This recording of a fragment of David Foster Wallace's commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005 best sums up what I aspire to do in much of my photography. The world is filled now with amateur photographers with money to burn on expensive equipment and software and they pump out example after example of garishly over-processed "vacation" photos of beautiful sunsets, landscapes, and the like where technical quality is the only consideration. Lost in all this, I think, is the image as narrative, as story, and hopefully as art.
This, of course, transcends anything so particular as photography and has as its very point the whole of life. I for one think the water has gotten rather dirty of late. -- RJ.
(5/22/13) Update: The original link to this video has gone dry. I just found a replacement. Enjoy. - RJ.
(7/22/13) Second update: And now the replacement video link has been taken down. There are several versions of this speech on YouTube, but none as good as this particular one. Really, this video of this speech is not to be missed; it's much better than several imitators using his words on other videos. Check out this link to see the video at it's present location here. - RJ.