Go on..try not to smile!

I have thinking about this picture (and article) all month. When I first saw it, I lingered for quite some time. I thought about the idea of the wildlife camera, I thought about the need to watch. I even found footage of television programs dedicated to watching nature sing. The adorable bob-cat out in the wild who just happened upon a camera which captured a forever moment in time. How could you look at this and not even feel the slightest hint of an oncoming grin. It makes me smile each time.

In our visceral world, where imagery displays every known and unknown behavior, I further travel down the rabbit hole of why as a society we feel the need to watch. Instantly Foucault springs to mind. One of the 20th Century's most famous thinkers and the one who mentally skewed my understanding of surveillance and the Panopticon legacy, this image is an example of how we can observe unnoticed. Or have we? How much control do we have over this image. Luckily in this instance, not much. Which is the opposite to what's going on in the world right now.

But I won't concentrate on that. Instead I will revel in the joy that is this cute small creature. The illustrative face and its inquisitive eyes. If it could speak, I can imagine it would be saying
'Hey, get your arse off my lawn, damn fool, why don't you mind your own business?'

That would surely make me smile.

#wildlifecamera #nature #bobcat