Look at this list:
1. No ranting.
2. No politics.
3. No religion.
4. No reviews of contemporary films.
5. No nude photographs.
6. No blogs related to the day’s news events.
7. No profanity.
Now I respect Alex Waterhouse-Hayward for his mastery of photography. I’ve enjoyed reading his weblog since discovering he had one at Northern Voice 2008. And I can see that his policy of not wading into topics where people take sides, passionately, sometimes abandoning reason, lets him try to maintain a civil, tranquil space on the web. Maybe that’s good for him. But the world is messy. People have opinions. A few of those people are wingnuts. Its true, I’ve met some of them. And on occasion, woke up in the morning and looked at one in the mirror. So when I feel the urge to comment on things that might stir people up, I’m not holding back.
Dear Frog,
I find you comments interesting but not puzzling. I am sure that my blog’s ratings would go up in Technorati if I were to allow for comments. But I would like you to consider the following. Because I am a freelance writer and photographer I need to work to pay my expenses. This daily blog which I try to write well takes in most cases an hour per day not to consider thinking for random connections that will inspire me to write the next one. Sifting, filtering and or deleting comments from your “wingnuts” would take up too much time. I live in an era where my profession (magazine pphotographer) is just about extinct. Keeping my chin up takes a lot of effort. Reading some of the comments I have read in other blogs would not be good way of starting a day. The purpose of this blog besides the one of addressing my feelings toward my family has another important one. It is to relieve the pressure of living in an era when print magazines and newspapers are in a turmoil of change. In the height of magazine supremacy my photographs in a magazine or newspaper might have been seen my many hundred thousands. Viewers exceeded by far the number of people reading my blog. It is not attention I am after. When you work as a magazine photography and writer you want to tell stories. But such is the sorry state of this, until now traditional medium, that I feel frustrated in not being able to tell the stories I want to tell. I am frustrated in not being able to point out local (Vancouver) actors, artists, dancers and musicians that I think need more exposure. So what I do is to write about them in any way I want, at any length I want, in whatever style I want without fear of having to face some editor who will banish half the story on the editing table. The same applies to my photographs. I can crop them or not crop them to my heart’s content and put up as many as I want. The sheer pleasure that I get from this almost gives me the rush (one that I can never lose) of seeing one of my photographs on a magazine cover. This is always a thrill that feels as wonderful as the first time I had a cover so many years ago.
You will probably not like what I will now add. I do believe a bit in elitism. I do believe that opinions should be based on knowledge, research and experience. All of these three have been elminated from our present rush to publish our opinion on anything. I have no wish to read these opinions. If I were to add further things that I will not do with my blog it is to say that I avoid reading most blogs (I read about 4) and I particularly avoid the ones that open with, “I saw this Youtube that caught my eye…” I cannot understand how one can blog on the piggyback of someone else’s, (in most cases) poor quality video. I like to read my opinion in good traditional newspapers from columnists I respect and admire. Everyone is simply not for me.
On the other hand I must point out that when my photographs appeared in national and international magazines there was never any kind of reaction. “No message/replies were ever written” My photographs or articles went into cyberspace before it was even invented. I got used to it. Not having comments in my blog does not in any way feel any different!
Alex Waterhouse-Hayward