Entropic Capitulation

Several years ago, in a mistaken belief that a bit of re-branding might improve this site’s popularity, I re-designed the ULTRAsomething logo and even went so far as to create an ULTRAsomething tagline. I figured if ’Just do it’ worked for Nike and ’Finger lickin’ good’ worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken then, perhaps, a snazzy slogan might just work for li’l ol’ me.

After giving it a good two or three minute modicum of mental might, I landed on ‘Palpably Existential’ — which shone brighter beneath the glow of creation than it did on the actual website. As a consequence, by the time I got around to re-coding all the pages, I’d axed the tagline.

The slogan also failed to find its way onto most of ULTRAsomething’s social media platforms. I just checked Twitter/X, and see I’m still using my original tagline — ’Writer. Photographer. Composer. Human. Being.’ — which wasn’t so much a tagline as me just filling in some blank fields when I first opened the account. Curiously, I did add the slogan to my Bandcamp page, where it makes the least amount of sense. I don’t know about Facebook; I can’t be bothered to log in and check.

Any and all printed collateral also remained tagline-free — with the sole exception of my business card, where the slogan boldly appears. But since business cards are basically a relic of an earlier time and place, they’ve gone mostly undistributed. In the scant few situations that did demand an exchange of cards, the tagline was often met with a furrowed brow and a question about the slogan’s meaning.

So recently, I decided to gather all I’d learned from the last tagline debacle and apply it to the modern world. First thing I decided was that an ULTRAsomething T-shirt would be far preferable to an ULTRAsomething business card. It’ll be seen by more people, and if anyone wants to check out the site, they can just whip out their iPhone and photograph my shirt.

The second thing I decided was that the old slogan no longer applied. The dearth of people during COVID had decimated the palpability of my “existential” photography, as had shifting societal views around street candids. Instead, I’m now embracing the random chaos of whatever hits my film, which seems more like a mild mental disorder than actual existentialism.

And third, maybe having a ridiculous slogan that people don’t understand isn’t really the smart way to go…

So with these parameters in mind, I applied a two or three minute modicum of mental might to the solution, and came up with: ‘ULTRAsomething: Entropic Capitulation’.

I’ll admit right off the bat that yes, I failed miserably at the third task, which dictated I do not adopt a ridiculous slogan. But at least all the other parameters were met. It definitely applies (ridiculous or not) to the current direction in which my photography has drifted, and sure-as-shootin’, I slapped that sucker on a single, long sleeve T-shirt.

Whether or not the tagline finds its way onto the actual website is probably more a function of me being too lazy to re-code the site, and not commentary on the new tagline.

Is it as good as ‘Just do it’ or ‘Finger lickin’ good’? Well, I think so, given that I’ve never once owned anything Nike, nor ever purchased my own bucket of chicken from KFC.

I guess the question now is “do I branch into the fashion industry?” The one off that is the current ‘Entropic Capitulation’ T-shirt is, by definition, an item of couture fashion. Apparently, the ‘something’ in ‘ULTRAsomething’ might have just gotten another notch somethingier.

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©2024 grEGORy simpson

ABOUT THE PHOTOS :

‘Reticulation‘ was photographed on a Leica M6 TTL using a Leica 28mm f/2.0 Summicron lens — a vast amount of fidelity considering it was shot on some dubiously stored HIE Infrared film that expired 24 years ago. Exposed at ISO 400. Developed in Rodinal (Blazinal) 1:50.

‘Dispersal‘ was shot with a Canon Demi EE17 half-frame camera on HP5+, exposed at ISO 400 and developed in Rodinal (Blazinal) 1:50.

‘Glitch‘ was photographed with a Contax G1, which was fronted with a Contax Zeiss Biogon, using HP5+ at ISO 400, and developed in Rodinal (Blazinal) 1:50.

‘Babel‘ was shot on a Fuji Natura Black 1.9 using HP5+ exposed at ISO 3200, and developed in Ilford Microphen.

‘Mon Pitou‘ was photographed on FP4+ at ISO 200 on a Konica Recorder half-frame camera, and developed in Rodinal (Blazinal) 1:50.

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