Photography with Joe

  Park Layers and Missed Precision: A Critique of a Candid Summer Scene Street and documentary photography often succeed not because everything is perfect, but because they preserve a genuine slice of life. This park photograph contains many of the ingredients that make candid photography compelling: multiple generations sharing space, natural sunlight, layered activity, and a sense of everyday humanity. Yet it also demonstrates how small technical and compositional decisions can dramatically affect the final image. What Works The strongest quality of the photograph is its layered construction. The image contains foreground, middle ground, and background elements that create depth and encourage the eye to travel through the frame. The seated elderly couple, the standing cyclist, the reclining figure on the bench, and the moving pedestrian collectively build a visual narrative about public life in a shared space. The photograph also benefits from authentic subject matter. Nothing ap...

  Hall, Conceptual Photography, and the Difference Between Constructing Meaning vs Discovering It I was told about a year ago that my photography shared similarities with Hall’s work. At first, I resisted the comparison a little. Not because it was insulting — quite the opposite — but because photographic comparisons are often too broad to mean much. Saying two photographers are “conceptual” can sometimes feel like saying both use small cameras. Technically true, but not especially revealing. Still, the comparison stayed in my mind because there is overlap there, even if the routes we take are very different. Hall’s work, to me, feels more stage-driven. More constructed. There is an intentional arrangement of symbolic elements, a deliberate shaping of the emotional field of the image. The photograph becomes a kind of theatre. Meaning is designed into the frame. My work tends to move in another direction. More documentary. More observational. Less interested in constructing symboli...

  August 2025 ------------------------------------------''' Video link https://youtu.be/n0LJjpKs89Q Comix Artists Interview Michael Del Mundo raw Michael Del Mundo (sometimes stylized Mike Del Mundo) is a Filipino-Canadian comic book artist and cover illustrator. Known for his surreal, painterly style, he’s done major Batman, Thor, Avengers, and Spider-Man covers for Marvel and DC. In 2025, he appeared at Fan Expo Canada (Toronto) and participated in artist interviews and panels — some clips circulate under hashtags like #Marvel #Interview #Scholx #GreatGuyAAA #GreatGuyTV, He’s won multiple Eisner nominations, particularly for his work on Avengers, Weirdworld, and Elektra. He often collaborates with writer Jason Aaron and colorist Marco D’Alfonso (another Toronto-based artist). #michealDelmundo

  Our Cousins, the Proto-Philosophers By Scholz It started with a television show. While watching  Humans , the sci-fi series on Amazon Prime, I was struck by a scene where synthetic beings — robots with human-like intelligence — calmly argued for their rights. Not just to move freely, but not to be  owned . Their communication was articulate, emotional, even moral. They weren’t asking for upgrades. They were asking for dignity. The scene lingered in my mind. What makes someone a person? Is it intelligence? Language? The ability to feel, or to make ethical claims? That’s when my thoughts turned not to machines, but to something far more real — our evolutionary cousins. Bonobos pressing symbols for “sad,” gorillas signing their names in mirrors, orangutans telling small lies. These aren’t imagined sci-fi futures. These are scenes from the lives of great apes. For centuries, philosophy has been framed as a distinctly human pursuit. To wonder, to reason, to ask “why” — these...

 S elf-awareness in animals is usually tested using the mirror test , where an animal is marked with a visible dot or sticker on a body part they can only see via a mirror. If the animal tries to investigate or remove the mark, it suggests some level of self-recognition . 🪞 So... are Japanese macaques self-aware? ❌ No strong evidence (yet) Japanese macaques generally fail the mirror test . They often treat their reflection as another monkey — showing aggression or social behavior rather than recognizing themselves. That said, some individuals have shown ambiguous behavior, like using mirrors to look at body parts — but these are inconclusive and rare. BUT — it's complicated. Scientists are rethinking the mirror test as the only measure of self-awareness. For example: Some animals may understand the reflection but not care about a mark. Others may be self-aware in different ways — like having theory of mind , deceptive behavior , or long-term planning ....