Bruner and I

Although, I can honestly admit, it was Aaron Barlow that strongly changed my way of thinking, but since I am not allowed to talk about Barlow, Bruner would be runner up in influencing my perspective and ways of thinking as well.

The connection that Bruner mentioned between one's own identity and language is something that struck me. Although Bruner did focus on many other important aspects such as education acting as a forum and the idea of public authority controlling it's citizens, while those ideas are important, I want to focus on his idea of language and identity intertwining and connecting. A way a person converses with others in society, or how they want to represent themselves is partly due to their speech and tone, and the words that come out of ones mouth.

I realized that I face this issue of identity in my daily life in accordance to how I say things, society also changes how and what I say. When I am around my closest friends, the people I feel most comfortable with, my speech is inherently different then when I'm around a group of new people. My speech is funny, silly, and I have more to say when I'm around my friends, my own identity is my ideal comfortable self. In new situations, around higher authority, and people I just met, I will stay far away from my goofy language, and I will pay very close attention to what comes out of mouth, it's a more edited version of myself.

I think this is why I and so many others feel a sort of freedom while writing on a blog. One can have the freedom to write in their own style of voice, without the quick judgements of society, and an individual is able to represent a part of themselves that her or she normally couldn't do otherwise.

Tod Selby, you are my hero

One of the reasons I took this class initially was because I love reading blogs for fun, in particular blogs about the art form, whether that be photo, design, fashion, or photography. I think blogging is a great way for an unknown artist to show their interest in something to the public. Instead of me blogging about a funny anecdote, I want to take a short break to focus on one of my favorite blogs that I read and follow religiously called "The Selby," created by no other than Tod Selby himself, a, now well known photographer.

The blog has a simple idea. Selby takes beautiful, aesthetically pleasing photos of famous artists homes and posts them on a blog, he then conducts funny, short interviews with the artists at the very end of each post. The blog isn't for everyone, it's mainly all pictures with little words. For me this blog combines all things I love: beautiful photography, interior design, and creative people. I'm fascinated by the way Tod Selby captures each artist, it's almost as if you get a little excerpt of their personal life.

Another reason why I love this blog so much is because I have seen the blog as well as Tod Selby evolve throughout the years, it's sort of a more modern take on the "rags to riches" story. Selby has always been interested in photography, but only with the creation of the blog was he able to gain fame, and start collaborating with Louis Vuitton and many other famous figures. In the beginning stages of his blog, he took pictures of his friends, who, not surprisingly happen to be artists as well, he was not being featured in the news, and his blog was kept very low key. Suddenly, his blog started to attract more followers because people realized how beautiful his photos were, and more and more artists wanted to be featured on his blog.

Now Tod Selby and his blog has gained an extreme amount of popularity, recently he published his own book, which is pretty much his blog in printable form. He was also asked to take photos for the shoe company Jack Purcell, and he did work for famous designer Karl Lagerfeld. Now, instead of taking pictures of just his friends, Selby is photographing highly famed artists from all around the world.

Tod Selby is a huge inspiration to me, it shows how one blog, and one person's creative interests turn into something larger than life. I wish I could step into Selby's shoes, being able to meet and photograph famous artists around the world, one of my fantasies.

Here is a link to his blog www.theselby.com

Some of my favorite pictures: