Lobotomy Lab: Wall of Wonders

Lobotomy Lab: Offering piercing insights into photography

I am a fan of a popular sci-fi Writer Ray Bradberry, especially the Martian Chronicles. So it should not come as a big surprise when I say I am also a fan of his rather obscure 80’s TV series “The Ray Bradberry Theater” an episodic show very much in the same realm as “The Twilight Zone.”  The intro to each episode is Bradberry walking in to his office/studio. A large room filled with trinkets nick-racks, souvenirs, model ships surrounded by walls covered in photos and maps with a desk caped by a typewriter in the center of it all.  As he walks through the room he explains “People ask where do you get your ideas? Well, right here. All this is my Martian Landscape. Some where in the room is an African velt. Just beyond perhaps is a small Illinois town where I grew up. And I am surrounded on every side by my magicians toy shop. I’ll never starve here, I just look around, find what I need, and begin.”

Just for clarification an African velt is a seemingly antiquated term for plains or savanna.  I thought he was saying belt for a long time and wondered if there were really fancy belts made somewhere in Africa. I Always liked this intro it is breaks the 4th wall in a way few shows over the last two decades would not dare to even try but I find that makes it all the more relevant. This is the one part of the show that is real, the man who invented the idea who wrote it all out.  Here we are in his sanctuary, the place where the dead manifest in to as near to reality as they can be. Perhaps because of this I have aspired to have my very own “idea room.”  And after years it is starting to take shape.  Still just a single wall, but it is constantly growing and evolving.  

My room as one may guess is more based around photography than ideas for writing horror and sci-fi.  Texas sky rather than Martin landscape and Japanese forest rather than African velt.  Some of the photos are mine some from others, I am not even sure who.  There are also a few trinkets from my past travels with plenty of room for the wall to expand.

While I don't think I draw as much inspiration from my setup as Bradberry did from his I still find use in the idea. This wall is a great way to test out many photographic ideas.  One is how photos look in various frames.  Most of my frames are cheap ones from thrift stores, but some are purchased with a specific use in mind.  color, size, material, and matting vary wildly.  This is a place to experiment, a place to frame a print and stare at it daily for weeks or months to decide if it really makes the cut.  The process is slow but that is fine even good things take time and effort to set up, to move, so once there they will stay in place for a while.

So when people ask me, where do you get your inspiration? I can not only tell them but show them my own little gallery, my wall of wonders, I just look around, find what I need, and begin.