I’m almost never “tagged” in any of the usual memes, but this time I feel compelled to respond. Thank you, rr, for being one of the “thinking bloggers” I try to keep track of; the second one obviously being my lovely wife Krista. Technically, Rachel doesn’t count because she tagged me, but I wanted to mention both of them in the same sentence because I really enjoy watching them explore photography as a way of knowing about things.
Besides the usual suspects that can be easily spotted on my blogroll (AKMA, Mark Woods, Tom, Ray, etc.) the main blogger that has been making me think lately is Jean at Creativity Machine. Our research interests overlap, but she gets to explore the contemporary side of the sort of things I’m trying to locate in history. I’m also driven to think by the blog at Aperture, currently featuring the posts of Dutch photographer Bert Teunissen. The remaining two thinkers I’d name are radically different from your standard issue bloggers.
Stavros has been posting more frequently lately, and every time he writes something it’s worth thinking about. Whether I agree or disagree, it always is worth reading. A case in point would be his rationalization of advertising revenues for blogs. I don’t believe in blog ads under any circumstances; that makes this form of publishing the same as conventional niche publishing. But his technological answer to the problem of the lost souls that surf in was certainly thought provoking.
My final choice is not really a blogger. I am inspired by Dorothy Gambrell. Most people are probably familiar with her comic Cat and Girl. But that isn’t why she makes me think—it’s the whole package. She supports herself by selling merchandise from her site (real products—I’m really craving an Ozymandias trophy myself) and does not use ads to generate revenue. She draws daily diary type cartoons (displayed on a different site) in exchange for donations that fulfill the role of standard personal blog entries. She also, via A Small Array, provides thought provoking conceptual experiments including (at the present moment) drawings of the various professions listed in the tax code. Each day, she’s thinking—and that makes me think too.
