Pasadena Pictures

a blog by
Zach Urbina
[bio]

my recent stuff

  • Los Angeles I'm Yours
  • Tecca
  • narrative nonfiction
  • photography
  • public talks
  • NYC videos
  • LA videos

    stuff I found

  • brilliant
  • instant vintage
  • art
  • literature

    personal passions

  • New York City
  • science & technology
  • my public library
    Zach Urbina on Twitter Zach Urbina's YouTube channel


    more of my published writing

  • The Awl
  • Epic Magazine
  • Lifeboat Foundation blog
  • 944 Magazine

    clubs I belong to

  • Lifeboat Foundation
  • Service-oriented architecture
  • Hudson Union Society

    blogs I read

  • the New Shelton Wet/Dry
  • Burning Settlers Cabin
  • the New Inquiry
  • La blogothèque
  • Nieman Journalism Lab
  • xkcd
  • Sunset Gun
  • Prospero
  • Unremitting Failure

    write me sometime
    I'd love to hear from you

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    • Do you mind if I ask why you've given up photography?

    murmurandshout

    Yeah, so, my personal tendency is to treat my hobbies, interests, and areas of focus like a chemical substance.  To get deeply, obsessively, and borderline addictively attached and involved with them.  I’d been shooting photos since I was 13.  Canon AE-1, 35mm film.  Over time, photography became  common, unoriginal.  Everybody on social media taking pictures, either with nice professional DSLRs, decent prosumer DSLRs, or just instagram, all of which are fine.  But if you truly achingly believe that what you have is different and special, the realm of photography is not the place to receive validation.  Not now, anyways.

    I also believe that the digital immediacy of photography gives way to a desire for the tiny red flag of validation; be it Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.  There’s that old experiment that was performed on kids whereby they were offered one Twinkee immediately, or, if they waited, two Twinkees a bit later.

    Kid A would grab the immediately available Twinkee and devour it, but kid B would think more carefully, forgo the one Twinkee, and then have two later.  Follow-up testing revealed that the kid Bs of the world went on to far better lives, jobs, etc.

    That single Twinkee, for me, is photography.  Friends, family, strangers, people in general love immediately available and digestible ideas.  Hell, look at the proliferation of memes across all branches of the web.  But kid B, he knows that there’s more satisfaction in waiting quietly, of passing up the easy thing and accepting later substantially more deliciousness, in lieu of something quick and easy.  I tend to think more like kid A, but I believe, with a slight bit of tweaking and the proper conditioning, I can act more like kid B.  Kid B is all about the writing, about building out a business, about sowing seeds and having faith in a later harvest.

    Notes

    1. murmurandshout said: In that case, I wish you luck.
    2. pasadenapictures posted this
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