Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
The timing for Today’s Photos couldn’t be better because the NY Times came out with an article on photo weblogs, and the new genre called “Fotologs”. Featured is a site devoted specifically to photos, Fotolog, where one can upload photos with captions for people to review. Unlike word-based weblogs, these fotologs are pictorial, primarily — though the photos can tell a story if one wishes.
What I particularly liked is the international flavor of the fotologs — more so than weblogs, which do tend to be US centric. And since all the sites are photography based, not knowing the language is not a problem. I, of course, had to try it out, and my new fotolog is here.
Will this take off? I’m sure it will — rather than going to all the trouble of writing about what one has for lunch, one can take a snap of it and post it online. Cut through all that wordy crap, put aside the spell checker, not have to worry about finding the right adjectives.
However, the effects of the fotologs can become a bit numbing after a bit, as the Times reporter found:
After a while all this intimacy got a little alienating. I needed some fresh air, air that hadn’t been photographed and posted.
What a wonderful way of looking at too much online intimacy, not just in fotologging, but also in weblogging — we can literally smother our readers with unedited, unconcealed, unrestrained, and uncontained intimacy. Another lesson to the book in exploring our digital selves.
I am reminded of a Galloping Gourmet episode I saw long ago. Graham Kerr was making a very rich desert with tons of cream and sugar and expensive sherry. Before he poured the custard like sauce in a serving glass, he placed a slice of apple in the glass first. He said that the apple was to help cut the richness of the desert — too much richness and rather than be pleasing, the effect becomes overwhelming.
One could say the same about weblogs, and now fotologs.