Goin’ Slow

Blogging, I’ve come discover, falls off my priority list pretty quickly when more urgent tasks demand my attention. It’s been more than two weeks since my last post, which is a good indicator of my very full life. So often I take on more and more personal and professional projects and sometimes lose track of the quieter, more therapeutic tasks that keep me focused and energized.

It is against this backdrop that I came across an interesting article by Tim Wu in Slate titled The Slow Photography Movement. For those of you familiar with the slow food movement, which encourages us to develop a more local, sustainable relationship with our food, Wu encourages those of us who enjoy photography to pay more attention to our subject than the photographic equipment we’re using. Digital photography, with its instant gratification and almost limitless capacity for storing and distributing images, can seem so immediate that we lose track of the meditative value of photography in much the same way as fast food has distanced us from the joys of a well-prepared meal. Wu’s advice is valuable and can be applied to a number of creative tasks that have become digitized and commoditized.

Now if I can just clear a few items off my to-do list, I’ll find some time to practice what I preach!