Picture ready...

More and more things are being designed to photograph well. Everything must be ready to assert it's desirability along the publicity circuit by looking it's cinematic best on film. Function be damned, utility bah! Take a trip to Taschen or any slick bookstore that sells eye-candy books and magazines. What do you see? Thousands upon thousands of slick images. Everything's for sale, and even if it's not, it should look like it might be. A world full of picture-perfect homes and household items, cars and coffee bars, gloves and gas masks, lounge-chairs and ladies, all primped and plucked and positioned for the all-validating lens.

Of course, things made for the camera seldom hold up to real life scrutiny. What looked good from a distance through a wide-angle lens is uncomfortable in person - we see cheap and poorly put together materials that won't last. That last bit is important. Nothing should last. Once the picture is taken, the object is irrelevant.

Final thought: in a soulless world the camera steals nothing.