single woman # 27 / triptych # 17 ~ context and conceits

single woman ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
La Tour CN Tower ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggenJust as the Lone Ranger was repeatedly asked in the recent Lone Ranger movie - "What's with the mask?" - I have often been asked - "What's with the black border?" Here are a few thoughts from others on the subject (borders) followed by my thoughts on the same:

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft .... The central act of photography, the art of choosing and eliminating forces a concentration on the picture's edge - the line that separates in from out - and on the shapes that are created by it .... The line of decision is the picture's edge .... The photographer edits the meanings and patterns of the world through an imaginary frame. The frame is the beginning of his picture's geometry. It is to the photographer as the cushion is to the billiard table. ~ John Szarkowski - THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S EYE

I use a black border for a number of reasons:

1. back in the day of film picture making, it was not uncommon for picture makers to print with a negative holder which had been modified to allow a part of the unexposed edge of the film to be printed. One of the most oft cited reasons for this was to demonstrate that the picture maker in question didn't need no stinking easel blades to crop his/her pictures. No siree! "Cropping" was performed in-camera at the moment the picture was made. Post-picturing cropping during printing was only for amateurs and incompetent boobs. I am not a boob. Hence, black borders.

2. while any observer should know / recognize when viewing a picture, the edges of the picture are where the picture ends. They should should also know / recognize that the picture maker has consciously decided where to put an end to his/her picture information. However, some observers are boobs and I use a black border to make my picture ending decisions very unavoidably obvious. And, for the other picture viewing boobs who are much concerned with art about art / photography about photography, I hope the black border gives them some comfort and joy when viewing my pictures.

3. in a tip of the hat to John Szarkowski and his "as the cushion is to the billiard table" analogy, I must admit that I have always used black borders for just that analogical reason - most of my square pictures evidence a center-weighted form of design. However, I have always quite deliberately ignored the notion that a picture should have only one principal idea, topic, or center of interest to which the viewer's eyes are attracted. No siree, not for me! IMO, that idea is a good one only for simple-minded boobs who are not, re: the acts of picture making or picture viewing, very good at visual multi-tasking. So, since I am not a simple-minded boob, I tend to pack my pictures with a fair amount of visual information - aka: visual energy - which most often is floating / hovering around my central and centered primary visual referent. And it is here where my black border comes into play - as the viewer's eye is moving about the visual field, drawn by various shapes, colors, forms, collateral referents, etc. - aka: design strategies - the eye inevitably bangs into one of my billiard cushions and ricochets - visually speaking, a glancing (blovius 1 / jimmi nuffin 0) rebound - back toward the central referent. Black border mission accomplished.

3a. the glancing rebound effect is also a get your ass, visually wise, back where it belongs. That is to write, within the edges of my vision where the stuff I have selected that want you to see can be found. Sure, there's a whole world beyond the black border, but that's why I make a lot of pictures of other stuff. However, the time for viewing them is later. The time for viewing this picture is now. Pay attention.

4. when I first began making digital medium pictures, I was not very impressed with the idea that digital-based picture making was changing the medium and its apparatus (aka: conventions - not gear). How pictures were/are being made, gear and technique wise, has certainly changed but the bottom line is still the same - a good picture is a good picture no matter how it was/is made. Additionally, a good picture is a good picture inasmuch as the brains behind the operation are what matters most and that aspect of the medium and is apparatus has not changed a whit. Consequently, part of reason for using a black border in my digital-based picture making is to reference the history of the medium and its apparatus (see reason # 1) to make that point. Hence, the other question, black border related, I hear quite often (although never from the medium and its apparatus history deficient boobs)- "Are you still using film?" - which, to my way of thinking, confirms my belief, re: picture making, that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

5. for a long time I have been in the habit of employing black borders and like all habits, good or bad, it has taken on a life of its own to the point where my pictures seem unfinished / naked without it. Consequently, all of the preceding reasons, rationalizations, and conceits aside, I just flat out like the way my pictures look with a black border.

civilized ku # 2705-11 ~ making the best of an iffy situation

FIRE EXIT / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
FIRE HOSE # 1 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
FIRE HOSE # 2 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
FIRE HOSE # 3 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
FIRE HOSE # 4 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
Men's Room # 1 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
Men's Room # 2 / Ontario Science Center ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
During our recent trip to Toronto, Hugo and I experienced a major disappointment (albeit our only disappointment) which was our visit to the Ontario Science Center.

My disappointment was the result of my years long enthusiasm for a return visit to the OSC. That desire/ yearning was based upon my last very enjoyable visit to the OSC. However, that last visit was approximately 35 years ago and, unfortunately, IMO, much has changed in the interim (duh). Again IMO, the changes are not for the better.

Hugo was not impressed in the slightest. His opinion of the OSC was, in a word, "boring". That assessment was damning indeed inasmuch as Hugo is a museum goer of the highest order. His judgment was most likely based upon the fact that the place - it's very big place - seemed to be aimed at entertaining very young kids. Fortunately for Hugo (and me), the visit was salvaged by an entertaining and informative IMAX movie.

That written, my primary salvation was had in picturing a wide variety of fire hose installations and a few mini light shows that were to be found outside of restrooms. Although, I must admit to feeling more than a bit weirdly conspicuous while I was hanging around pointing my camera at restroom entrance/exits.

diptych # 64 (civilized ku # 2702-03) ~ arches • unter/über

Arches ~ Washington, DC / Toronto, CA • click to embiggen

Why does man create? Is it man’s purpose on earth to express himself, to bring form to thought, and to discover meaning in experience? Or is it just something to do when he’s bored? ~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Good questions.

civilized ku # 2701 ~ masked and anonymous

mask and fan ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenA camera is a machine which is capable of ripping a moment and its attendant industry from the fabric of time, neatly packaging that time-stamped data into an ultra dense network packet comprised of other promiscuous and discursive evidentiary visual stimulus and presenting them in a convincingly real, ever-expanding, manufactured universe of interpretive meanings. Make of it what you will.

urban canyons # 1 -5 ~ back to where I once belonged

urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
8×10 view camera work / c.1979-80 ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggenI have always liked, one might even write "loved", picturing urban environments. In fact, it would be quite accurate to write that my immersion into the world of moving beyond the pretty picture began with my first picture making, back in 1979-80, of an urban environment with my 8×10 view camera.

During my recent visits to NYC and Toronto, the call of picturing the urban environment has reemerged with remarkable insistence and clarity. However, there is a difference between the siren call which instigated my earlier work and that which is gnawing at me today; today's voice is drawing me to the often imposing and towering canyons of many modern urban settings and the play of light and shadow which regularly permeates those spaces.

In addition to their visual appeal, the canyons evoke in me contradictory feelings and thoughts of standoff-ish coolness and of an alluring warmth. Like their counterparts in the natural world, walking amongst them inspires a sense of wonder and awe, albeit in this case, at what man has wrought - a feeling which stands in contrast to but which also aligns in many ways with that which nature has wrought in the natural world.

In any event, I hope to explore urban canyons in a much more deliberate and concerted manner. Unfortunately, but by choice, I live in a place which is far removed from most urban canyons. Consequently, I will need to concentrate on urban canyon picturing opportunities when they present themselves to my eye and sensibilities.

And, I should mention that my long-unused 8×10 view camera is screaming at the top its bellowed lungs, "Take me! Take me! Take me!"

diptych # 63 / civilized ku # 2698-99 ~ chance and circumstance

CN Tower with shadows ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggenAs long as you are continually in a f8-and-be-there picturing state of mind, when chance and circumstance presents a golden opportunity you'll able to make a picture or two of a well pictured referent which transcends, at least by a little bit, the typical tourist snapshot.

what is a photograph ? # 9 (civilized ku # 2697) ~ a tourist's snapshot or something else?

Hugo and the CN Tower ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggenI have high hopes of getting a few thoughts or ideas on the question if I keep on asking it enough times.

civilized ku # 2695-96 ~ hockey, hockey, hockey

outside NHL Hall of Fame ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
Hugo scores - upper right (see orange puck) ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggenOur (I and Hugo) trip to Toronto was essentially instigated by Hugo's long standing desire to visit the National Hockey League Hall of Fame. So, naturally that objective was first up on our (his) agenda. That written, we both enjoyed the visit.