ku # 475

A back bay along the Raquette • click to embiggenIt seems like it's been awhile since I've posted a plain old ku. It also seems like it's been awhile since I held forth on things photographic. So, consider this -

More convincingly than any other kind of picture, a photograph evokes the tangible presence of reality. Its most fundamental use and its broadest acceptance has been as a substitute for the subject itself - a simpler, more permanent, more clearly visible version of the plain fact.

Our faith in the truth of a photograph rests on the belief that the lens is impartial, and will draw the subject as it is, neither nobler nore meaner. This faith may be naive and illusory (for though the lens draws the subject, the photographer defines it), but it persists. The photographer's vision convinces us to the degree that the photographer hides his hand. ~ from The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski.

Szarkowski wrote this in 1966. Much has changed. However, even in the era of Wall-esque 'constructions', the above still holds true. If the goal is to make a more clearly visible version of the plain fact, the photographer had best hide his hand, not his brain, just his hand.

But, of course, in evoking the tangible presence of reality, a photographer with a brain can learn that ... the appearance of the world [is] richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed. He can discover that ... his pictures could reveal not only the clarity but also the obscurity of things, and that these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seemed ordered and meaningful.

civilized ku # 42 ~ once again, small is beautiful

Adirondack rustic in the making • click to embiggenOne of the totally wonderful things about living in the largest wilderness in the east is that wood is in plentiful supply so, when we decided to rustic-up (replace) our front porch, we have been able to 'buy local'.

In this picture, everything below the roof joists is cedar purchased from local mills. The cedar decking is from one of the 'big' lumber companies. The cedar posts and the rough-cut 2×10 pine header is from a 'nut-job' about a mile down the road by the name of Howard Aubin - our local black-helicopter, the government's coming to take me away today, hate the APA with a passion conspiracy freak. He doesn't smell too good either.

That said, he's as honest and hard working as the day is long.

In the true Adirondack rustic building tradition, we're kind of winging it, design-wise, with the porch. But with Howard so close and ever-willing to rip to order, it's working out very well. We get to a point where we haven't really thought ahead all that much and we just sort of make it up on the spot and then I run over to Howards and have him whip up whatever we dream up.

As I said before, small is beautiful.

crafted ku # 7 - spawn of cinemascape

Two can play that game • click to embiggenThis picture is kind of a father of cinemascapist pictures son of cinemascapist thing, or, a like-father, like-son thing, only in resverse.

Hugo and I had part of a Sunday afternoon to kill so off to the mill we went. It wasn't a picturing walk but I did have a camera with me. When this opportunity presented itself, I was able to grab 5 handheld frames for stitching.

The idea that it plants in my head is that the mill is ripe for pano picturing.

civilized ku # 41 ~ a walk in the forest #8

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenI'll be gone early tomorrow (Friday) so I'm posting this on Thursday evening. For those who have been following the walk in the forest/abandoned mill series, all of the pictures from the walk (for those of you coming from theonlinephotographer, they are all made with the Oly E-510) can be viewed here.

There are a number of pictures that have not yet been posted here and I think it's interesting to see them all together without words. Let me know what you think.

civilized ku # 40 ~ a bug's life

Ron watches me watching bugs • click to embiggenLast evening during dinner we discovered these guys doing whatever it is they are doing. Whatever they are doing, they were still doing it this morning.

Maybe I left the cap off the Viagra.

There were 3 teenage girls at the table and the conversation rapidly devolved into giggles. They eventually deduced that the bugs must be gay because whatever they are doing, they are doing it cheek-to-cheek.

In any event ... Obladi, oblada, life goes on, rah. Lala how their life goes on.

FYI - one of life's little photo lessons

I have always been amused, bemused and occasionally annoyed throughout my life in photography by the equipment geeks. Seems like they can never get enough about pixels, photosites, arrays, edge sharpness, noise, startup times, lens comparisons, and on and on and on and ...

Good for them. If they enjoy that kind of stuff, I say, have at it with all the gusto you can manage.

For the educated and experienced, it's all rather harmless. However, for the neophyte and inexperienced it can be ... well ... if not actually harmful, confusing, distracting and quite beside the point of learning how to make good pictures.

Case in point - Aaron, of recent exponentially expanding Cinemascape fame, who definitely qualifies as a neophyte. He purchased his first camera and began picturing in earnest about 6-8 months ago.

After an exceedingly quick and short tour around the photography-style block, he has settled into his Cinemascape MO. His most recent cinemascape is not only made in a cinema, but also features a cinema person, Steve Buscemi. How Aaron was able to pull this off is another story and not germane to this story.

Aaron made this picture within a day or two of our conversation about his desire for a new camera. He had done some internet photo forum/tech review searches and arrived at the conclusion that his current camera wasn't good enough (for a variety of equipment geek reasons). He was seeking my advice on a solution. My advice was to keep taking pictures and get on with it - advice that he wasn't all that eager to heed.

Fast forward to a small private dinner with Steve Buscemi where Aaron cornered him and presented a few of his Cinemascapes for the purpose of luring him into doing one. Obviously, the mission was accomplished.

His mini-portfolio also attracted the attention of the other guests and the result was; an intro to a LA rep who handles 'hot' new shooters, a request from another cinema person, James Tolkan (the principal from Back to the Future, the cigar-chomping admiral from Top Gun, and an occasional golfing companion for me), to have a cinemascape done of himself and a request from a wealthy entrepreneur to stay in touch because he likes to support young artists. Not bad for an evening's fun.

The other result, which I really like, was a stroke of unintended marketing genius/luck. After the closing party at which Aaron had a Buscemi cinemascape print to show around, he was feeling in a celebratory mode. He adjourned to a local watering hole, aptly name The Waterhole, were he again showed the print around. Before you know it, patrons (complete strangers) were going out to an ATM to get cash to purchase prints. One individual purchased 5 prints which he said would be sealed and conserved until the day Aaron was famous.

So, all of that said, here's the point. Not one person in any of the aforementioned activities mentioned a single thing about resolution, pixel count, noise, etc., etc. - they just liked/loved the pictures.

I think Aaron learned something. Me, I'm going out tonight to a bar and see if I can sell some prints.

urban ku # 74 ~ a violent afternoon storm

Afternoon thunderstorm • click to embiggenIt has long been said that, in the Adirondacks, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. This adage has never been more true than over the last couple years. The weather has been very unsettled and changeable.

Yesterday started out extremely hot and humid with a clear cloudless sky. Around 3pm violent thunderstorms with winds up to 74mph swept into the area. At one point, between outbursts, the air was so thick and still you could cut it with a knife.

I really like to picture at times like that. There's quality of ominous expection and power that is very electrifying and charged.

Yesterday, I had just finished peeling the bark from the cedar logs we're using for posts on our new Adirondack rustic-style front porch when the weather moved in and, for several hours, put on quite a show.

civilized ku # 39 ~ a walk in the forest #7

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenThe picture that is the subject of today's entry is, for me, a very interesting one. It addresses a sentence written by Graham Clarke in his book The Photograph - '...they return art photography to a popular forum, releasing it to deal with the terms of our existence rather than the idea of formal content divorced from the world of its meaning.' FYI, the 'they' he refers to are various so-called postmodernist photographers.

I mentioned in an earlier entry that what observers 'read' and subsequently get from a picture is based, for the most part, on the their own life experience. The photographer creates a world that the viewer may enter and explore at will, right up to the limits of his/her ability to use their imagination in coaxing meaning from the signs/signifiers found in all pictures.

My imagination was greatly influenced by my upbringing in a Roman Catholic environment. All of my education was presented to me on a platter from the hands of 'people of the cloth' - nuns, brothers and priests (Jesuit) or lay persons so chosen to reflect their RC sensibilities. Part of what I took away from the experience was two-fold - a sense that things were not always (if ever) what they seemed to be, and, a deep and abiding sense of curiousity/need to find out. The main influences were 'mission babies' and the Jesuit propensity to pose questions and then let you figure it out for yourself - just like Brian (from Monty Python's Life of Brian) said, '... You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves ...!'

Both of these qualities have certainly provided me with a couple of personal assets which dovetail nicely with postmodern sensibilities. One could say that, from a very early age, I was predisposed in life to wrestle with the terms of our existence and to look beyond the idea of formal content divorced from the world of its meaning - in the context of 'life', read 'formal content' to mean 'accepted' dogma (art, religion, politics, culture).

Since my Art is more than just personal entertainment and is an extention of who and what I am, it just seems that I am, by nature and nurture, a postmodernist through and through. While many who distain postmodernism in Art dismiss it as an adopted affection, nothing could be further from the truth. In my particular case, (and I am sure that of many others) I was a 'postmodernist' in thought and action (life and art) long before I even heard the term.

And that's why a walk in the forest # 7 is interesting to me. Amongst the many emotions and questions that the picture creates for me, I am curious to know why someone who lives in the largest wilderness in the lower 48 would chose to build a fire ring and bench on an upper level of an abandoned mill - although I must admit that the tree growing through an opening is a very nice touch.

I came across this scene near the end of my walk and it was interesting to encounter signs of human construction in the midst of decay and destruction. I also wonder if the constructor had a direct or legacy connection to the mill - a relative who worked there, perhaps. Did the mill's demise effect them personally?

On the other hand, maybe it's just a hangout for teenagers - it is hard to access and not visible from ground level. It would be a great place to cop a first feel, smoke a little dope or drink some beer without too much chance of adult interference.

Who knows? - but, that's exactly what interests me because I am drawn to pictures which '...seek[s] meaning in what is to hand, so that the camera is part of a constant probing and measure of one's terms of existence; the daily rhythms and objects of everyday life.' (again from Graham Clarke).