Instagramification

My minor obsession Saturday was "Instagram", as mentioned in the Dispatch. It's an app that allows you to take photos and instantly nostalgia-ize them by applying filters that make them black and white or like 1977-era Polaroids, or whatnot. Harkens back to my youth carrying a Kodak instamatic, trying to make art out of the commonplace using a commonplace instrument. The article claimed it made even banal pictures interesting, so I put it to the test by taking random photos of the traffic in front of me on a city road. It did seem to make them a bit more interesting. Modern art-ish, and with modern art you never need apologize for not having a point (or a lack of beauty).

Took pictures in the bookroom, of course, and of Sam, and of the dog. My usual pictorial subjects. "Instagram" could be of the devil, of course, given the inauthenticity. Suddenly modern things get that unearned patina of 1970s-era grace.

Everything looks "serious" and artsy-fartsy in black and white. View from patio.




Testing the limits of picture material. A drive in the rain, a city street, a perfectly banal transportational situation.




This was a picture taken of a picture. From a book on libraries, this one in Rhode Island.



Our dog, through the filter of the '70s imagery.



Cat scratch fever.



The boys in their colors.



In the bookroom.



Sam, arriving.



Wagon pulling.


Indoor wagon racing


Ready for action.


Looking at a book!



Our dog in black & white.



And with that '70s glow.