One of the perks of a “pro” membership on Flickr is that one sees “stats” for one’s site. Total views for a day, total views for the entire life of one’s site. Which photos were most viewed? How did visitors come to me? From Facebook, from Pinterest, from Tumblr, from a Flickr member’s “favorites,” from a Flickr group, from some site on the web I wouldn’t want to be connected with, from search engines in other countries, etc. What “search” terms brought them to me, what “tags”? But the most discussed feature on the Flickr site concerning stats appears to be the view count.

After the recent Flickr downtime, many members noticed a drop in their view counts (see a record of mine in the “quilt screenshot” above), and some have voiced dismay about this fluctuation downward in the Flickr Help Forum. One of the answers frequently given to the dismayed by other Flickr members when one of these drops in the view count happens is that the view counts have always been unreliable. One of the obvious answers to anyone concerned about the issue might well be this: forget view counts; go work on your photography. Galway Kinnell told his poetry students in the university to forget about publication; he urged them to work on writing better poems. Take better photos, and better eyes (forget more views!) will look your way. John Milton wrote for that “fit audience” which he knew would be “few.” He wouldn’t have been interested in just anyone hanging around his “poetry reading.” Straight has always been the gate for the serious. And yet the hunger to be heard remains, even when one doesn’t value being heard by the herd.

So why this concern about “view counts”? One might guess vanity (“Look at me! I have a gazillion views!” I’m really something! I told you I was something!”); but surely it’s far more than that for many. Even Emily Dickinson sought publication. Most creators desire an audience.

In contemporary American culture, it’s not just that we are force-fed a lot of dreck through media (we are, of course), but it’s also that a lot of what strikes me as unworthy of attention in the first place receives that attention much longer than it deserves once it does have its "moment" in the sun. The hoi polloi sways the media to cover what the mass is interested in seeing or hearing; the media needs those eyeballs, ears, and clicks to sell advertising. So what’s new, right? Business over Art. The Low over the High. It’s unnecessary to begin compiling a list here of the great thinkers, writers, and artists who worked in obscurity and were scorned for their work once it did appear. Children of stupid parents threw sticks and stones at Kierkegaard and Van Gogh. Comedians, watching a fellow comedian bomb in front of a lousy audience, will try to comfort their friend with this assessment which can actually be true: “You were too hip for the room.” In other words, if, as the saying goes, the masses are asses, what do a lot of views signify? Newspapers have to care about circulation to stay in business. Late night talk show hosts have to care about ratings to stay in business. College administrators have to debase the high calling of higher education to attract unwitting "customers" in order to keep the lights on in the buildings (not to enlighten anyone). Such business concerns are not my concerns.

I’ve had a lot of views on Flickr. And I would have had a lot more views had I not blocked thousands of Flickr members for various reasons. While I don’t have any interest whatsoever in the Pope (or any other “official” leader of any religion) or football (or any other sport) or tribalist political or academic nonsense from people who are supposed to be able to think and feel, or discussions about peat moss, it is true that I have one area of overlap with the masses, at least the masses of men: I love to see a portrait of a beautiful woman. And beyond just looking at this kind of image, I love to create such images, best I can. I do not desire to be Ansel Adams; I’d rather be Helmut Newton. I respect the quality I see in the portfolio of Ansel Adams; there absolutely should be a place for him. I just don't lean toward the subject matter for which he is best known.

My predilection for female subjects who are any combination of beautiful, sexy, and/or erotic makes my kind of photography very difficult. The mountain is sitting there for Adams; the models I most want are hard to find. Georgia O'Keeffe preferred to paint flowers over models: she said flowers didn't have to be paid, and they didn't move. I'd shoot constantly if I had the models I desire to shoot. If you are female, "of age," and look like "playmate material"--for lack of a better phrase--and want to document your pulchritude, contact me. Perhaps we can work something out. If you like my photos and want to provide me with some financial support so that I might work with many more great models, contact me.

While I work to make photos of quality, the women I’ve photographed are the primary reason why my view counts on Flickr have run into the millions (whatever that count actually is). I don’t photograph these women to run up my views on Flickr; I photograph them because doing so is an aesthetic thrill for me. The fact that many, many men find these women attractive shouldn’t be confusing to people who are in touch with reality; but some explanation (or, preferably, some therapy) would be needed for those twisted, bizarre tribalists who profess that men are pigs and criminals for finding feminine beauty compelling.

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As I cross 164 million views on Flickr, I use this occasion to invite those who view my work here to check out my Tumblr where I’ve recently posted short videos of Jerry Seinfeld being interviewed, clips from Bill Maher’s show, and, most recently, a short video on Edvard Munch and the significance of a cigarette in one of his paintings. (These pieces I refer to are all reblogs--clearly not my work. Occasionally, I will post something on my Tumblr that is my own work. My Flickr site, of course, remains all my own work.) Tumblr, with all its drawbacks, is still a good idea; but I haven’t been happy with some of what’s offered there or some of the members. Perhaps a better solution than quitting Tumblr is inviting better viewers to the party. You can visit Tumblr for free without having your own Tumblr. You can start your own Tumblr, too. It’s easy. You can then reblog other works, curate your own site. Here’s the ULR:

doylewesleywalls.tumblr.com/

Thanks--yet again!--to the gorgeous, sexy, beautiful women I have photographed. You are the primary reason why I have the views I do here on Flickr.

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I can remember a time when my fellow students and I, as undergrads, as grad students, were searching--in the liberal arts--for answers regarding ultimate concerns (yes, we read Paul Tillich) since those answers given us by our society (including churches, etc.) were unsatisfying. The fellow students I'm thinking of--certainly not the majority even then--did not study "business" in college because they (we) had other more pressing concerns. The recent "outrage" expressed by many over the intricate and absurdly expensive "Lori Loughlin / Olivia Jade" cheating scandal (half a million dollars?!) designed to place the daughter, Olivia Jade, into USC is, of course, depressing on many levels. I picked one famous mom-and-daughter pair, but the breaking news on this story listed around fifty families who were involved in this ridiculous cheating scam. Bad as it is, fifty families represent nothing on the scale of what's ugly and putrid in the state of things at colleges and universities when it comes to trading degrees--not necessarily education--for dollars. For me, that's where the "real cheat" happens. Tons of colleges just need the students' tuition so they can keep the lights on in the rec rooms in the dorms. (Yeah, yeah, I know: "we've" scrapped the word "dorms" for "residence halls" to make the place seem much "nicer" and more "comfortable." How about stressing the damn library for a change?) Tons of students in higher ed care little more than Olivia Jade apparently did about attending a university to pursue academic studies and gain knowledge and even, perhaps, gain some wisdom. That almost all higher education degrees mean little to nothing, and that they are available for purchase shouldn't be a surprise. A "degree," with a few glitter schools as exceptions to the rule, that is, in the world of business, perhaps, making contacts, getting interviews for jobs, means nothing with falling academic standards and the rush to cushion everyone's time at the school so that "college" bends too far into the zone of "summer camp for nine months"; but even the poorest college could provide an "education" if actual students were willing to work to gain an education, that is, if they study with professors who will push them with appropriate pressure as opposed to coddling them for their "love." Administrators and professors can sell their souls in this way. This means, also, that true students are willing to search for answers, willing to move into the zones of complexity and ambiguity (moves once required in the study of literature, for example; and these are muscles we should be building to improve our shabby political scene); it's not a "true student" who so eagerly welcomes merely spouting the simplistic "answers" pushed by tribalistic "professors." The problem runs deep. When I heard the initial outrage over the scandal involving TV "stars," I could only shake my head. If these outraged people who learned about the scandal at USC and other universities and then immediately thought of their bright, hard-working children who were not admitted to some of these very colleges that are supposed to be institutions of quality...if these outraged people only knew what goes on much too often in higher education, they'd change the direction of their anger.

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I highly recommend this opinion piece by Judith Shulevitz in THE NEW YORK TIMES related to free expression, creative work, and the punitive actions of philistines and money changers:

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/opinion/sunday/metoo-new-yorke...

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"For Marcel Duchamp, eroticism was 'the basis of everything', despite the fact that "no one talks about it".

--from www.royalacademy.org.uk
"Architecture and eroticism"

Thanks again to the women I have photographed who appear in my Flickr collection. They are worth talking about!

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