A short history of my inspiration to create this space.

The Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, in his 1512 textbook, “De Copia,” stressed the connection between memory and reading.

He urged the students to annotate their books, using an “appropriate little sign,” to “mark the occurrences of striking words, archaic or novel diction, brilliant flashes of style, adages, examples, and pithy remarks worth memorizing.” He also suggested that every student and teacher keep a notebook, “organized by subject” so that whenever he lights on anything worth noting down, he may write it in the appropriate section.

Erasmus’ recommendation that every reader keep a notebook of memorable quotations was wildly and enthusiastically followed. Such notebooks, which came to be called “commonplace books,” or just “commonplaces,” became fixtures of the Renaissance schooling. Every student kept one.

By the 17th century, their use had spread beyond the schoolhouse. “Commonplaces” were viewed as necessary tools for the cultivation of an educated mind. The popularity of “commonplace books” ebbed as the pace of life quickened in the 19th century, and by the middle of the 20th century, memorization itself had begun to fall from favor.

—“The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr.

So this blog is my 21st century version of the “commonplaces,” except that it’s a digest of imagery of various varieties.

They can be photographs, paintings, infographics, advertisements, drawings, sketches, photo-manipulated art, sculptures, you name it. 

Very few are mine. Most are curated, and are linked to their respective sources. The core philosophy of this is borrowed from journalism: No photo can be unaccompanied by a short caption, an annotation, an exclamation.