tourist picture / ku # 1315 / diptych # 161 ~ why ask why?

Edison-Ron on Rist Camp kitchen floor ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
ever changing Rist Camp porch view ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Rist Camp porch views ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

On TOP Mike Johnston asked you to ask yourself a question:

I'd encourage you to ask yourself a question: why do you really do this, anyway?

The "this", of course, is picture making.

The question was posited in the cause of helping picture makers get over or at least come to grips with their desire - some might say "need" - for attention / success in their picture making endeavors. Or, as Johnston puts it - why am I not famous, or when am I going to make a little money at this, or any of the other gnawing dissatisfying insecurities that seem to crop up for all of us.

Johnston's answer to his question - for the most part, photography is just a fun activity. A recreation. An enjoyable pastime. We do it because we enjoy it.

I am reasonably certain that answer is good for most picture making participants. Perhaps even for you. Although, for me, no so much.

And it's not that I do not enjoy making pictures. However, the word "enjoy" really is not the word I would use to describe my involvement with the medium. Nor is the word "fun". In fact, when asked why I make pictures, my answer is not because it is fun or enjoyable. Invariably my answer is, "Why not?"

That answer derives not from my desire to be a smart / wise ass but rather from the fact that there would have to be a very compelling reason for me not to make pictures because, making pictures is what I do. Not because it's a "fun activity" or "enjoyable". It's more because, for me, picture making is like breathing - I don't think about why I do it, I just do it - in fact, I have been making pictures of one kind or another since as far back as I can remember.

Which leads me back to where I started this entry - most recently the question "Why do I really do this, anyway?" has been much on my mind.

There are no concrete answers as of yet. Notions of creating, drawing attention to something (my referents, their potential for meaning, and my pictures in and of themselves), making connections, in a more visceral sense, to my environment (people, places, things), and last but not least, something in my DNA / genetic makeup which has created a preternatural drive to make pictures.

Over the next few weeks, most of my entries will be ruminations on the topic of "why". I hope to incite comments and feedback both about my ideas on the subject as well as your insights regarding your own personal motivations in the realm of picture making.

I know from conversations with other artists (non-photography), that they would be interested in and participate in such a conversation. IMO, it could be a fun and informative ride.

Are you up for it?

Today's Artspeak Gobbledygook - My current work predominantly deals with themes of identity, race and heritage as it relates to preconceived notions of Euro-centric beauty and heritage within post-colonial societies ~ found on the internet

civilized ku # 2971 / diptych # 160 + artwork ~ Adirondack grandeur

creamery and herdsman's house / Santanoni Great Camp ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Santanoni Great Camp ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
rendering - Santanoni Great Camp ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

It doesn't matter how many times I hike the 5 miles to Camp Santanoni, it never fails to impress (from this page on the Adirondack Architectual Heritage website) .....

Camp Santanoni, built 1892-93, had three main groupings of buildings, totaling 45 buildings in all. The Gatehouse Complex, situated at the edge of the hamlet of Newcomb, included an impressive gatehouse with its monumental, stone, gateway arch and eight staff bedrooms, a caretaker’s home, and assorted barns, wagon sheds and other buildings.

A mile farther into the estate, the Farm Complex included a massive set of barns, four farmhouses and workers’ cottages, a stone creamery, workshop, chicken house, kennels, smoke house, root cellar and other service buildings. With imported and domestic breeds of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry, Santanoni had probably the largest farm operation ever associated with a family estate in the Adirondacks. It supplied the camp with its meat and produce, while surplus dairy products were sold in Newcomb and sent to Albany for the Pruyns and their friends.

The Main Camp at Santanoni was situated 4.7 miles from the Gatehouse Complex, farther into the estate on the shore of Newcomb Lake, with an excellent view toward the Adirondack High Peaks. The main lodge was actually a grouping of six separate buildings – the main living and dining lodge with two bedrooms upstairs; four sleeping cabins with a total of six bedrooms; and a kitchen and service building with seven staff bedrooms – all connected by a common roof and porch system. 1500 trees were used in the log construction.

If you are ever in the neighborhood, it's a must see.

FYI, the diptych pictures were made looking left and right from the left and right corners of the main building. As can be seen on the rendering above, all of the separate buildings were connected by a massive deck under a single massive roof.

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2970 / (foreign) kitchen sink # 27 ~ here, there and everywhere

sitting and watching / iPhone picture ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
playground rules / gloamimg ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Rist Camp sink ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

No matter where you go there is always a kitchen sink.

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2968 ~ ying yang

Rist Camp tree with Edison-Ron ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
icons ~ Valley Forge, PA • click to embiggen

I find it hard to cope with the fact that I have posted a cat picture 2 days in a row. So I figured if a posted a more manly picture of the car I drove in the Philadelphia area I might be able to regain some of my picture making machismo.

civilized ku # 2966-67 ~ chillin' out

rink waif ~ Marlborough, MA. • click to embiggen
The wife and the fireplace ~ Rist Camp / Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Returned from hockey tournament in Philadelphia directly to Rist Camp, my primary residence for the next 5 weeks. I will be driving to my real home in the next 2 days to fetch my computer and accessories so I can work and post entries. Back at you soon.

tourist picture / civilized ku # 2965 / diptych # 157 ~ conversation / dialogue

clan picture makers ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
bike ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
late day beach haze ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen

Just read a good opinion essay, The Conversation of Photography, on Conscientious Photography Magazine. The essay is a good read and addresses issues that will probably be of interest to many.

Issues such as: "... so many genres of photography have become so stale", and "Contemporary photography has become too comfortable ...", and "... it can’t just be a rehash of things we’ve seen a gazillion times already ...", "What I’m interested in instead is the dialogue someone’s work has (or attempts to have) with everything else."

IMO, the essay has a good deal of food for thought.

civilized ku # 2951-64 / people ~ some things are worth saving / a lament

my favorite ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
new neighborhood / old neighborhood ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
new "cottages" ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
traditional cottages ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
friendly people ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen

Let me state my bias right from the start ... the top picture in this entry is one which depicts my all-time favorite Jersey Shore rental (after 20 years of rentals).

As I have written on many Jersey Shore entries over the past 20 years, one of the things that I most dislike about the place is the creeping conspicuous consumption (aka: nothing exceeds like excess) which is, IMO, destroying the physical infrastructure of an earlier era of beach culture. The infrastructure to which I am referring is that of the traditional shore vacation cottage.

Every year, more and more traditional cottages are being leveled and replaced by extravagant McMansions. Structures which seem to have little to do with beach culture as opposed to the drive / need to demonstrate that, metaphorically writing, my dick is bigger than your dick.

That written, my question is this ... what is it about the ultra-wealthy that causes them to not understand and appreciate the notion of simple pleasures? Why must everything in their lives be so over-the-top? And, in the case of the shore culture, why, in their drive for conspicuous consumption, do they not appreciate the "indigenous culture" of the places that they so eagerly and thoughtlessly bulldoze out of existence?

It wouldn't surprise me if, sometime down the road, someone / some agency decides to preserve the last remaining vestige of a traditional cottage street as an outdoor museum of sorts. A place where the despoilers can remark about how "quaint" things once were at the shore. Although, most likely, to a person, they will also be pleased that, thank goodness, it isn't like that anymore and wonder how anyone could possibly manage to live / vacation like that.

I would be remiss in not relating that, during my walkabout while making these pictures, the only place there were people on the streets and porches were in those neighborhoods comprised of traditional shore cottages. The "rich" enclaves were devoid of any traces of human outdoor activity. Apparently they have no interest in mingling with the hoi polloi.

The 2 people in the friendly people picture actually took the initiative in starting a conversation with me*. I learned from the woman that their traditional cottage (albeit renovated) was purchased by her mother in the early 50s. And assuming (a valid assumption gleaned from the conversation), that the other person on the porch is her son, it is encouraging to think that their shore tradition might survive for at least one more generation. Perhaps even more, inasmuch as the visible evidence of children on the premise (absolutely no evidence of the same in the "rich" enclaves) suggests that there may be hope for even another generation of survival for a traditional shore cottage.

Then again, there's always the possibility that some despoiler will show up at their door with an outrageous wad of cash and make them an offer they can't refuse.

* I can only imagine the "conversation" I might have encountered if one the despoilers had seen me picturing their structure.

triptych # 21 / pano / ku # 1307 / civilized ku # 2950 ~ the end is nigh

RGB swimming ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
Kelleher family migration to beach for clan picture ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
dune top ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen
poolside moment ~ Stone Harbor, NJ • click to embiggen

It was Woody Allen who said (in the movie, Sleeper):

"I'm what you would call a teleological, existential atheist. I believe that there's an intelligence to the universe, with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey."

I have no doubt that I'm in one of those "certain parts of New Jersey" of which Allen was speaking. That's why I am so grateful that, in 12 hours, I'm outa here and on my way back to civilization where I'm fairly certain there will be at least a minimal amount of intelligence.