Garden Reports and Rejoicing – March 17
Molly Galdston introduced me to Pinterest at our New Year’s gathering and I was instantly hooked. It’s all about the visuals and for any gardener, Visuals-R-Us.
This new pictorial social networking website reminds me of the time when my friend Debbie Leach and I would make our own magazines. In those pre-computer days we would use paper and pencils, but in our imaginations these publications were in rich, glossy, full color. Debbie and I would have loved Pinterest when we were in the seventh grade.
How many people page through magazines without actually reading the articles? I’d guess the majority of readers. Unless you’re reading periodicals that are all about the articles not the illustrations, such as the New Yorker, what most magazine readers absorb are the photographs or illustrations. The boards on Pinterest are the essence of illustrated magazines.
Many bemoan the way that the Internet encourages short attention spans. The writing for sites online needs to be shorter and accompanied by numerous beautiful photographs. I agree with such laments. And yet…
As a gardener I understand the power of the visual. If I had to choose between being in a garden and absorbing what was there or reading an article about that garden, I’d choose the real deal every time. I’ve always been a “don’t read me the recipe, feed me the cake!” kind of gal.
I get that Pinterest probably steps all over professional photographers and copyright law. As a writer and photographer myself it makes me nervous. Who knows where this will all lead?
But as I post photos of all the visual experiences that I love, my seventh-grade self sings.
My username on Pinterest is "gardenwedding"
