Oculus

Oculus, a photographic book about images, memory and the metaphor of light. This video is a page by page walk-through and contains pull quotes overlaying the preface.

To purchase this book: http://www.kenschles.com/Books/OculusBook/oculuspurchase.html

We infuse the world we encounter with meaning, with social and symbolic significance based on the value we place upon representations we share. This, perhaps, is the irony of our conceptualizations: We make and share images so that we may know the world. But what exactly is the nature of our image representations? And what are the implications of using the metaphor of the image to signify, codify and describe a dynamic and ephemeral world? Oculus is a philosophic journey that points beyond the shadow-play of images. It is meditation on the nature of perception and existence in the gray light of this world.

With Oculus, photographer Ken Schles brings to us an eloquent and moving follow-up to his acclaimed release, A New History of Photography: The World Outside and the Pictures In Our Heads (White Press, 2009). Through an integration of text and image, Schles extends his focus on the connection between image and memory. And now, with Oculus, he explores the agency and nature of the image itself. Images, says Schles, are constructions that evoke memory as well as other images. They inform our "ways of seeing" and "knowing" on an ongoing transactional basis. Schles connects us to these ideas through a confluence of references about images, memory and metaphors of light found in literature and philosophy, early writings on psychology and in ancient myth. Through these connections he finds timeless corollaries that deepen our understanding of the function of images.

Spurred on by private upheavals to reappraise his appreciation of images and memory, master photographer Ken Schles offers us in Oculus a deeply felt and haunting search for meaning outside the noise and quotidian confusion of popular culture.

Oculus invites you on a private symbolic journey to look deeply at the metaphors we make.

Oculus, a photographic book about images, memory and the metaphor of light.

See http://www.kenschles.com/Books/OculusBook/Oculus01.html for more information. There you can read more about the book and find out how to order a copy.

For more about his work go to http://www.kenschles.com

And thanks for watching.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Oculus
• Flusser
• Godot
• Beckett
• Nabokov
• philosophy
• photobook
• Ken Schles
• Plato
• Mnemosyne
• somnambulism
• memory
• image
• Alzheimer's
• Noorderlicht
• photography

[zcrav80]

What a beautiful book. Thanks for showing it like this!