Beaudelaire And Heavily Scented Air

The task juxtaposition that occurs during my days is often humorous, well, to me it is.

I mean, today I had college coursework to accomplish, bread to shape and bake, turkey stock to craft, garlic to peel and dehydrate, and miscellaneous Mom tasks to do.

And soup to eat, I ate the heck out the turkey and rice soup that I whipped up.

But, as I sit here breathing in the Twilight and Blade thought-inducing scent of several dozen diced garlic cloves drying in my dehydrator, it is Beaudelaire that I find myself thinking of.

This morning, as I read the entire chapter in my art textbook on photography, I came across a quote from Beaudelaire calling photography,* "art's most mortal enemy." * It seems the poet thought that being able to capture reality would somehow diminish our ability to craft with imagination.

Poppycock.

To be fair, the poet could in no way know in his time of the mid to late 1800's of just what awaited the realm of photography. I mean digital photography alone has elevated the art of photography into something divine and surreal.

I mean, just think of just how cool a picture of Beaudelaire walking through my front door and getting hit with a wave of garlic scent that would make a vampire quite possibly burst into flame upon inhalation would be. The poet was in possession of a mighty proboscis, and a candid shot of him wrinkling it in garlic-overwhelming horror would be some art I would pay to participate with.

He was apparently an intense dude, so maybe he just came along too early in the timeline to get to see just how intense, imaginative, and all out awesome the art of photography could be. I feel for him.

Beaudelaire aside, today's reading about photography was a fun diversion. Most of my course work is upper level mental health and social work heaviness, and as much as I adore it, I enjoy having the delightful diversion that is my art class. Getting to spend the morning taking in Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Bill Gekas was a sublime treat.

I'm a very untrained photographer. Well, I have had some schooling. There was a time in my youth that I could be found in our school dark room, double exposing negatives and developing the most odd and sometimes macabre black and white photos in a dark room. I have a functional knowledge of how to use a standard 35mm camera, how to develop film, both black and white, and how to develop pictures. I actually miss doing that.

Most pics these days are of the digital variety, and I am most definitely a candid photographer with a touch of documentarist thrown in. I like to capture things in the moment of the story and focus on the things that might be getting overlooked. It's fun.

You know, fun like having your whole house smell like drying garlic for ten to twelve hours. At least I can mark myself safe from vampire attacks for the next day or so!

Ooh, a silver lining!