Big City Problems Reach Denton

It was a bad night for the Denton Police Department, but the good news is that the officer who was shot is out of surgery. I guess we will find out what happened to the bad guys by the time the evening news cycle rolls around.

This particular shooing happened perhaps a mile from my house, so my photojournalism hackles are up this morning, and still wondering … what ever happened to real photojournalism?

I was never a fan of ambulance chasing for the sake of chasing ambulances, fire trucks and cop cars, but news was news, and I have seen my share of dead bodies, and dying bodies for that matter.

In simpler times we programmed our handheld police scanners, and slept with them, like a techno-teddy-bear, turned down low, but just high enough to hear a fire call. I chased a lot more fires than officer involved anythings.

So I am looking to get back to reality in spite of the Generation-M’s who prefer pablum, and feel-goods where everyone gets a trophy. In this case, that means finding a police – fire scanner that works, and works and works.

M’s need to realize that there was a time when so many photographers were chasing news … we actually had to have credentials backed by our newspapers and issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Those credentials? They were like sacred text to us. You could lose just about anything, but DON’T LOSE that Press Pass!

Irons in the FIRE

Hey fans of photography! I saw a bumper sticker today. It said: Film is not dead. Really? I must have missed the notice. Film is IS dead. To say FILM IS NOT DEAD, is a lot like saying, “anything my parents believe is wrong.” Grow the fuck up.

Go ahead and make your living as a so called “artist, ” that shoots film. Get back to me when you’re living on the streets of Denton under an overpass, and I will come out and photograph you with my digital camera. Feel Free To Think.

Yes, film has a different, and barely distinct, set of technical values – late in the second decade of the 21st. Century. But will the typical viewer be able to distinguish between what I do digitally (assuming we print), and what you do on film? Well, they may notice you are showing your work on the inside of the open trunk of your ’63 Chevy, but otherwise? Hell no.

We live in a world where the still image decision makers have no clue, no education and no real interest in quality – that is at least the decision makers I know best. The downward spiral of mediocrity continues at an increasing pace …

For example. How many two year projects have you seen from the streets of little old Denton, Texas … Three year, five year? None. I am about five couches away from printing my book and accompanying images, “Couch Art; Denton Street Photography Volume I,” in 2020. Will there be copycats? Will the minions of maven-hood from local University of North Texas or Texas Women’s University’s photography perk up? Oh, hell no. We live in the era of, “If I didn’t do it, it didn’t happen,” and that is that. Thankfully, I don’t have to pander to the newly, and perpetually “educated.”

No, I have to pander to a completely different set of standards and principles. More about that later though …

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