urban ku # 27 ~ FINALLY

<At last it's really snowing • click on photo to embiggen itIt finally feels like winter. It's been snowing for the past 18 hours and it's suppose to continue until tomorrow morning. The forecast is for 36 inches. Everything's cancelled. No school. Plows are operating continuously.

There's a roaring fire in the fireplace. Chili and cornbread are on the menu. The Pens are on the tube this evening, and I have to shovel snow.

It's finally winter.

An interesting addendum to the Rarindra/McIntosh affair

For those of you who been around The Landscapist long enough, this just in - Atmawarin from Yogyakarta, Indonesia left this comment on some of the issues discussed in Jonathan McIntosh ~ a different kind of Jakarta landscape and Rarindra Prakarsa. For those of you not familar with the linked topics, it's worth checking out before reading these comments from Atmawarin -

I'm from Indonesian just like Rarindra. And come along with that, I hope my comment could add new perspective about what Rarindra intent.

Indonesia is huge. Even me (who have travelled arround 20 islands or more-yes islands) still felt unfamiliar with this part of the globe. Some part of our country were expansive, with jungles and sheer tall mountain, panoramic view and its sturdy silent people. But some part were dark, full of garbage, smoke and noisy people get killed. Those two world in one country were not mixed together. They were seperated. And when they were seperated, it's nearly impossible to have a clear focus on your eyes to capture Rarindra intent.

To speak the truth. In Indonesia, Me and my generation hold a great dissapointment in goverment-that act like a thieve. One thieve goes down but another thieve elected. They were people that have most responsible on what Johathan McIntosh capture in Jakarta. Poverty.

While some people get permission to exploit our country (and its you who live in "the west") from the thieves. There some part of our country that remains the same. Freeze by the time. Those part are part that I told you before. Expansive, with jungle and sheer mountain, sea, panoramic view and sturdy people. In this part of Indonesia, people are not concerned with computer, Mother Theresa, celluler phone or striptease. And as you can see in Rarindra portofolio. They were happy. That's not myth happiness.

Me and my generation still struggle to fix poverty in this country. But hence..there's a lot of time when we were felt very sad about what happened in our country. Mad And loose the spirit to change the way our goverment rule. Tired on corruption and lazy people.

When that times come, looking in some Rarindra's photograph give us good feeling.

Still. Rarindra may dont have any clue about what he has done. I think he's just want to make a beatifull portrait of Indonesia and represent it in dreamy way. The reality sure is not good as the photo. But looking at his portofolio give me sense of pride. We love this country. And will do something to make it remain loved.

Call it third world fake realism. But for me it worth something.

publisher's comment: Atmawarin, thanks very much for heart-felt response. It adds a wonderful dimension to the topic.

Featured Comment: Mary Dennis wrote (in part);"...this is one of the reasons I love the internet. What Atmawarin has written provides a great deal more context to consider when looking at Rarindra's images ... I was particularly drawn by his next to last sentence: 'Call it third world fake realism.' Fake realism...."

ku # 460 ~ mindset

-10F on the Saranac River # 2 • click on photo to embiggen itTwo recent discussions, one over at Joe Reifer - Words and one at Art & Perception, got me to thinking about mindsets photography-wise.

In the A&P thread, Steve Durbin remarked that "There are different kinds of photography, and this one actually feels completely different to me from most of my other work. I’m in a different frame of mind doing it, I’m looking for different things, and I do very different things in the later processing of the image."

Over at JR-W, JR wrote that John Pfahl is one of his favorite photographers. Pfahl is one of my favs also and both JR and I are especially enamored of his Altered Landscapes - on the linked photo, Blue Right-angle, what appear to be markings on the photograph are, in fact, pieces of carefully placed tape within the scene.

In any event, here's the connection between A&P and JR-W/Pfahl. One wintery night in 1981, I was just hanging out in my loft when there was a knock on the door and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a friend (professor of design at RIT's School for American Craftsmen) with John Pfahl in tow. She wanted Pfahl to see my then work-in-progress project of urban landscapes photographed with 8×10 color neg and contact printed. So I obliged.

Across the hall we went to my studio and out came my box of prints. Pfahl, I am quite pleased to say, was interested and intrigued. We had a nice chat. What I found interesting about the whole thing though, was how befuddled Pfahl seemed to be by being in my commercial photo studio (surrounded by prints my commercial work - glam fashion babes in RayBans, food stylized to a fare-thee-well, Ithaca shotguns in hunter-wetdream dioramas, etc.) and, at the same time, viewing Art which was created by the commercial photographer.

There was definitely a disconnect for Pfahl - more than once, while viewing my urban landscape photos, he said, "...but you're a commercial photographer...". Now, I took this as a compliment of sorts. Obviously, he thought well of my Art. I assume that he also thought well of my commercial work. He just couldn't seem to fathom that both were the products of the same person.

Apparently, John didn't see a future for himself as a commercial photographer because...he is a Fine Art photographer. Addressing Steve Durbin's point about the "different frame of mind" it takes to mine "different kinds of photography", Pfahl seemed to hold with the notion of one mind, one frame of.

That seems distinctly odd to me, but then, unlike John Pfahl, I am not part of photography academia.

How many "frames of" do you have?

ku # 458 ~ Ice Castle reprise

Just thought I'd repost this photograph because: 1.) I really, really, really like it. 2.) It looks better at the the top of the page than a bunch of copy. If you want to see it larger, click on it in the winter carnival entry below.

even more FYI

As I was setting up the Kitchen Sinkist Project page, I came to the realization that I can create a Member's Section on The Landscapist. What that means is this -

In order to create the KSP page and give participants full editing capability (in that password-protected section only), I had to upgrade to the most expensive package Squarespace has to offer. This package allowed me to add "editors" and create "permissions" for those editors to edit - create journal entries - in specific areas (modules) on The Landscapist. It also increased my photo storage space and my bandwidth allowance in order to handle the extra load.

So now I have capabilities that I can use in various ways. One way being a Members Section - a module that allows "members" to post photos and get feedback (comments). This module would be separate from my Journal in the same manner as the KSP module is. Member entries would be by date but, within the module, there would be Journal Categories organized by member name. Clicking on a name would go to a page of just that member's entries.

Membership would be by invitation and/or my review of membership requests. I have no desire to have a Member's Section with a zillion members.

I am in no way trying to turn this into a member site. Any visitor to The Landscapist would still have full access to the entire blog and full commenting capability on all journal entries (mine and members) - they just wouldn't be able to post photos/journal entries.

And, here's the catch, there would be a modest - $20-25.00 US - annual fee to defray the cost of even more storage space and bandwidth.

Once again, let me repeat, I have no desire or intent to create a members site - I just have additional capabilities now that could be put to fun use.

What do you think? Please let me know what you think. I am not going to do this unless you out there want this capability on The Landscapist.

FYI - The Kitchen Sink Project

The Kitchensinkists have started to post photographs. Click on the Kitchen Sinkist Project link in the Navigaton column to see their photographs.

I have enabled the Sinkists to have the full capability to create journal entries (at will). Some will post work-in-progress photographs as they go. Public comments on the photographs are also allowed. Keep checking back to see their progress.

ku # 457/58 ~ -10F views

2 views of -10F • click on photo to embiggen itOne -10F view along the Saranac River, one -10F view of the summit (4867 ft.) of Whiteface (the Lake Placid side). The good news is that heavy snowfall is predicted for a 24-36 hour period starting arounnd midnight tonight.

urban ku # 26 ~winter carnival

Mandatory morning hockey drills • click on photo to embiggen it
Hugo and tiger • click on photo to embiggen it
Ice Castle, Saranac Lake Winter Carnival • click on photo to embiggen itWhile Hugo's parents are off on their car trip to So. Dakota to pick up a new puppy, we've got the little smarty-pants for an extended visit.

Yesterday, after his morning hockey skills workout, we went to the kid's parade at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, then on to the Ice Castle.

Note the ultra-cool hat Papa made for Hugo. Someday, maybe I'll tell you about how I got a big clump of my nearly 12inch long hair spun around the shaft of my electric drill - right down to the scalp - while screwing those little critters on the visor.