The Online Photographer

The news of the million-dollar spud photo just depresses me. Not for the reason you'd think; only because it makes my job redundant. I'm supposed to provide entertainment. How can I possibly make fun of that? It's like trying to make fun of the parlous state of American politics by pretending that some fatheaded bag of hot ego is in the running for President because he played a billionaire on TV. It's readymade self-parody. Nothing to add needed. I might as well go stand in line for unemployment. If Christopher Reeve were still alive, maybe people would vote for him for president because he's secretly really Superman.

I've been trying to research this for three days to find out if it's real. A collector pays $1.08 million (or some sum near to that) for a photograph of...a potato.

Appears to be the case.

All right then. What's wrong with a potato? Edward Weston took a very famous picture of a pepper, didn't he? And one of Paul Caponigro's great masterpieces is a photograph of an apple (which you can buy in the ideal 8x10 size for the spectacular bargain price—comparatively speaking—of $6,000). So why not a potato? Seems plausible in principle.

The cynic in me has a different notion. Imaginary scenario: a high-end portrait photographer adept at marketing to rich people sees a photographer claim to sell a nondescript photograph for $6 million, and notices that, in the process, said photographer gets priceless publicity—hundreds of millions of dollars' worth—all over the globe. Most of it negative, but still. So he contrives (somehow) to get a sympathetic supporter to replicate a subtly more plausible version of the same scenario. He then reaps free publicity all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of people who didn't know his name yesterday will know his name tomorrow. Genius. Ninja-level marketing move.

That can't be it, right? I'm just being cynical? A super-clever marketer adept at extracting hundreds of thousands of [insert name of currency] from the wallets of clients would probably have noticed the media's knee-jerk weakness and insatiable appetite for fake-outrageous stories to put up as click-bait. But to exploit that? I don't know where I come up with such zany ideas. I must have a suspicious mind.

And then some people will want me to post the photograph (no), repeat the guy's name (no), or provide a link to the story (no).

There are days when I just want to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep.

Mike
(Thanks to Coco at Jackson Fine Art for the pricing information about "Apple, NYC, 1964" by Paul Caponigro)

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Mark Roberts: "I'm just disappointed the potato photo wasn't an autochrome."

Mike adds: In case Mark's joke is too subtle even for TOP readers, autochromes, an early color process developed by the Lumière brothers in France, were made using potato starch.

Edo: "Small potatoes that is not. Somebody had to say it."

Bri: "Oh dear! As an fellow Irishman, I'm always having to listen to jokes about potatoes. Who's having the last laugh now!"

Gordon Cahill (partial comment): "Jealous much, people? Photographer photographs potato and puts print on wall. Rich person he knows sees print and offers a million for the print. Photographer decides to not look gift potato in the mouth. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, isn't it. Personally I'd love to have a potato shot I could sell for seven figures. I wonder if I can get $500k for that carrot shot I have."

Kosch: "I own seven prints of single vegetables and fruits that I have hanging around my house. I have paid decent money for each print. Of everything having on my walls, they are the ones I stare at the most. I derive pleasure from having vegetable and fruit prints on my walls. Thank goodness that art is subjective, and thank goodness some people have disposable income at varying levels. It keeps quite a few of us in lenses."

Mike replies: Maybe you could make Gordon an offer for his carrot shot.

Bill Tyler: "After seeing the potato photograph, I was inspired to make the greatest art non-work of my life. Inspired by John Cage's composition, 4'33", and informed by the sublime poetry of Bunbury, it is a non-photograph of a non-potato. Unmade on highly archival empty space, with no pigments, precious metals, or substrate, in an edition so limited that there are no actual instances, it is a masterpiece for the ages. The price? A mere quadrillion quatloos, payable in easy monthly installments."

Marcell Nikolausz (fiberstrobe): "It's actually not a bad potato photo and lit well."

Paris (partial comment): "I knew that autochromes were made from potatoes. Is there a prize?"

Mike replies: Yes! But it's a potato.

Just for the record, my New Year's resolution is to never binge-watch YouTube videos. If somebody sends a link to me, or if I have to, then just the one. One and done.

I can never get back all the time I spent on Bugdom and Angry Birds, but there is still hope for all the time I will probably waste on YouTube in 2016. I mean, there is stuff like this on YouTube. How insane is that? That is fantastic.

Yes, I know it's hopeless. But it's something to aspire to. And isn't that what New Year's resolutions are for?

Mike

"Open Mike" is the often off-topic Sunday editorial/personal page of TOP, where we allow our editor free rein. He almost wrote about Bill Cosby this morning, so count your blessings.

UPDATE Mon. Jan. 4: Really, I am going to have to beat my own brains out with a stick some day. Why? Because I drive myself crazy, that's why. In a nutshell, here is my life: yesterday—yesterday—I said it was my New Year's resolution to stop wasting time on YouTube. So what did I turn around and do? Rather than writing the Camera of the Year post like I was supposed to, I procrastinated all day...by watching more things on YouTube that very day than I probably ever have in my life. The entire Don McCullin Canon infomercial (for the second time); an hour on "The Making of Seinfeld" (why, Mike, why?); about an hour and a half of European jazz concerts from the 1960s, which I had to watch, not just listen to, because the visuals are so great; a recap of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 (got to that because I was researching the Offenhauser engine, and I cannot reconstruct why I was doing that); and half of a marathon snooker tournament match. Among other things. It seems the best way to get myself to do things is to decide not to. To thrash the famous John Lennon quote to shreds, my life in the end will amount to everything I've done while putting off all the things I ought to have done.

Yeesh!

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Dan: "Impossible. Russian dash cam videos are like crack...can't...not...watch...."

...New Year.

Best Wishes!

Mike

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Mark Walker: "Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! It's Welsh, have fun pronouncing it. All the best."

Manuel: "Feliz Ano Novo para todos. That's 'a Happy New Year for you all.' From Porto, Portugal."

Dave New: ".... .- .--. .--. -.-- -. . .-- -.-- . .- .-.  Samuel Morse."

To all my readers, regular and occasional, near and far, young and old, known to me or not—thank you for reading, and for your company, your loyalty, your comments and your kindnesses in 2015. And Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Satisfactory Solstice, Frank Festivus, or [insert greetings for holiday of your choice] to you in this season. Bless you, and may God, fate, and the dice of chance let you and your loved ones thrive throughout the coming year.

All the best,

Mike

P.S. The illustration is from the Classic TOP essay "In Memory of a Shutter-Bug (A Christmas Story)."

David Turnley, The Bolshoi Ballet

David Turnley, Muhammad Ali

• Today is the LAST DAY of the David Turnley Print Sale for this year. Prices go back to normal (i.e., up, up, and away) tomorrow.

• B&H Photo just announced FREE NEXT DAY SHIPPING until the 23rd.

• Happy to say that Keith Davis, the curator responsible for Multitude, Solitude: The Photographs of Dave Heath, has agreed to do an interview with us about the book (and you noticed, I hope, that we heard from Dave Heath himself the other day). We will get to work on that.

• Friend o' TOP Ailsa McWhinnie, founding editor emeritus of the British Black & White Photography magazine, for which I wrote more than 80 monthly columns, has posted on YouTube a fine video visit with Scottish landscape photographer Colin Prior. It's the first of what I hope will be a series of photographer interviews for Lee Filters. It's not often that editors step out in front of the camera! We tend to be behind-the-scenes sorts of people.

• It's also the last day to order Peter Turnley’s books Cuba: A Grace of Spirit and French Kiss: A Love Letter to Paris for delivery in time for Christmas. (At the links, scroll down for a two-book special.) (Both Turnley brothers kindly share a split with TOP.)

• Last but not least, LensRentals, one of my favorite companies—due mainly to the presence of amiable genius Roger Cicala in the wheelhouse—has kindly agreed to provide equipment to TOP for review. The first box of goodies has already arrived, but more about that later.

(Although I have to laugh—yesterday I wrote that "me renting equipment is a ruthlessly effective rain dance," and the box arrived just before darkfall last night...and this morning it is heavily overcast and, yes, raining. Three people will now tell me that they love to photograph in the rain—okay, but it greatly hampers equipment tryouts.) To quote photographer Paul Kennedy: "You know what they say: Oh well."

Mike

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Victor Bloomfield: "I got the Dave Heath book yesterday and spent most of the day going through it. It lives up to Mike's plaudits. The photos from the '50s and '60s are an intriguing blend—to my eye at least—of Robert Frank's The Americans and Harry Callahan's Chicago street photos, but at the same time very much his own. Heath was a really wonderful printer, and Yale University Press has done the prints full justice. The lengthy catalog essay by Keith Davis is informative, readable, and not burdened by excessive artspeak. And the book itself, as a physical object, is solid, well designed and produced; one of the most impressive photo books I've seen."

Richard: "Mike, when you lived in Wisconsin, my weather was a day behind yours. Now you live in New York, and my weather is a day before yours. When you wrote that quip yesterday about the weather, I looked out the window, and chuckled, cause I knew what you were in for."

As you read this post, cue up this music.

Strange things are afoot. For one thing, September was like August here, and Winter still hasn't arrived...we've had shirt-sleeve weather, and, in the middle of December, there's been some nice warm rain but no snow in Buffalo. This is what Winter normally looks like in Buffalo. (I live two hours east of there.) The average first day of measurable snow in Buffalo is November 5th, and the record for the latest-ever first measurable snow was December 3rd, set back in 1899. Two days ago it was 71°F there.

But I quote The New York Times:

Is El Niño good or bad?

Neither. It’s weather.

Which made me laugh. (That's kind of eerie too. The New York Times is seldom designed to make one laugh.)

Eerie event 2: I dug the Sony A900, an early full-frame 24-MP camera, out of the much-reduced camera closet yesterday, for a test I shall soon tell you about. But, in the box, no charger. So I went to the barn. From amid a sea of still-unpacked boxes, I went right to one of the boxes that is full of wires of every description. If you're not getting goosebumps yet, I then pawed through hundreds of wires and immediately put my hands on...the Sony charger. And, from a different box, an extra A900 battery.

If you don't find that odd, consider that what is more normal for me is to look for my glasses for ten minutes and then notice that they were sitting on top of the speaker next to the computer all along, not only in plain view but about 20 degrees off my direct sightline.

As strange as September in December.

Eerie event 3: Sports Illustrated named a woman, on her own, as Sportsperson of the Year, for the first time since Mary Decker in 1983. Richly deserved, too.

Eerie event 4: I'm going to report on another Sigma lens.

I know you're scared. Calm down. Deep breaths.

It's just that I try to be aware of my own prejudices, because only by observing and engaging with your mental habits and investigating dispassionately and objectively can you duel ignorance. I detected that I had acquired the habit of throwing off snarky and acerbic cracks and quips regarding the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG HSM Art lens which has gained such an enthusiastic following on the Web, and I decided I had better see for myself.

If there's one lens brand I've had a rocky relationship with over the years, it's Sigma, starting with an early aftermarket zoom that performed fine when it was new but deteriorated markedly and rapidly as it aged, prompting me to learn quite a bit about how build quality affects lens performance over time. Whether my bad experiences have been because of the brand's vexed and contentious historical relationship with quality, or bad luck, or some combination of the two, I know not. But, time for new data. I dialed up LensRentals in the address bar, and the Art lenses arrive tomorrow.

I said lenses, and therein lies another oddity. But I shall leave you in suspense.

(And it's sunny today—normally, me renting equipment is a ruthlessly effective rain dance.)

Try not to be freaked out. These are strange times.

Mike

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adamct: "Yesterday I slung my briefcase over my shoulder and prepared to head into the office. I opened the door to our 'shoe closet' and started looking for my black work shoes. They weren't there. In the place where they normally are, I only found a pair of my slippers. I checked in the mud room. They weren't there. I thought maybe I had left them in the bedroom, so I went upstairs and turned my bedroom inside out, but...they weren't there. Back to the shoe closet—no luck. I checked the kitchen, the bathroom, among my wife's shoes, among my kids' shoes, but...nothing. I returned to the shoe closet a third time. As I stood there wondering whether maybe the shoes were in my car, I noticed something with my peripheral vision. What I noticed, was...that I had my shoes on my feet.

"I often lose things (last week alone I lost my wallet, my passport and an important key), but I have never felt as stunned as I was in that moment, looking down at my feet in astonishment."

Mike replies: That really made me chuckle. And yes, I could do that. It's not age, either...I could have done it when I was 30.

Steve Renwick: "I work with the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer organization including (chronological) adults as well as teenaged cadet members. At the squadron meeting once, I asked a cadet, 'Cadet [Snuffy], have you seen the [important gizmo]? I need it for a presentation.' Cadet looked at me and respectfully said, 'It's in your hand, sir.'"

Mike replies: Funny. This is the kind of thing that makes older people seem like categorically different creatures to the young. Cadet probably tells that story on you. And Cadet might even recall that story once he's the age you are now and doing the same kinds of things.

I have to say I've been fascinated watching the decline of my own brain. It's actually very interesting. It has its consolations, though—I'm both wiser and more knowledgeable now than I used to be. And quite a bit more confident, in a quiet sort of way. An interesting tidbit I read once about the aging human brain: you're likely to get better at the things you were always good at, and worse at the things you were always bad at. I was always bad with numbers and with names, and...sure enough.  :-)

The Mayflower II on the open sea*

My brother's here from Providence with his family, and my best friend since second grade and his wonderful wife have come from Vermont, so, with a full house, I'm signing off until TOP's 10th birthday (Saturday).

With any luck, on Sunday I'll post Chapter Three of my Mastering Photography magnum opus.

Monday the sale starts.

This is my favorite holiday. I like being thankful. Nothing against being scared, exchanging presents, hunting for eggs, setting off firecrackers, or all the things all the other holidays are famous for. (I actually don't like firecrackers, but that's because I have dogs, not because I'm not patriotic.) There's something spiritual and pure about Thanksgiving.

Anyway, if you happen to celebrate this fine holiday, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! And see you soon.

Mike

*If anyone knows the name of the painting or the painter, please let me know! I couldn't find it.

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I was sitting at a table in a hillside vineyard restaurant the other day waiting for the TOP reader who was scheduled to be my third portfolio review client (more about those in a future post) when the mail alert sounded on the phone. It was from a reader in Italy, Massimo Cristaldi. The link showed a beautiful thing. As I read the page and watched the video sitting alone there in the restaurant, a big smile spread across my face.

Nine photographers, kindly citing my OC/OL/OY (one camera, one lens, one year) post as inspiration, had embarked on just such a project, together, with their own rules. They introduced a significant variation of their own as well, in that they meet together once a month to offer each other feedback and support—in their own words, "...we had a group meeting every month to discuss about those photographs. Put them all on the floor, touch them, feel, for real, face to face, not in the virtual world."

And, as I learned, they had mounted a beautiful show of their work in Catania, in Sicily. The show, which was part of their local Med Photo Fest 2015, was supported by Italian photography critic Pippo Pappalardo and attended by Mario Cresci, uno dei grandi maestri della fotografia Italiana*.

Here's the video, embedded with permission—

(The video was realized by Domenico Fabiano.)

Beautiful work, too. You can see the group's OCOLOY pictures (so far) at the Web page. Just scroll down.

Enthusiasm, camraderie, accomplishment—what a great pleasure to have been a small part of this. Congratulations to Emanuele, Massimo C., Domenico, Massimo P., Linda, Giuseppe, Francesco L., Francesco C., and Alberto, and thanks.

Mike
(Thanks to Massimo C.)

*Quoted from this page.

"Open Mike" is the off-topic Sunday editorial page of TOP. Sometimes it's not even off topic.

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Kurt Kramer: "Thanks for sharing this. It was inspirational. What a great collection of photographs.

"I started my OCOLOPOY last November 22. Shot every day 'til January 11, then I got the flu. That threw me a little bit and my frequency declined thereafter. Then in May-June I went to the Adriatic Coast on an 18-day trip. Shot with a different camera, and that further reduced my frequency when I came home. 

"But the habit was ingrained, and with one week until the anniversary of my start date I am still shooting 3-4 days a week with my One Camera and One Lens.

"This changed the way I shoot, and despite my inability to do it daily for a year, I am so pleased that you published your original 'Digital Variant' last fall and that I took it on. Having 5–10 colleagues for sharing and support would have helped, but it was nonetheless a great project."

Mike replies: Sometimes you learn as much from your struggle as from the exercise. I don't think total consistency is required for the exercise to be a learning experience. A great book title comes to mind—it's a golf instructional book and it's called Golf is Not a Game of Perfect. Always made me laugh. I guess the bad syntax has to leap out at you for it to be funny, but I think of it sometimes when I get discouraged (at anything...I don't play golf any more). Which is often.

When I quit drinking I was supposed to do "90 meetings in 90 days," and I tried my hardest...and hit 45 meetings in 90 days. But my imperfect attempt has been a success so far, after 25 years, and I'm glad I kept up the struggle with it at the time. I last went to a meeting a few Mondays ago.

Steve Caddy: "That was great. I rolled your OCOLOY and 'Leica as a teacher' lessons into one big one. The initial pictures were the worst I ever made; the ones at the end among the best. I have bookmarked several other of your suggested 'lessons' to attempt once my time is a little less dominated by small children, but I already owe you a great debt, Mike.

"Love the Golf is not a Game of Perfect concept. :-) "

Dave in NM: "That's a very talented group. Bravo!"

Solidarité

-

Members of our "community of interest" span many divides. We come from different countries, we're different ages, we speak different first languages, we practice different religions or no religion. But all of us know how it feels when another community we're a part of comes under attack or suffers a disaster or a setback. We often don't acknowledge these events here, only because if we mentioned them all, it would intrude too much on our friendlier talk; it's the reason why I don't write about every death within our community, as well—because then we'd be talking too much of death. Hurricane, forest fire, drought, plane crash, economic calamity, civil unrest or craven terrorist irruption—we might not talk about all of them but we note them with regret, and sympathize.

Our hearts go out to France; our support is with them. Remember the victims and their loved ones first. But have a thought too this morning for the plight of all the innocent and blameless Muslims within our community of friends, who are temperate and moderate and who would never wish such things done in their name, but who might now suffer threat or worse on account of the acts of others who dress like they do or come from the same places or use the same names for God. After the 9/11 attacks there were many incidents of misguided revenge in my country, and these helped nothing and proved nothing. They were crimes on their own.

If we are compassionate, now is the time for our compassion. Remember—now, when it's difficult to keep it in mind—that the worst of any group don't speak for the best of that group, no matter what the crime, no matter the claim.

We'll get back to regular programming tomorrow. I have some interesting and positive things to share with our community...all of our community.

Mike

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Kaemu: "As a Frenchie thanks for the kind words. My family lives in the neighborhood where the worst happened. My brother went to the Carillon many many times and my sister ate at Le Petit Cambodge on many occasions. They and their family are safe; not so for others we know. The January attacks happened in the same area. I knew some of the victims. Paris's motto is Fluctuat Nec Mergitur...it applies mote than ever."

[Fluctuat Nec Mergitur...translation: "Elle est agitée par les vagues, et ne sombre pas": "She is tossed by the waves but does not sink" (Wikipedia).  —Ed.]

Jérôme Buiret: "Merci."

Romano Giannetti: "One (former) student of mine has been killed in the attacks. So near...so young. But I think we should not even mention religion here. The religion of people doing that kind of thing has the same relevance, in my opinion, that the fact that Mengele was a medical doctor. Thank you for the mention."

Thomas Paris: "Thank you, Mike. And thanks everyone. My thoughts to those who died and to those who've suffered. I was glad, as I was walking the streets of Paris yesterday [Saturday  —Ed.], to see that there were just as many people in the streets as usual. People who looked like they just wanted to go back to their normal lives. I saw some people standing in front of two of the cafés where the shootings had happened, while others were standing on Place de la République, nearby, where a huge crowd had gathered after the Charlie Hebdo shootings, just a few months ago.

"All in all, while you could tell something terrible had happened, and people were not going to forget it easily, Parisians were telling the crazies they would not win. Thanks again everyone for your support."

A couple of days ago, on November 4th, Sotheby's held an art auction. On the block were 77 works from the collection of the late A. Alfred Taubman, the billionaire former real estate developer who bought the auction house in 1983 and nursed it back to health, protecting it from predators along the way. (Sotheby's is lately doing very well.)

Artnet wrote a fascinating article about the sale. The headline on the email (not the article itself) was "Weak Bidding Characterizes Sotheby's Tepid $377 Million Taubman Sale."

$377 million in one night and everyone's unhappy, apparently.

At issue were a number of underperforming offerings. The painting at the top, Picasso's Femme assise sur une chaise (1938), was supposed to draw $25–35 million and stunk up the room by stalling at $17 million and hammering for only $20 million including the auction house's premium. (Room was full of pikers, obviously.)

More satisfactory was Amedeo Modigliani's Portrait de Paulette Jourdain (circa 1919), which was forecast at the same $25–35 million level but "drew a volley of bids from all over the room before being hammered down for $38 million, or $42.8 million with premium." (Well, whew, finally, somebody with a little cash.)

So I was just wondering. Could the relative performance of the two sales have anything to do with the fact that the Modigliani is...dare I even mention this...a much better painting?

First, look at that Picasso. Look at it hard for a few minutes. Does it work, do you think? He was a great artist (visiting Mother and Child (1921) at the Art Institute of Chicago is a near religious experience—in fact, if you want to appreciate Picasso, the AIC is a great place to make a pilgrimage to), but to my eye he created a higher percentage of misses than many major painters. I've been trying to put forward for a while now (well, only in photography) the notion that the concept of a work of art isn't everything—it also has to be good to look at in some way. To my eye, Femme assise sur une chaise is one of Picasso's many duds, however impressive to the cool kids it must have been in 1938.

But really now—it's a rectangle of canvas with oil paint on it, and it looks more or less like the JPEG above, and it pulled 20 million dollars. Let those facts percolate for a sec. I'm just an Artnet reader, not an art critic, but my takeaway is that getting an admittedly paltry and pikerish $20 million for that eyesore ain't actually half bad, is it? I'd wager Taubman himself kept that one in the closet. If I were the sellers, I might consider myself pretty well rid of the thing. Off you go.

And that handsome Modigliani is another story altogether. It does seem to me like it's worth twice as much, indeed, on whatever scale we're using.

Mike
(JPEGs courtesy of Sotheby's)

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G Dan Mitchell: "This gets at something that is a basic (and obvious) issue, the question of how a thing that made its initial impression more on its newness and conceptual value will hold up when neither the concept or newness are longer an issue—will it simply work as art? I like Picasso, but in this case I have to agree with you."

Hans Muus: "Re 'The concept of a work of art isn't everything—it also has to be good to look at in some way.' Great! Made me laugh. And I couldn't agree more. (It needn't be easy to be appreciated as looking good, but that is another matter.)"

Photo courtesy John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Congratulations to LaToya Ruby Frazier, the only photographer to win a MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. "genius grant") this year. (She's also a videographer.)

(Here's the direct link to the above video on YouTube.)

She works to document what's happening in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh and the site of Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill. It's an American town that has lost 90% of its population and about the same percentage of its former prosperity and social order. (The Carnegie Library there, the first, is struggling to survive.)

MacArthur Fellows receive $625,000 over five years, no strings attached. Here's some insight as to how past recipients have handled their windfalls.

Mike

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Doug Howk: "Ms. Frazier is an asst. professor at the School/Art Institute of Chicago; and has published a book with Aperture. She appears to be an outstanding role model for her students."

Robert Roaldi: "What a pleasure it was to read the article about past winners. Decent good people doing decent good things; nice to know it happens."

Following the surprising news that The National Geographic magazine had sold its soul to the Devil, TOP spoke to the Devil.

TOP: I would have thought that a healthy non-profit with 6.8 million members and a long history of integrity would have been immune to your blandishments.

The Devil: I know, right? But you know, it's the hard ones where I get all the satisfaction.

TOP: How did you manage it?

The Devil: Super-simple. As always. It's amazing how well it works. Just dangle enough dollars in front of anybody and almost all of them will go for it. Somebody [winks] once said 'the love of money is the root of all evil,' but fortunately for me nobody listened. Very few, anyway. As I keep proving with all those evangelical pastors...little private hobby of mine I keep after for my own enjoyment.

TOP: And yet the money means little to you.

The Devil: Nothing. The money I paid for this one is a rounding error to my minions. Money only impresses people who don't have it.

TOP: Didn't the National Geographic Society have enough money already? I mean, I thought they were healthy enough.

The Devil: That's the beauty. They were. But a magazine's a magazine, and they're all scrambling.

TOP: The National Geographic's mission is scientific education. And yet you are rather famously all about about indirection, misdirection, trickery, false appearances, cant, and dissembling. How are they going to reconcile the disparity?

The Devil: During the negotiations, they told me 'This magazine has had soul for 127 years; we've never had any trouble with our soul; we're not going to have any trouble with our soul.' They just don't think it will be a problem, is all.

TOP: Is that common?

The Devil: Absolutely. Almost universal. Nobody takes it seriously. Until it comes time to pay, that is. They focus on the money they're going to get and allow themselves to gloss over what it might cost them. I just tell them, 'don't worry, you can continue to operate completely independently. You'll never know I'm here.'

TOP: Until one day they want to do another story on climate change, and...

The Devil: Oh, I'll let them do a few more. But they'll gradually come to understand just how evil I am, and how completely powerless they are in the face of my overwhelming dominance...

TOP: And then you'll put your foot down.

The Devil: I won't even have to. I'll just clear my throat. They'll back down... [chortles] 'completely independently.' I think the beauty of it is that so few people are really even aware of their soul.

TOP: Until they no longer own it.

The Devil: ...Until they no longer own it. With institutions it's surprisingly fragile, no matter how robust it seems and how much people take it for granted.

TOP: So will we see big changes right away at the National Geographic's magazines?

The Devil: Not right away. I'm evil, but I'm subtle.

TOP: This is sort of off topic, but I'm curious. Doesn't God have anything to say about any of your shenanigans?

The Devil: You know, He's more powerful than I am, granted, but He's just not as interested. How He works is that He's in everybody. He puts an awareness of His goodness and decency in everyone. And then He backs off. Do you ever hear from the guy directly? Never. He's not a leader. He's all about individuals. It's not like He couldn't fight me, it's that He wants you to fight me.

TOP: So He just lets the chips fall.

The Devil: Well, I now own The National Geographic. You've got to ask yourself, did you see that coming?

TOP: I see your point. Well, we could continue this discussion, Devil, but I'm getting an icky feeling. But thanks for talking to us.

The Devil: My pleasure. Been a great week. Onward!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

emptyspaces: "From one of the comments: 'So as long as NG stays away from anthropology, archeology, astronomy, biology, climatology, geology, geography, paleontology, history, religion (other than Judeo-Christian) they should be okay.' Give the Devil his due, I guess."

Jacques: "This one will be a TOP classic...!"

jim woodard: "Great explanation on how God works, Mike! And yes, so sad to see the beginning of the end for National Geographic!"

Ken Tanaka: "I, too, was discouraged but not surprised by this news. Circulation of their flagship magazine, like most magazines, must be fading, perhaps quickly. Their newer Traveler magazine has probably grown and maintained an audience but it must also be rather frail. (I've seen it offered as a freebie subscription with some museum and PBS subscriptions.) NG recently started a history magazine; I've enjoyed through its first the quarterly issues. (Lively McHistory articles!)

But it's clear that National Geographic's future is not going to be in magazines. Its days with a primarily educational research mission are also over. In an age offering few real mysteries about the Earth 'NatGeo,' as it now calls itself, has been slowly edging its way into thrill-o-tainment via its cable channels and other programs featuring Woo-Hoo event coverage.

"I also suspect that they're very concerned about attracting a younger audience. I've had season tickets to the 'NatGeo Live!' lecture series for several years. It's clearly a hit and seems to be growing each year. The good news: it's a quick sell-out here in Chicago every year. The bad: more than half the audience appears to be my age (61) or older.

"So National Geographic has big challenges ahead. I can only imagine the blood on the conference room carpet after their senior management debated this majority sale to Fox. I wish them well."

MikeInMKE: "And with that ignorant, misinformed and hateful rant, you've lost me as a reader."

Mike replies: I take it the intended humor did not make it through?

GKFroehlich: "OMG! I have been a lifetime subscriber to National Geographic magazine, literally—a childless great-aunt gave me a subscription when I was born, and it has continued for ~65 years. The article at the link indicates circulation was dropping. Well, this move just caused it to drop by at least one more! I will be cancelling my membership.

"One has only to survey the unmitigated crap offered by the Fox-controlled National Geographic TV channels to see the future, just as the Devil described it to you in his interview! There's a damned good reason the we used to have laws preventing a majority of media outlets being owned by only a few individuals. It seems most of the people I deal with already get their 'news' from Fox; now we face the prospect of those people getting their 'science' from Fox as well. This news ruined my week."

Mike replies: I'm very much in favor of the traditional U.S. laws—now gone—that once encouraged freedom of speech, healthy competition, and freedom from monopoly by sensibly preventing the centralization of media ownership.

Ed Grossman: "How long before Disney buys the Smithsonian?"

John Bohn: "I also, am a lifetime reader of National Geographic Magazine. That being stated, NG has been dead to me for over fifteen years. NG were among the first major publications to demand that freelance and contract photographers relinquish copyright ownership of work published in NG. Many very well known long time NG contractors separated from the Society over this rights grab.

"The last time that I read the NG masthead, only a single staff photographer was listed. To be sure of this, moments ago I picked up the current issue only to discover that NG no longer has a masthead! Enough said...."

I'm a little late getting on this, but today is Street Photography Day (Henri Cartier-Bresson's Birthday). The idea is to get out and find a photograph today, no matter what kind of photographer you are.

I have only this to offer—Lulu in the back hall / laundry room, snapped with the phone.

I'm not sure this counts. Then again, strict observance is optional. I hereby give you permission to celebrate Street Photography Day tomorrow, too, and the next day and the next day.

Mike
(Thanks to Jan Kwarnmark)

P.S. To put an image in our Comments, please use this code:

Where the bit in quotes is an image on the Web. Make sure the original image is not wider than 470 pixels wide, or it will be cut off.  —Mike the Ed.

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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