bookofjoe

'Only a single figure is visible...'

"Only a single figure is visible: a man apparently having his boots shined. He is standing still while all of the pedestrian and street traffic moving around him fails to register on the plate because of the lengthy exposure time." — Robert Silberman, from the opening paragraph of his essay "Between Heaven and Earth: The Impact Photographs of Stan Gaz" in Gaz's extraordinary book, "Sites of Impact: Meteorite Craters Around the World."

As I thought about the sentence above — a description of one of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre's (1787–1851) earliest extant photographs (top), showing a Parisian boulevard as viewed from an elevated vantage point, it struck me that other people are in the photo — but they're invisible.

If sufficient computer power were brought to bear on this photograph, along with software capable of "rewinding" what's there, it seems to me it should be possible to extract from this picture a movie that, in real time, would last as long as the exposure did.

Watching that film, "... all of the pedestrian and street traffic moving around him..." would as if by magic appear as it was seen through the lens a century and a half ago.

The past can — and will — be recaptured, not just in words but in sight and sound, once the static recorded scenes of the past submit to the algorithms and subroutines of the future.

The 1838 photograph up top is Daguerre's "Boulevard du Temple, Paris," featuring possibly the first person ever photographed

(detail above).

bookofjoe on MySpace

Over fifteen years ago — on July 1, 2009 — I featured my MySpace page on boj.

You could look it up.

Up top, a screenshot from my boj post about it.

Create your own Myspace page here.

If you click on the link to my MySpace page, you get this.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Color Changing Umbrella Displays Bright Colors When It Gets Wet

From the website:

Our color changing umbrella comes printed with special ink: white when dry, multicolored when wet.

Why would you buy a normal umbrella again?

At best you will look cool, at worst you will confuse a generation of children into thinking rainbows are leaking color from the sky.

Simple white raindrop pattern transforms into a rainbow burst of color when the umbrella gets wet.

Features and Details:

• Lightweight, portable, super-tough, and durable

• High-quality mechanisms and soft-grip handle

• Carbon fiber struts defy the windiest weather

• Telescopic with matching slip-on carry case

• 40" diameter open

$28.99.