Father of the Acid Trip is Dead at 102

Albert Hoffman, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD, died this past Tuesday at the age of 102 in Switzerland.

Hoffman discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while working as a chemist at Sandoz, the pharmaceutical giant.

This is a great example of the unpredictable twists and turns of the creative process.

Hoffman thought he was looking for medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat. Instead, he helped to create the 1960s!

So, now in death, Hoffman is entering the "mother of all trips."

So what was an acid trip like?

By sheer coincidence, today my son Alex sent me the following link about High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR) pictures.

This is what the blurb about HDR says:

It can create incredibly beautiful pictures which blur our sense of the difference between reality and illusion. . . . [Sounds like an acid trip to me!]

The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. . . .

Interesting technique. See for yourself. Go to the link for more examples.

This is a cosmic landscape (God is getting ready to reveal Himself from behind the clouds).

Yes, those childhood memories! It was all innocent and warm.

I feel transported back to antiquity (how ya' doin' Plato).

Something is about to happen to the Golden Gate Bridge (feels like something out of an Indiana Jones film).

Your dinner guest has been transformed into a bass (Kafka would love it).

Comments

[Jim Ley]

Stuck in Customs is one of my favorite blogs with examples of HDR.

After clicking, scroll down.

[Roger von Oech]

Thanks for the link, Jim. Those photos are quite arresting!