On this blog you will find thoughts on art with an emphasis on fine-art photography as well as reflections on the world as I find it…also examples of my photography and occasional articles in the ‘pages’ section.

 

Mark L Power from Hands of the Masters

Mark L. Power, Hands of the Masters

 

This is the third excavation of the Salt Mine. The first was a putative blog that didn’t know it was a blog, written from England in 2001-2, and featuring photographs and writings on photography. The second is my website (2005) which is useful but doesn’t feel particularly personal. You can find that at www.markpowerphoto.com. On the website there are many examples of my photography - it is a bit of a crammed closet. It has the disadvantage of not being able to show examples of my work that features text, not to mention examples of my many writings on photography. So now a third try, reborn as a blog cum website, and hopefully this will the fit that best fits!

I can do no less, seeing that even my children and yes, even two grandchildren, have their own blogs, notably my grandson Jashan, and my daughter, Shelagh. Their blog is at jashan.org. Shelagh’s husband, Apaarjeet ‘Chopi’ Chopra, the professional who generously helped me set up this blog, has many blogs beginning at bittennails.com and grandchild Ivan Power-Kronick, the wizard magician, has his own legerdemain at ivanpk.org. Now it appears another daughter, Nani, is about to launch her own blog - soon the only sound heard from this family will the click-clacking of many keyboards all going at once.

In the interim between excavations, I began a private blog in 2006. I did it privately so I could say what I wanted about people in my life without offending them. But the likelihood that it would stay private, that is to say, unread, and ipso facto, inoffensive as well, began to make the journal ( as I archaically called it)  a lonely place to be. There’s something about writing words you know will only be read after you’re dead has a certain chilling effect - and then there’s always the likelihood that they won’t be read at all, and then its not so much a chill as an experiential feeling of the uselessness of it all!

So now a blog and the one thing I don’t need in my dotage, and that is another learning curve! This digital age is enticing, not to mention seductive, but it stretches the aging brain cells with its constant demand for creating new synapses, new linkages in the neurons which have been fitfully flashing for some decades now. Only last month I had to re-learn how to use a computer because I made the switch from a PC to an Apple iMac. A topic I suppose which deserves its own posting so I’ll ignore it for now (and maybe forever!).

So welcome to the Salt Mine and I look forward to your visits!

 

Mark