A piece in today's New York Times chronicles the career of Clifford Ross, 52, inventor of a kind of photograph combining old analog technology and digital technology to produce unprecedented image quality. The story traces a bit of his intellectual history, from an early love of Tom Swift, through a dalliance with abstract painting, a series of Babar the Elephant movies, some work photographing the ocean waves generated by big storms, to this photo project, inspired by the urge to document his experience with a particular mountain.
A couple of parts of this story stand out. First, Ross has resources, and he uses them to pursue his interests. He is the kind of hero that an affluent society produces -- a person who gets to have a quirky take on things. He does what he has energy to do, however strange it may be. Second, Ross collaborates: he camps out with the experts until he has learned what he needs to know to do something new. His accomplishment is only possible in an information age, when the barriers between disciplines are permeable. And finally, Ross is willing to make use of new and old technology in combination; he has overcome the prejudice for the latest thing and the crippling assumptions about progress that weigh down other thinkers. He is willing to ask what good idea an old technology might embody, and what might have been lost when progress moved past it.
This sort of story gives me hope -- more than almost anything. This kind of hero is new, and the possibilities he or she can open up are not on any chart. They can't be predicted in advance.
Keep an eye out for guys and gals like Ross.
Posted by shea0017 at December 9, 2004 9:56 AM