civilized ku # 33 ~ a walk in the forest

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenA few days ago Aaron 'discovered' - on Flickr - that my little village of Au Sable Forks has a 'secret' buried in the woods. His excitement, photography-wise, knew no bounds. So, yesterday, around 12:30pm, I got a phone call that he was at the mill and I should get my butt over there asap.

The abandoned mill is big rambling affair which I would estimate to cover about 400-500,000 sq. ft. It has been abandoned for almost 40 years. When it was first built, it was an iron ore mill. This region, extending from Lake Champlain, was the first 'steel' capital of North America - I'm talking Revolutionary War era - Benedict Arnold owned a mine here and many of his war exploits (the good ones) were conducted on Lake Champlain. He is honored around these parts as a hero with an astrisk. When the 'steel' industry moved elsewhere, paper became king at the mill until competition and environmental issues shut it down.

The mill is truly 'buried' on the forest - 40 years of grow has hidden it almost entirely from view even thought it sits on the banks of the West Branch of the Au Sable.
Aaron in one of the mill basements • click to embigggenWhile we were picturing, fly fishermen were in the river and we couldn't see them unless we hacked our way right up to the river bank through dense brush and trees, Needless to say they couldn't see the us or the mill either.

I came back from our walk in the woods with quite a number of good pictures. Viewed together they create, IMO, an interesting 'world'. So, it is my intent for this week on The Landscapist is to post one diptych a day. There will be a minimum of words, at least on the diptych entries, and emphasis on 'creating a world' based on the mill. I want to see if it is possible, on the web (the 'flow' thing and all), to actually 'create a world' with a series of pictures.

The presentation will visually follow this post - a broad view together with a more intimate view.

So, please let me know what you think as the series progresses.

urban ku # 71 ~ wherein I break radio silence

The Cottage • click to embiggenAs you know, The Landscapist is not about gear and technique. I rarely discuss it. This is one of those 'rarely's. The reason that I am breaking radio silence on the topic is simple - I want to give credit where credit due. In this case, to Olympus.

In my analog heyday, I was a Nikon guy (35mm-wise). Today, every once in a while, I glance over at the Nikon bodies and lenses (3 bodies, 6 lenses) and remember the good old days. There they sit, neglected and unused for going on 3 years now. Whenever I get the urge to shoot film, it's large format - 8×10, for me. 35mm color picturing just seems like to much hassle and too many limitations.

Once I made the leap to digital, I just became addicted to the speed, ease, and tremendous control of digital files in the digital darkroom. For the first couple years I pictured with a high-end 'prosumer' digicam - 7mp with non-interchangeable 4-1 zoom lens camera which could capture RAW files. A great camera which produced wonderful prints - keeping in mind that I am not a digital 'perfectionist'. Those early ku prints still stand up very very well when displayed side-by-side with those of made from my first dslr - an 8mp Olympus E-500.

I chose the Olympus because of the size of the camera and lenses (their 'pro' lens are optically superb) that result from the 4/3rds format,and the fact that the 4/3rds format is an "open' format, meaning that all lenses made for the 4/3rds format by any camera maker are interchangeable on any maker's cameras. Now that Leica has committed to 4/3rds, that is an exciting capability.

Yesterday, my new 10mp Olympus E-510 arrived and, halleluiah, it's a gem. The biggest benefit of the new camera is the fact that Olympus has put IS (image stabilization) in the body - now all my lens are IS. Halleluiah.

Last evening, after a very hot and humid round of golf, I retired to The Cottage in Lake Placid for some refreshing beer and gazpacho (the wife and kids are out of town). Out came the camera for its first exposures. All I can say is that I am very pleased with the results - very low noise at ISO 400 and very sharp detailed results aided by the IS (I balanced the camera on a railing at 1/2 second ss). FYI, the color balance is a bit on the warm side because I picture with only partially corrected WB under tungsten light - I like the warmth.

So there you have it - that's about a technical as I get. I posted this topic because I think Olympus deserves credit for bucking the 'system' with its commitment (along with Leica, Panasonic and Sigma [lenses]) to the 4/3rds format.

For anyone who is considering a 10mp camera, the Olympus E510 and E410 (no IS) are very worthy competitors in the marketplace - especially when you consider the superb compact 'pro' optics.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

ku # 474 ~ things with hooves and thinking out loud

Elk and Scottish Highland cattle • click to embiggenNo luck yesterday finding any referents for pigs - plenty of elk, Scottish Highland cattle, alpacas and assorted other animal oddities (including my favorite - exotic chickens), but no pigs.

re: thinking - I am re-reading An Adirondack Passage, The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome. The book is about a modern-day (1990) redo by Ms. Jerome of the 1883 trans-Adirondack solo canoe trip of Nessmuk, aka George Washington Sears. She follows a 180 mile route that very closely approximates that traveled by Nessmuk. In the book, Ms. Jerome quotes many passages from Nessmuk's writings about his voyage as she seeks out the same locations and places that he visited in 1883.

I am re-reading this book because I am seriously considering the same trip this summer. The fact that Nessmuk did it at the same age as I am now (forever younger than springtime) is an interesting incentive. The trip has been under consideration by me and the wife for a couple of years, but we never seem to be able to find the time to do it together, but the more I think about it, the more I think that I, like Nessmuk, should go it alone. Maybe the wife can join me for a few legs of the trip, which would be very nice.

The trip is really an interesting one because it slices diagonally, lower SW to upper NE, across the heart of the park. The route traverses stretches of wilderness and human habitation, which affords the opportunity to spend nights out under the stars together with nights on a featherbed in a 4-star lodge. Likewise with dining - cooking on the lightweight camp stove or dining at a lakeside eatery (4-star to diner).

I think that this something I just have to do, and my goal is to produce a lavishly illustrated book (and maybe a documentary film [video]).

BTW, since the route touches civilization nearly everyday (if I want it to), I can take my laptop along for the ride and use it to post almost daily updates - pix and text - along the way.

ku # 473 ~ real life

A lucky happenstance • clcik to embiggenI should clarify that this was a 'lucky happenstance' for me, not the cow. I assume that luck had little to do with the situation, although, I'm not very familiar with the circumstances of breeding Holsteins.

In any event, I was out yesterday scouting for the 'perfect' cow to photograph for reference for a county fair logo ilustration I am creating.
Fair logo • click to embiggen I spied a likely referent far from the road near a barn and drove back to see if I could find a human who might grant me permission to picture the cow. None was to be found, so I went ahead and coaxed the cow into a favorable pose and grabbed the picture.

As I was back in my car about to depart, there was tap on the window and there was the farmer/breeder. I quickly explained my mission and his response was, "Want to take a picture of a calf being born?" My answer was, "Yes", and there you have it.

Today, it's a hunt for piglets. - ahh, the glamourous life of a wilderness/rural creative director/designer/photographer/illustrator guy.

urban ku # 70 ~ transformation - more about truth

A life cycle of wood with dog tail • No Embiggen - it's a Polaroid

Mark Kingwell also wrote;

...The truth of the image is the truth of time: not its metaphysical essence, whatever that might be, but its presence; its inescapability ... The background lies (Ed. - untruths) here - the belief that the image delivers me to a captured slice of the world 'as it really is' - actually works to open up a different foreground truth; that time and light (Ed. - shutter and aperture) are how we make our worlds .... Responsible work is in the service of the world a photograph gives. Documentary photographers (Ed. - to include 'documentary' as Art), at their best, unfold both the truth of a time and place and the truth that there is no general truth, and hence, no single world out there ... a double-revelation: of circumstance, and our troubled relationship to circumstance. Otherwise known as mortality.

I realized/accepted quite awhile ago that my picturing/pictures are, in no small part, about my mortality. Maybe that helps explain my visual attraction to and fascination with decay. But I also realize that my picturing/pictures are about our (collective) mortality.

IMO, postmodernism in photography, stripped of all its academic pretensions, is, at its root, an acceptance of our mortality on a very human level. It rejects the fantasy-fueled escapism of romantic/sentimental notions of the world around us and I think that's why the pretty-picture gang so thoroughly rejects it - it rattles the bars of their gilded cages of disassociation, which serve as a remove from 'circumstance and our troubled relationship to circumstance'. Fiddling while Rome burns, so to speak.

Update on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 09:51AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comments: Bret Kosmider asked: "Could it be possible to produce photographs in the romantic style but delivering a postmodernist message that is critical of society?"

my response: as opined by Mark Kingwell in urban ku # 68, pictures which '... surrender to an existing logic of aesthetic appreciation ...', tend to '... slide too easily the background of visual culture, lose their impact, [and] become mere ghosts of themselves ...'

I tend to agree, in principle, with this idea. There are exceptions, of course - Simon Norfolk's Afghanistan Chronotopia, read an article, see some pictures, is one that I like and own.

Norfolk has pictured the ravages and destruction of war in a manner that mimics/references early post-Renaissance art of destroyed structures, especially churches and palaces, bathed in gloriously golden twilight. Norfolk's pictures are sumptuous and classically beautiful in their style and presentation. They are seductive and alluring.

For me, part of the attraction of Norfolk's pictures is due to the fact that I must constantly remind myself that 'beauty' is not all it is often presented to be. Much evil hides behind the veil of a beautiful veneer - a notion that seems to be lost on much of society.

On the other hand, Gen. George Patton was claimed to have remarked, when talking about war, "God help me, I love it so."

PS - the book can be had at the lowest price on the internet through my Photo Books Link to Overstock.com - help support The Landscapist by buying from Overstock.com through this link.

FYI ~ Canoe trip dates

For those interested in the great offer they can't refuse canoe trip, the dates are Friday, August 17 - Monday, August 20.

The plan is for a 4-day, 3-night outing. Participants are invited to take the complete trip, but shorter stays are possible. We will be staying at a wilderness basecamp so late arrivals and early departues are easy enough.

So, now is the time to confirm in order to get this thing organized. Let me know, via email (link on sidebar), ASAP.

FYI ~ Toby Lloyd-Jones

Quite a long while back I posted a topic about the pictures of Toby Lloyd-Jones. Very good stuff. Toby has been kind enough to send me a link to his Polaroid series Streetlights. Again very good stuff. Check it out.

Thanks, Toby. Great to hear from you and nice to know you're still stopping by the place.

civilized ku # 32 ~ creating a world with invoice and dead fly

Dead fly with invoice • No Embiggen - it's a Polaroid

There has been much discourse and discussion on The Landscapist regarding truth in photography and words with pictures. Recently, I mentioned an intro essay by Mark Kingwell from the book Burtynsky - China titled, The Truth in Photographs, in which Kingwell deals rather nicely with truth.

Here's a passage which struck a chord with me - Photographs are not multiple depictions of some single reality, waiting out there to be cornered and cropped, and somehow relugating, even in cornering and cropping, how/what the image means. Rather, photographs offer multiple meanings. The presented image is not a reflection, or even an interpretation of a singular reality. It is, instead, the creation of a world.

Yikes ... holy cow ... scratch my back with a hacksaw - I don't know if I have ever read/heard so simple and direct a statement which seems to encapsulate the core/root idea of Art.

In the case of picturing, one is not capturing the world, one is, in fact, creating a world (my world and welcome to it). The phrase 'creating a world' explains, on so many lelvels, good Art - again, in the case of picturing, so many are creating one-dimensional worlds which are filled with the already-known. Worlds which are shallow, not deep. Worlds which are impoverished, not rich. In short, worlds which display no imagination, which we all know, because Mr. Einstein said so, is more important than knowledge.

Imagination - the source of all creativity and originality - is the single most important tool in a photographers kit - both for creating and 'reading' worlds.

Think about it. More on imagination to come.