urban ku # 77 ~ two chairs
Thursday, July 5, 2007 at 08:21AM 
Two chairs on the 4th of July • click to embiggenHey, Joe, this one's for you.
On urban ku # 76 Paul Maxim wrote: "... On a lighter note, I loved your "left brain wall" comment in the previous discussion. I've been reading Adam's book for that very reason - trying to figure out what makes people take (or make) photographs. If photography is a form of visual expression, then those who make images must be trying to "say something", right?"
Right. Although, most rarely get by saying "wow" and "ain't this pretty" over and over again.
Consider this from an interview with photographer Robert Holmgrem (thanks to Joe Reifer) - We struggle to explain what what we see. Photographers observe what other photographers do and we see that serious work tends to get high-minded analysis that seems to suggest events outside of the frame. Sometimes this is expressed as social criticism, psychoanalysis or revisiting some historical period of the medium with new eyes. It gets to the point where you begin wondering if any value exists without the aid of art critics. I'm a fan of Garry Winogrand's pictures, but I have no concern for what others think they mean, nor do I believe did he. Winogrand famously said that he took pictures "to see how things would look as photographs". It was a model of plain spoken. The pictures did the speaking and still we struggle to explain.
PS - a word of advice from Holmgrem - "Never throw out your mistakes. I'm surprised to find out how good I used to be before I got better.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comments: Bill Gotz wrote (in part): "... Or for an example of how a left brainer can suck (I mean destroy) most of the meaning out of an image leaving only some critic speak words, see the chapter "How Do We Read a Photograph? in Graham Clarke's book The Photograph.
It is an interesting book, but he does fail to understand the visual language of design and the deeper meanings available to the connections available to right brain thinking. A few paragraphs of words just can't come close to the degree of meaning we can get in a few moments with our right brain and non-verbal understandings. (Or maybe a left brainer has no interest in the visual language and rejects it for only that which can be named.) ..."
Reader Comments (3)
This is by Doon Arbus from the Afterword to Diane Arbus Revelations: "The photographs needed me. Well, they needed someone. Someone to keep track of them, to safeguard them - however unsuccessfully - from an onslaught of theory and interpretation, as if translating images into words were the only way to make them visible."
Or for an example of how a left brainer can suck (I mean destroy) most of the meaning out of an image leaving only some critic speak words, see the chapter "How Do We Read a Photograph? in Graham Clarke's book The Photographer.
It is an interesting book, but he does fail to understand the visual language of design and the deeper meanings available to the connections available to right brain thinking. A few paragraphs of word just can't come close to the degree of meaning we can get in a few moment with our right brain and non-verbal understandings. (Or maybe a left brainer has no interest in the visual language and rejects it for only that which can be named.)
Not to ignore the deeper conversation going on, in and around this post, but I just wanted to let you know how much I dig the image.
Option A:
Cool shot! Please add to the chairs outside pool.
Option B:
Blue and orange is a great color combo. Knowing the occasion, I'm thinking parade. Looking at the wet street, I'm imagining the threat of a rainout. Hopes were pinned on the outside during the day, and now only the reflection of what's inside, and the two lonely chairs are left to witness what happened a few hours before. The square image is a nice repetition with the windows of the house. Allowing enough room in the left foreground for the reflection is key, and it draws your eye into the frame. The composition is very well balanced, with the diagonal base of the yellow line suggesting the possibility of movement. This is counter balanced by the black negative space above the house and tree that brings a stillness and mystery to the outside space.