SPQR • Nature's Pencil

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Fox Talbot, the great 19th century photographer called a camera, "The Pencil Of Nature." I like that a lot. I look at my Flash Cards the way my artist friends view their sketch books. That's what I do, photo-sketches of moments that I can later fill out with ideas and feelings. The camera's storage is a sort of notepad from which I can pluck story lines and narrative arcs.

Increasingly I'm uninterested in the photos which come out of my camera. I see why they've named the process which stores the most information, "Camera Raw". Yes... yes.. Like this idea of an old guy chasing a young guy across the piazza which fronts The Pantheon, the oldest existing temple still used on a daily basis in the city of Rome, it is much more as I want it to be now that I have enhanced the raw image which I brought home.

To my left is a large fountain designed by Giacomo della Porta. Behind that is a McDonald's. There were perhaps six or seven hundred people milling around the piazza and fountain the evening I snapped this picture. Right behind me is the Pantheon rebuilt in its current form around 125AD. In fact the pizza's been filled most nights for well over 2.000 years. Which probably explains why it looks as if it could do with a coat of paint. Most of Rome could. The present mayor seems unconcerned with grafitti and litter. Rome is seedy. As you'll see when I finally crack open my Florence pictures next week, other cities have considerable more self respect. Odd, since the monuments and antiquities of Rome form perhaps the world's single greates tourist attraction. Oh, maybe the decay contributes some charm but you would think they would groom the golden goose, eh?