Great book on the "art" of photography

Here is a great book on the art of photography by Nicholas Hlobeczy, called A Presence Behind the Lens: Photography And Reflections. The book is part memoir (including stories of Hlobeczy's friend and mentor Minor White), part meditation on photography, and part philosophy of art and the art of finding oneself through art. It also contains a wonderful selection of quiet, Zen-like B&W photos that simultaneously instill a sense of calm and wonder.

While there are millions of "photographers" in the world (both amateur and professional), and thousands of books on and/or "about" photography, few - very few - actually say anything deeply lasting about the fine art of photography as a meditation on life and meaning. Hlobeczy's book stands apart from the far more conventional offerings by not only sharing his quiet soulful view of the world, but allowing us to glimpse, however briefly, the process by which his soulful vision came to be.

It is truly a small treasure of a book, one to be cherished and reflected upon again and again by all aspiring photographers. Hlobeczy's website contains numerous other samples of his work.

Global Consciousness Project

Here is a recent article about the "Global Consciousness Project" at Princeton. This work (if true) suggests, remarkably, that statistical deviations from randomness (and correlations) among the behaviors of a widely separated network of random number generators are strongly correlated with (and often predate!) major world events. The first stunning "correlation" occured four hours prior to the 9/11 attacks; since then the project has carefully documented and studied hundreds more. I have not looked at the details of the work yet, but -- again, if the results are real, and undoctored -- the implications are staggering and deep indeed.

Here are the links to the article and project homepage.

Breathtaking views of collective behavior

Canon's official website has posted an extraordinary sequence of images taken by photographer Manuel Presti of the collective dynamics of flocking birds. Simply the best such sequence I have ever seen. Remarkable beauty and elegance, and a breathtaking display of emergence in nature!

Tao of Photography

For those interested in the overlap between science and art in general, and complex systems theory and photography in particular (all five of you! ;-) here is a resource list I've started to compile.