A Flickr Group Search

A few days ago I was chatting with someone online, and they kept going idle. I finally asked what they were up to. "I'm doing a Flickr group search," they said. Which of course begged the question, "What's the search?" But like any online search, the answer is always too nebulous to describe. One thing leads to another, leads to another, leads to... well... that's interesting!

For some reason today I got to thinking about Lowell Handler's book, Twitch and Shout. I read it ages ago, right after being diagnosed with TS, myself. I won't go into my feelings about Mr. Handler or his writing, but one thing that did strike me is that he was able to capture, in still photographs, the dynamic nature of TS through a series of self-portraits.

Hey! TS photography!

The next logical step, of course, was to do a Flickr group search of my own. I tried "Tourette", "TS", and a whole host of others. No dice. The closest I came were discussions where people used the term, typically not in a very representative way. (Typical.) So I broadened the search and found a number of groups with an OCD bent.

Two, in particular, caught my eye. The first, OCD, is for photographs that express OCD, or were taken as part of an OCD compulsion. Fascinating! A number of the pictures really resonated with me. Some I couldn't look at because they were too close to intrusive thoughts I've had in the past. Some were just downright disturbing. But I'm not one to judge. I'd hate to see some of my intrusive thoughts in photographic form, posted on the web for all to see. And I'm guessing that's what some of the images were: externalization of intrusive thoughts.

The second group illustrated a problem that one of the discussions in the first group touched on: Just as TS is often brutally mis-portrayed, so is OCD. The second group, Organized OCD Style, opens its description with:

"Are you OCD or a wanabe OCD? Are you super organized and super clean?"

Setting aside my feelings about the first sentence, the second sentence is just plain wrong. Being super organized and super clean is more of an indicator for obsessive personality disorder than it is for obsessive compulsive disorder. One could argue for colloquial use of the term, but in reality all it's doing is spreading misconception about what OCD actually is. I wish people would do a little reading before using a term like that in an off-hand, and consequently incorrect fashion.

But I digress...

In the end I wound up shelving my searches and asking myself this question instead: Does having TS or OCD really have any affect my photography? I have to think the answer is no.

I don't think I go through any compulsive rituals when I do photography. Oh, there are the usual suspects like level horizons and gear checks, but that's to be expected. I don't know many photographers who don't sweat horizon lines at one point or another, and it's only natural to check your gear before heading off on an all-day hike, much less putting a camera up in the air.

As far as embracing either as a source of inspiration for photography, I really haven't. Years ago I tried to do something similar to Lowell Handler's self-portraits, but I have far fewer facial tics and the results were pretty lackluster. And I have no interest whatsoever in externalizing the intrusive thoughts I have. They're disturbing enough when left inside!

No, for the most part I do landscapes. Aerials, infrareds, panoramas, black and white, color, film, digital, I really don't discriminate. I just like to do landscapes.

So what Flickr group should I search for that would be just right for me?

"We found 27,111 groups about 'landscape'."

Oh dear...

Maybe I should just stick with the groups I'm already in. Better yet, I should turn off my computer, grab my camera, and head out the door.

Tom