civilized ku # 2704 ~ a certain physiological precondition

pub / established 2010 ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

diptych # 64 (civilized ku # 2702-03) ~ arches • unter/über

Arches ~ Washington, DC / Toronto, CA • click to embiggen

Why does man create? Is it man’s purpose on earth to express himself, to bring form to thought, and to discover meaning in experience? Or is it just something to do when he’s bored? ~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Good questions.

red pepper, presidents, and home accessories

red pepper, presidents, and home accessories ~ made in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 2701 ~ masked and anonymous

mask and fan ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenA camera is a machine which is capable of ripping a moment and its attendant industry from the fabric of time, neatly packaging that time-stamped data into an ultra dense network packet comprised of other promiscuous and discursive evidentiary visual stimulus and presenting them in a convincingly real, ever-expanding, manufactured universe of interpretive meanings. Make of it what you will.

pictures + words project ~ picture 10 • words i / what is a photograph? # 10, OR, civilized ku # 2700 ~ what's the point?

picture 10 • click to embiggen
word i • click to embiggen

Round and round, up and down. Again and again. What is ...? What is .....? What is .......? Mirage-like, an answer appearing - like the sun reappearing on the morning horizon giving way and hope to yet another new day - the perceived wisdom dissolves beyond a curtain of fog and mist. Why? Why? Why? The ornate carousel ride goes round and round and up and down and covetous clawing hands grasp at air and thin hope. And the golden ring hovers, tantalizing and teasing, just out of reach. What if...? What if.....? What if .........?

What is a photograph # 10 • click to embiggen
the point / POV • Oblio imitator ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggenAs the Rockman states "... that's the central issue I'm putting down for you cats: you gotta open your mind as well as your eyes .... "

urban canyons # 1 -5 ~ back to where I once belonged

urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
8×10 view camera work / c.1979-80 ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggenI have always liked, one might even write "loved", picturing urban environments. In fact, it would be quite accurate to write that my immersion into the world of moving beyond the pretty picture began with my first picture making, back in 1979-80, of an urban environment with my 8×10 view camera.

During my recent visits to NYC and Toronto, the call of picturing the urban environment has reemerged with remarkable insistence and clarity. However, there is a difference between the siren call which instigated my earlier work and that which is gnawing at me today; today's voice is drawing me to the often imposing and towering canyons of many modern urban settings and the play of light and shadow which regularly permeates those spaces.

In addition to their visual appeal, the canyons evoke in me contradictory feelings and thoughts of standoff-ish coolness and of an alluring warmth. Like their counterparts in the natural world, walking amongst them inspires a sense of wonder and awe, albeit in this case, at what man has wrought - a feeling which stands in contrast to but which also aligns in many ways with that which nature has wrought in the natural world.

In any event, I hope to explore urban canyons in a much more deliberate and concerted manner. Unfortunately, but by choice, I live in a place which is far removed from most urban canyons. Consequently, I will need to concentrate on urban canyon picturing opportunities when they present themselves to my eye and sensibilities.

And, I should mention that my long-unused 8×10 view camera is screaming at the top its bellowed lungs, "Take me! Take me! Take me!"

diptych # 63 / civilized ku # 2698-99 ~ chance and circumstance

CN Tower with shadows ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggenAs long as you are continually in a f8-and-be-there picturing state of mind, when chance and circumstance presents a golden opportunity you'll able to make a picture or two of a well pictured referent which transcends, at least by a little bit, the typical tourist snapshot.

what is a photograph ? # 9 (civilized ku # 2697) ~ a tourist's snapshot or something else?

Hugo and the CN Tower ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggenI have high hopes of getting a few thoughts or ideas on the question if I keep on asking it enough times.