Jason Wilder

I haven’t been making many photos lately. I’ve become increasingly bored with the present. Very little is new, exciting, and intriguing. Bad news is everywhere. You cannot go anywhere without seeing or feeling anything fascist and/or AI related (AI is fascism). Anything “new” is just artistic regurgitation or social media conformity.

I initially started using a camera because, subconsciously, I became and felt less lonely. I was welcomed into places I thought I didn’t belong and photographed people I thought would never want anything to do with me. As I have grown older in the past few years, that loneliness came back. Some of it is self inflicted. Some of it is reality based. Creative friendships or partnerships are now commodified, meeting metrics, like their hobbies must make some sort of social and monetary profit. I do believe the some of the last remaining true artists are musicians. Ironically enough, musicians get paid less for their work. I or any other photographer, can sell a print or a zine for over 10 times an album would sell for on bandcamp.

The photography world is filled with uninspiring alphas, where the aesthetic and profit is the goal. There’s no way I want to be a part of that. The photography world and the language that describes it is also changing, which I have a hard time dealing with. Photography is already hard to be shown in traditional galleries. As a non-influencer, it is even harder. I know of some great local photographers who have never had a show that would equate to or compliment their talent. Most shows are just cheap ink on cheap paper, thrown together with little or no thought by either the curator and/or the artist.

I guess what I am saying is that I am finding a hard time picking up my camera because I feel uninspired and the places in which you might find a younger me making photos no longer feel right, for various reasons. Instead I’ve been reading about philosophy/philosophers, small press fiction and playing chess almost daily, preparing for and playing music on my weekly radio show, going camping, and working on my found photography collection. I still fill notebooks of thoughts and ideas. I’ll occasionally watch some tv or take in a movie … but I’d rather be making photographs. Then I remember, everything just seems boring.

I’m hoping in writing this I may find a solution or maybe it may help someone with the same thoughts as me.

Or if you are a weirdo like me and want to collaborate on something creatively fun, reach out.

In order to close this out without sounding too much of a drag, here’s some stuff that I’ve been enjoying or enjoyed lately.

Glitter by Lauren Wanamaker. Cosmic country with modern day blues. Perfect album for pretending you are flying your hand out a car window or having it at the same volume of a crackling camp fire or while you are simply just being weighted down on your couch while not being ok with the world.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Published in 1956, this book has been called a “technological prophecy.” I tend to agree with this take.

Pavements. I recently saw this movie at the Dryden Theater, with director Alex Ross Perry in attendance who also talked afterwards. Nostalgia really gets me lately and this movie hit me hard. Pavement is one of the very few bands whose whole catalog has contributed to the soundtrack of my life experiences. Perry’s collage work on this movie and his willingness to just be unpretentiously weird and see if it sticks is admirable. I never really got into the whole “most important band of all-time” trope because I do remember how horribly the band was treated by the press and concert goers. Some of that is in the movie. I could say more glowing things about the band, movie and Perry, as well as events in my life that the music of Pavement has been a part of .. maybe once the movie has been out longer.

[NSFW] by David Scott Hay. If Georges Bataille wrote Story of the Eye while working for META.