Thierry Maindrault’s Monthly Cogitations
The years go by and are similar. The years go by but are not similar. Everyone projects themselves, according to their temperament, into the future differently. And then, there are those with terrible consensus, often the sympathizers of one or the other option, who will find the comfortable mediocrity of a little water in a little wine. Thus, the best ideas, the promising creations get bogged down miserably for lack of anticipatory analyses. Our human communities have not yet understood that natural Reality requires determinism to ensure its balance. Any evolution, any progress, any discovery always generates as many benefits as calamities, it is the very principle of life.
Actor photographers, we are in a very particular position and not always comfortable. We have quickly and collectively taken charge to report, objectively or subjectively, of the evolutions of both our grandiose natural environment (in the broadest and most distant sense) and the harmful consequences of the evolution of human knowledge. At the same time, we are among the first, technically involved, in this double mutation that imposes more and more thorns of friction. It is obvious that at a time “T”, the pill is really very difficult to swallow, the situations become bloodless for a large number. Technical, economic, societal situations, lead to a break in the cycle of knowledge, curiosity and creation. However, whatever the mutations, the evolutions, or even the revolutions, the image will remain the image (an interpretation of the brain). It remains an image, it endures the essential, the way of communicating between a brain (the author) and another (the recipient), through a medium. Our photography has had time (two centuries) to demonstrate its ability to occupy an important, incontestable and lasting place in the universe of artistic testimony.
It is out of the question to give up and lament, for our creative passions anchored in our body. We must know how to dream to imagine the future. If our authentic images are all born of a dream, premeditated or instantaneous, our imaginary skills must also anticipate the future for men, the future for photographers.
So let’s dream a little, a lot, and more.
Today, wouldn’t our first dream be to restore certain tools to their role and eliminate their misuse? If the sprawling web found its initial function as a set of multidirectional channels. An instrument of communication and sharing that generates creativity without becoming a way of life for an ignorant herd . The circulation of images between two responsibles points.
And then, let’s also dream of our images, with secure access, definitively outside these omnipotent and omnipresent centers that look more like gigantic trash cans where you can find anything, in the form of a very fragile polarity. Currently, technology allows everyone to keep their work at home in complete safety and to send it, wisely, without perveting it. Have you thought that what works (relatively well) for your taxes can be applied to our photographs?
The third dream logically invites itself in stride. The enormous savings resulting from the elimination of this sprawling web. Contrary to the assertions of the good apostles, the current situation is devastating for the future. It is obvious that the principle that nothing is created, nothing is lost, could lead us to think that the gigantic fortunes that are being amassed would come from the depths of the universe to fill a few audacious pockets. This is not the case. These abundances are taken from the user mass and from the assets of our planet. Energy consumption to rake in billions is phenomenal. The theft of knowledge, rights, and the work of others fills their pockets. Each time some of us puts a photograph on a site that does not belong to them entirely, in rights, they enrich the wind magnates. Everyone is free to do so without thinking that they are sawing off the branch that carries them, and their colleagues who refused this choice. So let us dream that branches are no longer stupidly cut.
I dream that all these parasitic and budget-devouring organizations that distribute a few crumbs, too thin, of so-called collective rights, spend less money on their own lifestyle. They have to demand rights in relation to the true uses, so-called collective, of our images (most often stolen), and redistribute a guaranteed percentage to the authors (those who work with their brains). And then, do we need a host of organizations collecting/distributing rights in each country. Computer tools can allow a unique and equitable management of all rights, all human creation types combined.
Finally, the sublime and last dream for this year. The cessation of access and theft, with complete impunity, of all our works stored, with or without our authorization, in the redundant meanders of the internet monster. This characterized pillaging, without authorization, to operate machines to brainwash masses of population, seems the most absolute urgency for the good fairy in charge of this new year. Binary design is just a manipulation, without an ounce of intelligence; except that of the programmers who give birth to it for their sole interests. Are we not going to, once again, make an exceptional promising tool a hell for the greatest number?
My most sincere wishes for each of you in this year for all your dreams!
Thierry Maindrault, January 10, 2025
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