A Few Updates About the Blog

I write. I don’t usually care about grammar or style–and if someone finds fault in it (and someone always does, be it Mrs. Wendell at my prep or an officious reader), so be it. That didn’t stop me from writing articles, blogs and diary entries, most of which are probably testaments of my innate fascination with Self. (I bet I would mutter myself to death if I were living in the Stone Age).

A year ago, I started writing what would latter become the foundations of this blog, a list of ten supericonic photographs. Among the complaints that I received for the list from my friends were that the photos accompanying them were not big enough, that the list was not informative enough and, most importantly of all, that I didn’t name their favorite photos as being iconic–which, in retrospect, was a sound idea because their top choices perhaps included Nick Nolte’s mug shot, goatse and Marilyn Monroe’s Playboy spread. But their complains helped start this blog.

I have a few apologies . One, the information on this site is not 100% correct. I do my research, but sometimes a few mistakes here and there do slip in. So, be warned–if you are doing your Ph.D. research this is not the place to start. Two, if a newspaper clipping or wikipedia blurb can express my thoughts better and more concisely, I use it. To some it may be plagiarism, but come on, give me a break–This is not an academic project and i use up my freetime on here, and sometimes, it is hard to come by.

To admit, I never felt comfortable about infringing copyright. Yet, I did it and one year on, only one commenter felt he should denounce my “shrine to copyright infringement”. I don’t derive any monetary gain from this blog, and make me lose a few precious hours which I should better devote to smoking, drinking and other activities that shorten my life.

I guess I usually shied away from controversy. There is no Abu Garib, no gory pictures coming from 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq and no pictures that could be seen as pornographic (Mapplethrope’s for one). However, sometimes iconicity and controversy are inseparable–Garry Gross’ Brooke Shields picture for instance. I posted about it months before Tate Modern controversy, which reduced the comment pages of this blog to an online equivalent of a lavatory wall. We still cannot have a discussion online without everyone concerned being reduced to offensive stereotypes and caricatures. I find it funny and sad that people who felt strongly to wage a moral crusade against the people whom they have never met (and will never either) instead of actually doing something about the issues concerned. Maybe it is just the signs of the times.

I don’t know how many of you who read this blog personally knows me, although I do see some commenters compared me to my illustrious father (a totally false comparison–I have neither his fluid writing style, his curmudgeonly jeremiads nor his girth). Thank you all for reading.

I think we have moved far (really, really far) from the title of the blog: Iconic Photos. The photos and events about which I blog recently may be newsworthy but iconic they were not. I have to admit that a year and some 600 posts later, iconicity is in short-supply and my free time also too. For instance, I squandered this week in Denmark working for a climate agreement that will never materialize. And next week, I will head off to Dubai for a business/pleasure trip that hopefully will be more relaxing and fruitful than this one.

Ciao. Happy 2010!