Decimal System

I leave for London Tuesday. Among the items I'm packing are The 10 Essentials:

1. Audio

2. Cameras

3. Film

4. Clothing for 10 days

5. Assorted workprints to leave behind in terminals,
lobbies and other randomly selected public locations

6. Sturdy comfortable walking shoes

7. Cat

8. Dinner jacket

9. Reading material

10. Passport with spares

Now that I've got that covered, let's take a step back. London? What's the story? The initial impetus for the trip was In-Public's 10th Anniversary Exhibition at Photofusion. I figured if I was ever going to make it to London again, that was a good excuse. But 6500 miles is a long way to travel for just one event, so I'm spending some time (my first out of the country in 10 years!) on a 10 day photo-taking jaunt through London/Paris.

I'm looking forward to this trip for a few reasons. First of all the obvious one. It will be wonderful to travel in relatively unexplored cities with time free to make new photos.

But also, and maybe less obviously, this will be my first opportunity to meet other members of In-Public. I've been in the group for a few years now and all of our communication to date has been electronic. I've seen photos of others and I have some guesses about personalities, but that's very different than standing face to face. Meeting in person should be fun, but honestly I am a bit nervous since I'm not generally good in social settings. I am prone to long pauses which sometimes don't go over well.

(long...pause)

I suppose our group's situation is a microcosm of a much wider societal condition as more and more of our daily contacts take place through monitors. I know many people through various online communities, but without meeting them I will never feel like I really know them. And I think that is probably true for society as a whole. In some ways the world is getting smaller as interconnections multiply. But the essence of community I think will always be actual human contact. So with this trip I'm doing my part, or at least that's how I justify it.

For anyone within travel distance seeking actual human contact with IP, here are details of the show. It should be a good one. There will be a book published in conjunction, available here.


I will be gone until June 4th. I'm not sure what my internet situation will be while traveling so B may grow quiet until early June. Or it may not. Can't tell yet.