Intangibles

It's All In The Mind

I’ve heard or read the word intangible quite a few times this past week. On various podcasts and YouTube videos. Maybe I thought I heard it when I actually didn’t. More likely, I heard and read it because it happened. So, I believe it must mean something. I’ll work on clearing it from my thoughts right here by talking about it since the world had brought it forth.

Adjective : in·​tan·​gi·​ble (ˌ)in-ˈtan-jə-bəl : not tangible : IMPALPABLE

education’s intangible benefits

Noun : something intangible: such as

a: an asset (such as goodwill) that is not corporeal

b: an abstract quality or attribute

—Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Blue

Which blue appeared in mind as you read the word?

Light blue

Navy blue

Sky blue

Ultramarine blue

Some other blue

Clinton Hill/Brooklyn NYC 1988

↑ What bits of information could one take from the photograph? Though it’s seemingly a straightforward one, it offers some intangibilities. The mind doesn’t stop calculating when it gets to the end of one’s viewing experience, it continues. Reconsidering thoughts that have just past through, moving them to the back of the mind. Even if you’ve moved onto the next thing. That pesky human multitasking thing!

On the surface, the photograph is what it visually is. There’s context and meaning that upon viewing, the viewer has to decide what it means for them.

Taking into account, one’s level of interest with a given subject matter, perceptiveness to thinking outside of a box, and maybe a bit of built-in Star Trek type of imagination is required beyond the minimum.

It’s been a long time since I made the photo. I don’t remember what I was thinking at the time. It could’ve been about the science of it all, specifically optics. Or, just having a bit of fun with a utilitarian tool. For those not aware, the item in my hand is a magnification loupe with its bottom side towards camera.

Primarily used to magnify thumbnail sized negatives on a light table or photos on a contact print. In this specific view, it’s akin to a camera’s lens.

My friend Arunas, is the subject that’s out of focus, though in focus on the lens of the loupe—upside down and backward. Without getting bogged down with physics of optics, the distance from the film to the loupe’s lens determined whether he’s in focus or not on the lens of the loupe. If I were to move the loupe a smidgen further or closer, the loupe would no longer be in focus. The intangibles are in knowing the physics of why it is how it is. Okay, that’s enough!

Intangibles can be innate, subjective and exclusive to an individual. The photographer as they take their photograph. The viewer as they look at it. Oftentimes misunderstood.

I was about to go on and on pontificating photographers being on the same wavelength with their viewers, but have read and heard many of them state that it’s not a necessity for viewers to “get” their photographs. Another of those intangibles.

Wishing you well until next time…