civilized ku # 340-44 ~ get with the feelin' y'all, car wash, yeah - and the painter's eye
Monday, January 11, 2010 at 10:08AM 
Car wash • click to embiggenIt has been suggested to me that this picture is "stupid" and that it takes no "talent" to sit in a car and make pictures while it goes through a car wash. It has also been stated that this picture can not / will not, not now, not ever, be printed and hung on our living room wall. And, while I'm at it, don't even think about the walls of a certain office that is being redecorated (although, the use of the word "redecorated" in the context of the office in question erroneously implies that it was ever "decorated" in the first place).
However, getting beyond that petty exchange, I must state that this car wash cinctych(?) really appeals to my eye and sensibilities and it does so for a number of reasons about which I would like to elucidate.
I don't often talk / write about my pictures to any great extent - I much prefer to let them speak (or not) for themselves (which should not in any way be interpreted to mean that I don't think that the Artist Statement or Statement of Intent has no value / purpose in the viewing / understanding of pictures). However, I thought a little insight into my picturing MO might be of interest to some.
As noted previously, I carry a camera or 2 just about everywhere I go - that's because everywhere I go, there I am, and I know from experience that, no matter where I am, something is bound to catch my eye / interest. That's because I recognize that I have what William Henry Fox Talbot called, "a painter's eye":
A painter’s eye will often be arrested where ordinary people see nothing remarkable. - William Henry Fox Talbot
And, IMO, with a "painter's eye" and a camera at hand ...
... most perceptive photographers can make compelling pictures out of uninteresting moments. - Alex Tehrani
Now, that said, let's get down to brass tacks about the notion of "perceptive photographers" and "ordinary people", an idea that I think is summed up quite nicely by Jerry Uelsmann:
A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.
At this point, let me add a little something to the idea of "uninterested people". Unfortunately for the cause of making compelling or, at the very least, interesting pictures - and I might add, for the cause of creating an interesting, informed, and involved life / citizenry - the world is filled to the breaking point with "uninterested people". People who "look" but never "see". Or, as the Rock Man stated, people who are just interested (in a very limited manner) in seeing what they want to see as opposed to understanding, really understanding that "there ain't nothing pointless about this gig".
That said, and in any event, IMO, the more interested the picture maker, the more interesting the pictures and the more the picture maker uses his/her license to explore, the more he/she is capable of seeing.
Given those picturing making qualifications, what is it (for me) in a purely visual sense that "arrests the painter's eye" in "uninteresting moments", the thing that uninterested / ordinary people deem to be "unremarkable"?
I can't speak for others, but for me, the thing that I often see that most others miss is a sense / feeling for "decisive moments" wherein specific referents are illuminated in a unique or special manner. More often than not, I mean "illuminated" in a literal sense - the light and/or a combination / juxtaposition of color (or both) seem to instantaneously hit my eye like a big pizza pie and it's off to the races. At other times, it's about space and arrangement of shapes.
And, if the picturing gods are granting me picturing grace, it's about all of the above eye-grabbing visual elements that come together and create a quality that I call visual energy.
But, let's get specific - re: the car wash cinctych. In retrospect - after viewing the processed files - it became apparent to me that what caught my painter's eye as I sat in the driver's seat was (in no particular order): the juxtaposition of the motion / energy that was happening on the windshield (windscreen, for the Brits in the room) with the static quality of the dashboard; the juxtapostion of the vivid "hard-etched" light/color of the instruments with the soft subtle "liquid" light/color of the various fluids on the windshield; the evolving colors of the light and liquids (over the flow of the 5 pictures) versus the fixed / static colors of the instrument panel; and, in an emotional / intellectual sense, the juxtaposition of the literal / well-defined with the abstract / ill-defined.
I also knew as I was picturing, that the pictures would have another very important quality that I value highly in my pictures (and in the pictures made by others) - the why/what the fuck? effect. As in, why the fuck did you make that picture? and its companion question of what the fuck were you thinking?
Well, I made the picture because I was thinking that in this "uninteresting moment" there would mostly likely be an interesting surprise to be had. My painter's eye told me that the light, the color, and the textures were all very interesting in a purely visual sense. That, to the interested person, a sense of tension, juxtaposition, contradiction, color and light would lead to a feeling of discovery and amazement that can be found in by exploring "uninteresting moments". That, in fact, "there are no uninteresting things".
That, when it comes to everyday life and living, "there ain't nothing pointless about this gig."
And, what the hell, if it's worth a song - a song that peaked at number three on the disco charts - it's worth a picture or 5, don't ya think?
Reader Comments (5)
"The Rock Man"! Thanks for reminding me. Good little film. And it's even available (what isn't, I guess) on youtube.
Quintych?
Even given the tilt here, am I imagining it, or is there a simpler (dare I say, more formal) aspect to your composition of late?
The carwash pictures are simple, relate-able yet novel. We've all sat in a carwash but to take a sequence of photos is a neat idea.
Your points about the "decisive moment" and "visual energy" are spot on. Good photos engage us whereas poor photos (ill-conceived, not conceived) are simply dead in the water.
Mark Twain is always good for quote: "You can't depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus."
I've always enjoyed the "why/what the fuck? effect" of your photos. Indeed, when I first came to the page and saw the thumb nail I thought "What the fuck". I couldn't figure out weather it was weather or what. You actually ruined it for me with the description.
I shot a couple like this once and enlarged they looked great my family thought I was on the edge of lunacy.