I'm standing on the Walnut St. bridge looking out onto the windblown Schuylkill. The reflections and shadows on the waves look as if they have been run crudely through a Photoshop filter. They are clipped and blown-out and there is little gradation to speak of. Were the river a photo I was working on, I would discard it for appearing too synthetic and artificial. It strikes me that the artist habitually struggles to portray the world as more substantial, detailed, and nuanced than it actually is, and that such a pursuit is foolish at best. It may well be insane. Then a more damnable thought occurs; perhaps this mad pursuit is merely the outward expression of a common human desire to live in a world that is more substantial, detailed, and nuanced than the one in which we actually find ourselves.
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