Visually Greedy

What constitutes great personal style? We tend to think that to achieve great personal style someone must have perfect clarity about who they are and what they stand for. I disagree. I think conflict about who you are often leads to ever greater expression. That is why young people, or the young at heart are those that inspire or move fashion forward. They are struggling to find themselves; "Am I a rocker?" A Jock? Or a little bit of both?" These contradictions produce the most interesting looks. I think most of us are stylish hermit crabs, we change our outershell to camouflage our way into certain social positions. We 'dress the part'. When you accept this idea, people/fashion watching becomes less about what that person is wearing and more about the elements of the look can mean to your own personal style. In a way, being visually greedy allows you to separate the personality from the 'look' and puts the pressure on you to figure out how to harness that stimulus instead of just grading others as 'pass' or 'fail'.

Snaps For Cameras

I want to be a photographer. I want to take pictures. Plain and simple. When I look at a photograph I instantly notice how it is an expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. I'm a beginner. I am definitely not pro material but who's to say who is pro and who isn't? One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photos out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photos out of focus are a style. So who knows, maybe I will be the next Fuzzy Photographer! To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world and as some people know, I am trapped in my own little world. For me, photographs take their power from memory and emotion. A picture tells its own story, shaped by the mood or insights of the person you are at the time you see it. It becomes layered with the past and the present. I want to create something new, and there it is, and it will be me, out in the world, outside of myself and I can look at it, feel it... and I will know a little more about me. A little bit more than anyone else does. I will be my own person, my own me. Lizzie Love.