The Aesthetic of Smoking| P I: Self-Indulgence

In the entire history of mankind there is perhaps no other item comparable to cigarettes, that has sold individualism, so successfully, and, with the least amount of irony, to the masses. Even if we count that success as a mere marketing technicality: it is still a curious question as to whether or not smoking also actually delivers individualism as a practical effect. If one can make something as general as smoking ones own...

Personally, I think it does, but such a deep question nevertheless requires some teasing out: In future posts I’ll do just that. I'll be exploring the history of smoking, including many cultural and generational shifts within the 20th & 21st century ; representation of smoking in art and media; and, more curiously, I’ll be creating an interactive quiz - at the very end - that will: at the very least leave you asking some curious questions, and, at the very most - convinced.

But, today, doubling as my formal introduction to the steemit community, I will briefly be introducing the aesthetics of smoking - by relating it to my art and personal life.

Hello from Charles Harry Mackenzie & Hunter S. Thompson (smoker extraordinaire)

My tattoo of....Guess Who?

Even before I myself was a smoker, and even much of a photographer mind you, I was photographing others(and even myself) smoking. In fact, I probably developed a smoking habit as a very result of this obsession. How's that for an addiction story?

But I guess, at least in general, that's the story of almost any serious smoker: nobody puts a gun to their head and tells them to start. Instead, the very opposite is true: the cigarette has us hooked way before we even have our first puff - in my case, in spite of my first puff! - hooked on the very sight of it. Feel of it. The way it dangles effortlessly from a pretty hand, the way it leaves somebody's mouth as if it has somewhere else important to go, the way it lends intensity to already captivating facial features & expressions; the way it seemingly enhances and magnifies somebody's personality; and, let's not forget, the poetic pause and contemplation it provides in-between long, often tangential, conversation... In other words, the key addicting feature to a cigarette... is not it's contents, but its aesthetic.

Or so I believe.

Or so I will aim to prove.

Thanks for reading!

Do you like this? Do you have any questions, comments or stories of your own? I would love interact!

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