civilized ku # 3013 / diptych # 194 / squares² # 12 ~ "terrible crap"

urban flora ~Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
urban flora ~Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
urban flora ~Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

I few entries back I wrote about my reading of a-person-not-a-dective-but-functioning-as-one novel and the protagonist's view on the affected art world (aka: the academic lunatic fringe). As I continue reading through the series of books featuring the same protagonist*, I have encountered a number of other of the protagonist's pronouncements on the subject of art, including this exchange with an artist .... When asked, after making an insightful comment on a woman's painting, if he is a "Member of the club" ....

"Hell, woman, I even know the trick words that mean absolutely nothing. Like dynamic symmetry."

"Tonal integrity?" (she responded)

"Sure. Structural perceptions. Compositionally iconoclastic."

She laughed aloud ... "It's such terrible crap, isn't it? The language of gallery people and critics, and insecure painters ...."

After this exchange the artist asked the protagonist what "his words" on the subject of good art might be. His response ....

"Does a painting always look the same or will it change according to the light and how I happen to feel? And after it has been hung for a month, will it disappear so completely that the only time I might notice it would be if it fell off the wall?"

That exchange comes very close to my feelings and thoughts as applied to art in general and photography in particular.

While the surface of a photographic print doesn't change with the light that falls upon it (although the perception of color may) as can the textured surface of a painting, a good photograph (like any good art) has the ability to re-engage a viewer, over time and with repeated viewing, with different perceptions - the prick of one's eye and sensibilities - of a picture based upon the different feelings and emotions the viewer brings to the viewing thereof over time.

IMO, all art is personal - as made by the maker and as seen by the viewer - and breaking down its individual components via the discussion of "terrible crap", iMo, sucks the life out of a piece of art.

Think of it this way .... I've seen some visually amazing and engaging pieces of Lego constructions. Some on a massive scale and complexity. While I wouldn't label them exactly as Fine Art - although some might - nevertheless, they are the result of some individual's very creative thought and execution.

Be that as it may, their artistic genius is in the sum of their parts - quite literally, thousands of parts. The genius is not to be found in the parts themselves. Looking at the individual parts does little to enhance the viewing experience. In fact, by directing one's attention to the individual parts (dissecting it), one stands a good chance of missing the "Big Picture".

iMo, the "Big Picture" is all about how a picture pricks the eye and sensibilities of a viewer well beyond the initial viewing. The whys (often quite arcane / tedious) and the hows (often quite speculative) of it - things so precious the academic lunatic fringe and their cohorts - are, for the most parts, sidebars which, as afterthoughts, may provide the viewer with some understanding of how the how and why of a picture may affect one's feelings about and perceptions of that picture.

However, I never read or think about the hows and the whys until well after a picture or body of work has pricked my eye and sensibilities. Because, iMo, it's all about the picture, in and of itself.

*Travis McGee, the fictional character featured in 21 crime fiction books written - 1964-1980 - by John D. MacDonald. Travis McGee, the character and the novels, have the prototype for many fictional crime fighting characters. On that subject it is worth noting that, with the rerelease of his novels, all of the books have an introduction by Lee Child (nom de plume of Jim Grant), the creator of the character Jack Reacher, a-person-not-a-dective-but-functioning-as-one, and that series of books (20 and counting).

civilized ku # 3012 / diptych # 193 ~ under bridges

Pirates mural ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
under bridges ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

If I were to be in Pittsburgh and had exhausted all of the urban flora picturing possibilities - don't know how that would be possible other than just saying, "Ok. Enough is enough." - the other ubiquitous referent for picturing making would undoubtedly be bridges or, in my case, under bridges.

Pittsburgh reputedly has more bridges than Venice, Italy. It is known by the moniker "The City Of Bridges". And that is very appropriate inasmuch as, according to a 2006 study, there are 446 bridges in Pittsburgh.

Whatever the number of bridges, there can be no doubt that the opportunity to make pictures under bridges is just around every corner.

civilized ku # 3011 / squares² # 11 ~ urban flora continued

Urban flora ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
Urban flora ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

As mentioned in my final Pittsburgh entry, I was heading out with my eye and sensibilities attuned to urban flora. So I did and within a 1 hour walk around the Lawrenceville neighborhood - law school girl lives there - I had pictured enough urban flora to start a pretty nice body of work. During my walk I made 18 pictures which, together with the 6 I made the previous day, gives me a solid start on an urban flora body of work.

While my intention was to start a Pittsburgh based urban flora project, I won't be back in Pittsburgh until next June (law school girl's graduation). Consequently, I am encouraged to continue my urban flora picture making quest whenever I find myself in an urban area or any place where I might find unfettered growth of chaotic scrub.

I am also quite certain that, if I take the time to peruse my picture library, there will be a fair number of preexisting urban flora pictures to add to the collection. Some of those will most likely have been made during past trips to Pittsburgh because, apparently, when in Pittsburgh, I can't avoid seeing and picturing urban flora.

civilized ku # 3010 / triptych #24-25 ~ urban flora

Red patio set ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
urban flora ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
urban flora ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

If I were in Pittsburgh for an extended length of time (7+ days without any pressing social commitments), now or in the future, I believe that the picturing project I primarily engage with would be that of urban flora. The reason is simple - most of the neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh are rife with the unfettered growth of chaotic scrub, most notably, but certainly not limited to kudzu.

The reason's for this phenomenon are many but chief amongst them are the hilly topography of the city with many steep uninhabitable ravines and hillsides and the spread of urban decay which accompanied the collapse of the steel industry and the subsequent loss of population - between 1970-1990 the city lost over 30% of its population.

In any event, I'm heading out to see what I can see with my eye and sensibilities attuned to urban flora.

civilized ku # 3008-09 ~ looking for a photo op / found the best one

For Best Photo Op ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
Almost Famous / Wow! ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

I didn't post an entry yesterday 'cause I was out and about and looking for some photo ops. In fact, I did find one that was advertised as "The Best". Guess it was my lucky day .... that and my brush with the Almost Famous. Wow! What a day. More Pittsburgh entries tomorrow.

kitchen life # 75 / diptych # 192 (trees) ~ think about your troubles

tea bag tag ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
trees ~ Essex, NY / Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Off to Pittsburgh, PA for 5 days to see some friends and have Thanksgiving with law-school girl. I'll be making some Pittsburgh pictures and posting every day. Meanwhile, consider listening to this song while looking at the tea bag tag picture.

kitchen sink # 31 / diptych # 190 / diptych # 191 (trees) ~ thinking about light

pots and pans / reflections ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
red and blue ~ Marquis theater / Middlebury College • Middlebury, VT. • click to embiggen
trees ~ Manhattan, NYC / near Union Falls, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

While I continue with the monumental task of choosing 5-7 tree pictures - from over 80 such pictures - for submission to and consideration for the juried In Celbratiopn of Trees exhibition, I still continue to make pictures of those things, wherever I may encounter them, which prick my eye and sensibilities. Quite obviously, the life in my kitchen and kitchen sink continue to present (to my eye and sensibilities) referents which hit me where I live, picture making wise.

One of the interesting things about the kitchen in general and the kitchen sink in particular is how, over the course of the year, the light entering through the kitchen window changes from season to season. The change is most notable in the direction of the light as the sun sinks lower or rises higher in the southern sky as the seasons progress throughout the year. The color quality of the light changes as well but the changes are rather subtle in character.

It has occurred to me, if the desire ever became manifest, that I could create a still life - which could be duplicated over and over in the exact same sink location or on a kitchen counter - and picture it (over and over, from the exact same POV) throughout the year (once a month?). To be really descriptive, re: the changes in the light, the pictures most likely should be made at the exact same time of day and in all kinds of weather. To make the project really comprehensive and diverse, it would make sense to chose 4-5 different window locations about the house and replicate (with different still life arrangements and referents) the exercise in each location.

A significant part of what would make this project interesting, at least to me, is that I have become very aware how the changes, over the seasons, in the light entering the house through different windows effects and affects my perceptions about the seasons of the year. I find it very interesting that I don't need to go outside or even look outside a window to sense and feel the change of seasons.

Maybe it's time to start a picture making experiment with a single window and a single still life (which can remain intact for a few months to half a year) in order to see what happens, picture wise.

diptych # 187-89 (trees) / kitchen sink # 31 ~ some thoughts on B&W

kitchen sink / dirty water ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
birch ~ somewhere in Connecticut / near Swastika, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
birch ~ Battery Park - Manhattan, NYC / Au Sable River near Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
trees ~ Lake Champlain shoreline/ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

As I have been making tree diptychs, which, BTW, are NOT my intended end product, it occurred to me after snooping around on the interweb that, when a tree is the primary visual referent in a picture, a B&W conversion is an interesting option.

I come to that conclusion because the overwhelming majority of trees, trunk wise, have no real color and what color they do have is primarily monochromatic. In addition, tree trunks usually exhibit a high degree of texture. Consequently, the combination of the monochromatic and textural characteristics of tree trunks is a fine referent for a B&W approach to picturing them. But, here's the caveat ....

.... not any old conversion from color to B&W will do.

Inasmuch as I have had a fair amount of experience, back in the good ol' days of B&W film, with using Wratten filters - green red, yellow, blue - to accentuate / de-accentuate the B&W tonal values of colors found in a scene, I am having a fair amount of success using the Image > Adjustments > Black and White color specific sliders tool in Photoshop. And Holy Digital Darkroom, Batman, the color based sliders are essentially infinitely adjustable Wratten filters.

And like so many advantages found in the digital darkroom, I can create a number of different conversion picture files using different color sliders and then blend the results into one final conversion file. That allows me to adjust the tonal values of multiple colors, something that was not possible in the analog film / wet darkroom days.

The net result of this type of B&W conversion can far exceed anything that was possible in the the good ol' days. I suspect Sir Ansel might have thought he had died and gone to heaven - he's most certainly dead but I have no idea were he might be other than in a box in the cold, cold ground - with the amount of control (Zone System on steroids) that he could have had in the B&W digital darkroom.