it would take too much of my time. So commenting on posts will be done in a somewhat different way - namely at Yeah But No. For many - but not all - posts there will be a link to a comment post at Yeah But No like this one:
Comments...
January 4, 2007
'Shoot It, Blog It, Share It'
January 8, 2007
Getting down and dirty in the blogosphere brawl
"I'm not convinced, though, that what might politely be described as 'robust' debate on the blog generates light as well as heat. The internet has always licensed people to be far ruder than they would in a face-to-face encounter. [...] Many of the people who post on blogs appear to be annoyed not by what the writers say so much as the fact that they're in a position to say it. [...] The most belligerent voices on the blogs speak with either a weary, condescending sneer or a florid pomposity redolent of Ignatius J Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces. If, as they imply, their taste is flawless and their intellect mighty, then perhaps they could find a better use for these prodigious gifts than taking potshots on websites." writes Guardian critic and blogger Dorian Lynskey
January 9, 2007
Do we always need a spectacle?
For some people, the internet has the same effect as beer: The higher the consumption, the lower the inhibitions and the higher the wish for a cheap spectacle. Needless to say, this is not all that different from TV, with the notable exception that while no one really cares if you yell at your TV set, on the internet you can tell everyone what you think. And this is exactly where it sometimes gets a bit iffy (see, for example, this article that I just linked to yesterday).
Another current example is provided by what has now been inflated into a "Trump versus Rosie" spectacle (if you don't know one - or maybe even both - of those people don't worry, you haven't missed anything important). A while ago, on his blog Alec Soth commented on the photography coming out of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, asking Where are the people?. This caused a flurry of comments, eventually leading to Robert Polidori leaving a comment (which frankly left me somewhat startled) and Alec posting another entry with a clarification. Here's the key quote from it: "Just to be clear, I never said that Polidori (or the others) did anything wrong. I didn't criticize the use of beauty and certainly did not suggest a moral failure. My point was quite simple. 'While it is worthwhile to see the architectural devastation of New Orleans,' I wrote, 'I also want to see the people - the lives actually living in this mess.'"
How is this not absolutely clear? How does this look like there is some sort of "skirmish" going on? How does this justify turning a discussion about a very interesting topic into a "Trump versus Rosie"? What is being gained from turning this into the kind of freak show that we now appear to be mistaking for "culture"?
PS: Also see another article from a Guardian blogger.
The Fabulous Mrs Deane
February 1, 2007
' Who's Afraid of Tyler Green?'
In an extended post, Edward Winkleman discusses what art blogs are, what they are not, and what this means for their relationship with discussions of art in magazines (aka the standard media). It's an interesting and important read. I personally am a bit weary of those kinds of discussions, though, especially since they often involve bloggers telling the standard media why they are doomed (a curious statement, often based on a combination of wishful thinking and outright delusion) or the standard media taking cheap swipes at what they consider to be flaky journalism (ditto). Much to his credit, Edward steers around this, and quite elegantly so.
March 12, 2007
Germany discovers the smoky loft (or not)
Well, what do you know! The current (March 2007) edition of German photo magazine Photonews features a long article about photo blogs entitled "The smoky loft" (actually, it's called "Das verrauchte Loft"), which, sadly, is not available online. So if you're here because you saw the link in that article herzlich willkommen!
Continue reading "Germany discovers the smoky loft (or not)" »
March 14, 2007
Happy Birthday, kottke.org! (And Conscientious all tribal)
Überblog kottke.org is 9 years old today; and we are told that "writer and professional pundit Bruce Sterling has cracked bloggers with the extinction stick, saying the plebs will crawl back into their ooze by 2017." Because, what this here is - if you want to believe the pundit - is some sort of "tribal instincts of man passing down stories in an unregulated fashion". Well, what do you know - I thought the whole "tribal" idea was some sort of late 1990's fad! (And as always getretener Quark wird breit, nicht stark.)
March 20, 2007
The Sonic Blog
Right out of Düsseldorf, the oddly named German town that brought the world Kraftwerk and, through its art academy, some of the hottest photographers on this planet, comes the new Sonic Blog, a weblog about photography. I talked Peter, who maintains the site, into adding a brief English prefix to each post, so non-German speakers can enjoy them, too (but then the links are all in a different colour anyway).
June 4, 2007
My favourite photo blogs (and more)
I realize that the list of links on the main page of my blog is hopelessly outdated (in part because the new version of the blog, over at the new hosting, will have an updated list). But given there's such a large number of truly great photo blogs out there now I thought I'd lean out of the window a bit (hopefully not too far) and list my current favourite photo blogs (and more) here, with the list being hopelessly subjective (as always) and in some sort of order (or not).
September 4, 2007
Weblog News
Alec Soth's blog is one year old today. Happy anniversary, Alec!
Ch'ng Yaohong's Asian Photography Blog is a new, most welcome addition to the blog scene. With so much interesting photography coming out of Asia (and so much of it underrepresented in the West) it's great to see a blog devoted to it.
September 22, 2007
Prototypicality
"I'm looking for a democratic perfect image of myself. So it is up to you to give me directions how I should change my face and body." - Go and tell Monique Bergen Henegouwen what to fix next on her blog.
September 26, 2007
Horses Think - Ofer Wolberger's new blog
Ofer Wolberger emailed me to tell me about his new blog, Horses Think. Check out his great post about Candida Höfer's photography!
October 10, 2007
Richard Renaldi's Blog
Richard Renaldi is the latest newcomer to the blog scene - check it out!
October 24, 2007
Some thoughts about portfolio editing
Over at Exposure Compensation, Miguel shares some thoughts about portfolio editing.