Photocascadia and Cargo Cult Photography
We all know about bogus groups like Timecatcher, Light Harmony, and Mountain Trail Photo. They are designed to bring a group of losers together, with the hope that the various “skills” of each individual loser/liar complements and supports the entire “team”. The other benefit is that they can write more pansy ass nonsense/bullshit about each other. It’s one thing to say “I am one of the best photographers in the world”. That catches people’s attention, and often in a bad way. But the public is usually OK with 3 or 4 losers saying they are “some of the best photographers in the world”. So these groups also help empower cowards. And the members of these “groups” are always cowards. That, or they are predatory individuals seeking to benefit from some ability the group has, such as a self-publishing ability.
These groups are all bullshit. Legitimate photographers don’t join forces with other photographers. The only possible outcome is that the photographers end up competing against each other. The only exception is trade associations, but those are legitimate organizations and an entirely different matter.
Which brings us to Photocascadia. This is the latest “me-too” bogus, fraudulent group screaming out the usual “we are some of the best blah blah blah”. Unlike legitimate groups such as, say, Magnum, Photocascadia doesn’t exist anywhere but as a delusion in the minds of its “members”. There are no offices, no assets, no substance. It’s a place where the individual members can pat each other on the back and remind readers about all the photo tours/workshops/Photoshop workflow tutorials they sell. They can also conduct bullshit, fake interviews of each other, like Photocascadia does. It’d be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.
Which brings us to our title, “Photocascadia and Cargo Cult Photography”. “Cargo Cult” refers largely to the interesting practices of some primitive human cultures, after coming in contact with advanced western society. In particular, the native people of the Pacific islands created cargo cults after World War II. After noticing the flow of materials and goods thru the airports, the natives built crude landing strips, aircraft, and other equipment after the war, in the hopes that the supplies would continue arriving. To this day, the term “cargo cult” refers to practices in which the adherents adopt the fixtures and language of real occupations, but there is nothing of substance underneath. It is often used to refer to dubious alternative medicine procedures. It is also highly applicable to photography. There are lots of losers out there today who will talk your head off about Nikon vs Canon, L-lenses, HDR, how digital is so much better than film, etc etc, but start talking about real composition, vision, and seeing, or whether they run legitimate businesses, and they will scurry off like vampires who’ve been hit by the sun.
And so it is with Photocascadia. It uses all the right jargon, the right mix of bullshit. Even has fancy pictures all over the place. But it’s nothing more than a cargo cult. There is nothing of substance here. The losers operating this site use it to boost themselves and boost their egos. They blindly follow in the steps of other sites like Timecatcher, secretly envious of what they believe is the enormous success of the rival losers at other, similar sites. They have nothing of substance to say or contribute. No one in the public wants to hear about their pathetic hikes, their bullshit attempts at pretending to be artists, and their fake, flowery bullshit about “passion”. One day, all these sites will cease to be updated, when the losers operating them realize that no one cares.
Just like the Mountain Trail Photo blog, which was nothing more than a place to sound trumpets in praise of the losers who operate Mountain Trail Photo, the Photocascadia operation will surely fade into oblivion. And good riddance. We don’t need scamming, workshop selling fame-mongers like Adrian Klein or Kevin Mcneal out there. These talent-less hacks couldn’t take a real photograph to save their own lives. They think Singh-Ray filters or HDR will save their ass, but it won’t. One day, the public will laugh at groups like Photocascadia. Mark our words.
