ku # 466

Spring break-up • click to embiggenIn a recent email, Brett Kosmider asked; 'I just noticed in the sidebar on The Landscapist you say, "the landscape photography of photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture". Who might that be for you?..."

Interesting question and, as I try to ponder an answer, the notion that keeps coming to mind is a recent statement I made on The Landscapist about there being too many picture takers and not enough picture makers, especially in the Landscape genre.

In that context, I am still looking for candidates for my 'new elite'. I still cling to some of my old favorites - Meyerowitz, Eggleston, Shore, Adams (Robert, that is), et al. I would also include Burtynsky, Sze Tsung Leong, Geoffrey James, Grusky, and other more recent practitioners in my 'old favorites' in as much as they seem to be somewhat derivative of the former.

That said, I'm looking for even newer practitioners. One who strikes my fancy is Nuri Bilge Ceylan, but even he strikes me as derivative, or, as very-very-very-nice-but-I've-seen-it-before.

I admit to being a little jaded these days. Chalk it up to flickr, photo.net, the blogosphere, et al overload... the sheer number of photographs. Where does one begin?

I also admit to being under the thrall of Jeff Wall at the moment. His pictures are so packed with meaning that they are, at first viewing, overwhelming. He is truly making, not just taking, pictures. Viewing his work at MoMA has left me dazed and confused. I want to continue working in the Landscape genre, but want to start making pictures.

To that end, I am searching for the work of others who might be making Landscape pictures, not just taking them.

PS: in my 'dazed and confused' state, I have in no way given up on my 'straight' photography (or the power thereof) or that of others.

civilized ku # 14 ~ what would Henri Cartier-Bresson have done?

Information • click to embiggenWould H.C.-B. have been content to sit and wait for the 'decisive moment'? Would he have taken lots of moments and then made the most decisive one?

I use to think that Photoshop hadn't changed things too much - it just put the traditional darkroom on steriods. Now, I'm beginning to think that' it has changed everything. To paraphrase the Tyrell Corporation motto - 'More Human Than Human - we can now make pictures that are 'More Real Than Real'.

The man behind the curtainn looms ever larger.

urban renewal # 2

Series Premiere • click on photo to embiggen itSometimes the incredibly obvious is difficult to see.

Yesterday, on civilized ku # 13, Ana wrote; "I've always known in an abstract sense that photographers have power -- I've admired a lot of photographs that are either in-studio or set up or manipulated or obviously created in some way. But "knowing" that about other people's work turns out to be different from realizing that I, too, can exercise that power, which I'd simply never had a sense of before."

As a relatively recent newcomer to the photography game, Ana has a bit of an excuse for not realizing that she 'too can realize that power'. I, on the other hand, with 30 years of experience making pictures for commercial clients, not to mention viewing the work of artists-who-use-photography (one favorite, Joel-Peter Witkin, as an example) for about the same period of time, have no excuse for not realizing I 'have the power" to do the same with my own non-commercial picturing.

DUH.

I guess that's one of the reasons I like going NYC, one way or another, it always seems to shake up how I see things.

civilized ku # 13 - the morning-after hangover

A Space in NYC • click on photo to embiggen it One of the most profound impressions that I took away from the Wall exhibition was a haunting comment uttered by my good friend Robert (I don't think he owns a camera). Interestingly, the comment was not about the Wall exhibition.

He, Aaron and I spent over 3 hours perusing the 41 Wall photographs. The photographs were very engaging and engrossing. They engendered much discussion, rumination and postulation - my apologies to Robert and Aaron for discussing, ruminating and postulating my way through the last quarter of the exhibition with a lovely and engaging lady from Dublin, Ireland (the wife isn't reading this, is she?).

After the Wall thing, we drifted down to the permanent photography exhibition space where there was an extensive exhibition of photography from masters past and present. Assuming one has paid attention to the history of the medium and its movements and periods, it was more of a nostalgic trip down memory lane, with a few surprises thrown in, than anything else.

It was the end of this exhbit, which we breezed through in relatively short order, that Robert stated simply that "sometimes there's just too much." Now, there certainly was an element of how-much-fried-chicken-can-you-eat? to his utterance, but his point was that a certain numbness can set in in the face of so much'good' photography. This from a guy who does own a computer but, other than an ocassional visit to this blog and few photo exhibits now and again, he spends about as much time on the web looking for photography blogs/websites as I do skinning ardvarks.

His point was well taken and has stayed with me like an irritating bee in my bonnet. Upon some reflection I know why. The few surprises which I encountered on my photo trip down memory lane came from the work of a few modern 'masters' and virtually every one of those 'masters' was making not taking photographs. I was definitely captivated by much of the 'fictive' reality effect that the photographers were creating and presenting, much in the vein, albeit a minor one, being mined by Wall.

This has left me a bit shaken, photography-wise - Is it enough to 'just' be taking pictures rather than making pictures? I now have a firmer grip on the difference between an 'artist-who-uses-photography' and a 'photographer-who-is-an-artist'. I am beginning to feel that there are very few of one and too many of the other.

I am also beginning to understand the Art-Worldist notion that there actually is a modern-day 'photo ghetto' out there. One which consists primarily of the work of those who take rather than make pictures - and have no doubt about it, the 'ghetto' includes, in the opinion of the the Art-Worldists, some of the most recent Szarkowski-era'heavyweight' picture takers in the medium.

Perhaps this is the true import of Wall's methodology and his photography (which is almost an aside). Now that the world is awash with excellent picture takers, the time has come for picture makers to move to the fore.

Update on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 05:15PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Ana wrote: "...One of the things that I've realized has been cooking in the back of my head this past semester has been developing a sense of my own agency as a photographer. This is very much a revelation for me, coming as I did from the nature photography genre, which generally speaking doesn't tend to have that sense of agency."

Update on Monday, March 26, 2007 at 02:52PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Tom Connor wrote: "This distinction between "making" & "taking" is useful to think about, but it can become confusing. Do you mean the photograph must be created from scratch, as a painter creates a painting from a bare canvas? Or that it must be generated from the needs/visions/obsessions of the photographer -- perhaps as they can be found in the world? Because, while the 1st is very much in favor with curators & art buyers right now (Crewsden, Wall et al) it can often, be empty & pedantic in my opinion(see my review of Wall's MOMA show here. Whereas work drawn from the rich serendipity of real life can often be deeply personal. I would hate to think that in order to "make", as opposed to "take" images, artists need to absent themselves from the endlesss, wondrous flow of life."

FYI - NYC, there and back again

NYC goings on • click on photo to embiggen it>Dateline 8:10 PM Au Sable Forks time: Back home after an invigorating trip to NYC. We went to MOMA for some inspiration, then walked about Manhattan to Grand Central Station where we had a fantastic meal at the restaurant of a friend, and then onto Madison Square Garden to see a fight but a hockey game broke out instead.

Much thanks to Robert and Stephan - Robert, I caught a scarfy for you.

FYI ~ An Octopus and Some Beans

An Octopus and Some Beans. Jeff Wall, 1990 approx. 6×8' each

>Dateline 12:12 AM, NYC time: Right off the top, I have to state that the Jeff Wall exhibition at MOMA must be seen if you wish to have even the slightest understanding and appreciation of Jeff Wall's photography.

The large scale of the backlit photographs and their detail-laddened 'reality effect' are nearly overwhelming. To attempt to grasp the full import of these photographs from the viewing of small-scale printed reproductions is, well...like viewing a cinema epic such as Lawrence of Arabia on a small-screen bw television with crappy speakers. Sure, you'd certainly get the idea, but in a very 'small' way - a very pale imitation of the 'real' thing.

If you live on or are traveling to the East Coast, drive, walk, run, crawl if you must, to NYC and MOMA to see this exhibition. It is monumental and important. Much of what the Art Worldists say about it is true - "“Jeff Wall's vivid, lambent photographs hover between the observed and the imagined, between the commonplace and the surreal.-Newsday, or, "...Like a commercial light box, a Wall photograph grabs you with its glowing presence, but then, unlike an advertisement, it holds your gaze with the richness of its detail and the harmony of its arrangement. You could study it with the attention you devoted to a Flemish altarpiece in a church, and you could surrender yourself to its spell as if you were in a movie theater.”—The New York Times Magazine

It should also be noted that much of what the Art Worldists (and Wall, himself) have to say about it is arcane, obtuse, convolted self-referential crap. That's ok. Ignore it and go about the business of getting lost "in fully equipped all-terrain visual vehicles, intent on being intensely pleasurable while making a point or two about society, art, history, visual perception, the human animal or all of the above.”—The New York Times

See the MOMA online exhibition excerpt HERE.

PS; The exhibition will also be appearing at the Art Insitute of Chicago and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art later in the year.

Update on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 05:39PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Kent Wiley wrote: "...It's about time someone, in all this brou ha ha about Wall, said the obvious: ignore the words and look at the pictures. How many phenomenal artists are there through the ages who were absolute p--cks, but we venerate the art they made nonetheless? J.W. may be another one."

urban ku # 46

Late evening snow • click on photo to embiggen itA view from the clubhouse at the Lake Placid Resort created last evening while I was killing time waiting to photograph U.S. 1980 Olympic Hockey Team captain Mike Eruzione (scored the game-winner against the Soviets in the 'Miracle on Ice') pressing-the-flesh with Verizon's top 25 salespersons.

UPDATE for ku, the book - I have put an online PDF for viewing HERE.

Caveat: If you should download the PDF for printing, be advised that the embedded images are lores CMYK, not RGB, which means that, unless you have a CMYK RIP for your printer, the color and tonal balance will print very differently than the correct color and tonal balance.

I'm off to NYC, back again soon. Stay tuned.

ku ~ the book

Cover and a few sample spreads • click on image to embiggen itYou asked for, you've got it. Well, to be more accurate, some of you asked for it and you can get it. And to be even more accurate, what some of you asked for was a published book - this ain't it.

What it is, is a print-on-demand book which contains many of the photographs which will be in a published book that will be coming in about a year or so. The format is 8×8 inches, 60 photographs, 40 pages, with hard-bound cover.

The book is organized by season with an additional section of urban ku photographs.

So, here's the deal. There will be 25 of these books - The New Adirondack Eden: an ethereal concept/temporal reality in the balance - available. They will be signed and numbered. The price is $100.00. Each book will come with 1 signed, open edition print (10×10 image on 11.7×11.7 Enhanced Matte paper) of your choice from my entire ku series.

It is well worth noting that the color and tonal fidelity of the printed book is remarkably accurate to the original prints.

The entire book can be previewed online HERE.

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