civilized ku # 272 ~ so little time

Architectural oddity ~ NYS Rt. 28 - Adirondacks / Otter Lake, NY • click to embiggenIn a comment made by Joe Reifer on civilized ku # 264-67 ~ my Friday night room, Joe suggested that "50/60's motels in the Adirondack region would make an interesting larger project."

I agree. Especially so since so many of those motels have rather interesting neon signs. But ... for me, at this particular time, it's a matter of so many possibilities, so little time.

However, when I do get around to such a project, it will not be limited to 50/60's motels. As the picture with this entry illustrates, the Adirondacks are filled with lots of 50/60's architectural gems / oddities. Some are still in use, others are not.

The building pictured above has special meaning for me because, as a kid in the 50s, it signaled to me that our seemingly endless car ride to our Summer destination - Inlet, NY - was almost over. I don't remember what the building's purpose was but I think it was some sort of tourist souvenir shop or, quite possibly, a restaurant. It would be easy enough to find out.

In any event, a 50/60's architectural project should be undertaken sooner rather than later since many of these places are either crumbling into dust or being renovated.

not tuscany # 1-3 ~ you do what you gotta do

The Sagamore ~ Lake George / Adirondacks, NY • click to embiggenOver the past few weeks The Landscapist has been something of a travel picture log / blog of sorts. While much of the commentary has been descriptive of my travels, I hope that the pictures have given you an example of a different way of looking at things - that there is in fact still an emphasis on the medium of photography in pictures, if not in words.

The pictures posted here are of this past weekend which was spent at a rather upscale resort, The Sagamore, on Lake George here in the Adirondacks. The place is not really my cup of tea but the wife had a conference there so I tagged along for some great golf and what turned out to be my discovery that autumn color had arrived.

FYI, the place was crawling with downstate, re: NYC, lawyers.

still life # 9 ~ get onboard, the train's a-comin'

Bowl of fruit and produce lit by lamp • click to embiggenOK, let's get down to business, re: folios / let's swap.

The recent scorched-earth economic landscape that we all find ourselves inhabiting has been particularly hard on those things that might be labeled as frivolous - a new cellphone every 3 days, a really big flat-panel tv in every room, expensive "designer" clothing, and so on. One other major casualty that many might consider to be "frivolous" has been the art world, Big and small.

The word is that in that market revenues are down 70-80%. Galleries, new and old, large and small, are closing their doors. Some believe that the once vibrant Chelsea Art District is about to be given over to "junkies and whores". Maybe. Maybe not.

But, there is no denying the fact that sales have fallen off the bottom of the chart and that definitely includes the stuff in the Photography Division of that world. My friend Michael Gordon who derives at least some portion of his living from galleries sales - albeit it in the "lower" rungs of that system (which to say, not in the NYC/Big City scheme of things) - mentioned in our recent get-together that he had lost a couple galleries that sold his work. I assumed in the context of our discussion that he meant that those galleries had closed.

In any event, it is against that background and my long-time position that one of the medium's inherent characteristics that distinguish it from other genres is its ability to create an endless number of "originals" - a fact that should / could make it possible for prints to be priced within the reach of a modestly endowed ($$$$-wise) "collector". Alas and chagrin, this characteristic has rarely been explored by anyone other than the street-fair crowd but it does seem that the current state of the art market has lead some to at least start considering new ideas or the possibilities thereof.

Hence and to wit, my idea of the folio sales / exchange proposition. IMO, the web is the perfect place to start this endeavor because of its low startup and overhead costs. And, quite obviously, it is also possible to reach a very large audience on the web in relatively short order and, once again, at relatively low cost. All of these costs and issues are not a big deal.

The BIG DEAL is getting enough participants to get the whole shebang rolling and this where I could use your help - my free folio prints offer still stands and it could be expanded to include more recipients, and, while I still want to get this up and running ASAP, I am also willing to extent the timeframe for the free prints in order to accommodate those who are interested but not quite prepared to act so quickly.

I could also use your help in getting the word out about this endeavor - links on blogs / websites / mentions on photo forums and the like would be greatly appreciated. This truly is a situation where "the more the merrier" is the operative rule.

I am absolutely convinced that time has arrived for something new, re: the cost of collecting photographs. I don't think that the "old" gallery system will disappear (although it will be greatly reduced in numbers). Photographs will eventually and most likely still sell again for mucho $$$$ (again, in significantly reduced numbers). A "new" system will not wipe out the "old" one - IMO, they can peacefully and profitably co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.

My intent for The Landscapist for the immediate future is to devote a great deal of time, effort, and entry space on this endeavor. So, once again, I ask - how about it?

ku # 587 ~ Spring has sprung # 21

Tamarack bog # 5 • click to embiggenReturning to the notion of hand of the photographer, invisible-wise, Wright Morris also had this to say:

In photography we can speak of anonymous as a genre. It is the camera that takes the picture; the photographer is the collaborator. What we sense to be wondrous, to occasion awesome, as if in the presence of the supernatural, is the impression we have of seeing what we have turned out backs on. As much as we crave the personal, and insist upon it, it is the impersonal that moves us. It is the camera that glimpses life as the Creator might have seen it ... [I] would personally prefer that the photograph was stamped Photographer Unknown. This would assure me, rightly or wrongly, that I was seeing a fragment of life, a moment of time, as it was. The photographer who has no hand to hide will conceal it with the least difficulty. Rather than than admiration, for work well done, I will feel the awe of revelation. The lost found, the irretrievable retrieved.

Reading and reading and reading again, this passage brings to mind an experience of a certain artist-photographer of my acquaintance. He was given the opportunity to show his work to one of the prime mover and shakers of the Photography as Art world. Long story short, the aspiring artist-photographer was both stunned and chagrined that his audition lasted all of about 2 minutes - that's about how long it took for the gate-keeper to look at and dismiss his portfolio (not as worthless, just as worthless to him).

Upon hearing about this encounter, my first thought was something about the notion of the self-important-pompous-ass kind of thing - and there was little doubt that there was an element of that just by the manner in which he comported himself - but, on the other hand, the man was most likely just evidencing his personal likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes that were no doubt derived and tempered from years of experience of either feeling the awe of revelation or not.

Now, I must admit that feeling the awe of revelation, the sense of (re)discovering the lost found, the irretrievable retrieved, or even to glimpse life as the Creator might have seen it - all of these sensations are what I crave and most enjoy when viewing pictures. And, above all, what I most seek and enjoy when making pictures is the feeling of seeing (and picturing) what we have turned out backs on.

And, in should go almost without saying, that I like those sensations and qualities in a picture best when I feel, rightly or wrongly, that I was seeing a fragment of life, a moment of time, as it was. A feeling that puts me squarely in the camp of reality-related picturing, picturing in which the hand of the photographer, if not invisible, is at least an excellent example of visual léger de main, aka - slight of hand. The only thing I want to know about the hand of the photographer is his/her idea of what is important - that is to say, picturing making is, first and foremost, about the process of selection.

IMO, pictures are best when the picture maker simply shows me (and shows me in a simple manner - the notion of an "impersonal" view of things) what it is that you want me to see. I am not all that interested in his/her experience of the thing pictured because, as a human being, I "crave the personal" but I like it best when I am left to my own devices when it comes to decyphering why it is the "impersonal that moves me(us)".

There is a great irony in all of this "impersonal" view of things because, IMO, the best pictures are most often created by a picture maker who, on one hand, is very personally connected to his/her subject but, nevertheless, on the other hand, manages to make pictures that appear to be (léger de main) coolly impersonal glimpses of something that they see that the rest of us are missing. The picture maker thereby offers the viewer, not propaganda, but rather a kind of inkblot test from which we can draw our own conclusions.

at times I need a class in anger management

My angry cat out in backyard • click to embiggenIf you have been following The Landscapist or my comments on other forums over the years, you probably know that photo equipment freaks and their inevitable rantings about 'the best' stuff bores me to tears. On occasion, it makes me mad.

One such occasion has (collectively) been happening over the past few days - dating from late Tuesday evening, in fact. That was the evening of the invitation-only launch of the new Olympus E-3 dslr, the pro 'flagship' of the Oly 'E'-line of dslrs. Since I am an Oly man (digital-wise), I have more than a passing interest in the new model for its 'pro' features, most importantly its ability to sync with studio flash equipment. That is something that is important to me in my professional life, photography-wise.

In any event, I (not unlike a lot of others) have been searching around for any solid info I can find. This has landed me on a number of forums which have turned out to be mostly dead ends, primarily because, instead of having any useful info, they are mainly exchanges along the lines of; "Olys ... 4/3rds format ... are crap ... etc." - this most often from Canon freaks with a few Nikon guys here and there (none of whom seem to have actually used an Oly).

These swell statements are met mostly with pithy retorts along the lines of; "Oh yeah! Well, you Canon guys are nothing but a bunch of crap-eating freaks .... etc." It goes without saying that all of the pro/con rants are about equipment and absolutely nothing about pictures. And, please note that I have used the word 'guys' because, unless there are some testosterone-laden chicks hiding behind forum user names, it all seems like some gigantic penile pissing party.

It's enough to drive you mad (both angry and insane).

If I could, I'd sic my angry cat on the whole lot of them.

crafted ku # 7 - spawn of cinemascape

Two can play that game • click to embiggenThis picture is kind of a father of cinemascapist pictures son of cinemascapist thing, or, a like-father, like-son thing, only in resverse.

Hugo and I had part of a Sunday afternoon to kill so off to the mill we went. It wasn't a picturing walk but I did have a camera with me. When this opportunity presented itself, I was able to grab 5 handheld frames for stitching.

The idea that it plants in my head is that the mill is ripe for pano picturing.

crafted ku # 6 - they're everywhere # 2

No use crying over water over the dam • click to embiggenAt one time they were everywhere in the Adirondacks - dams, that is. It seems that every river and stream was harnessed for one use or another, ranging from logging and power to recreation.

The dam pictured here is in my hometown of Au Sable Forks. It was first built and used to power the iron ore mill (none other than Benedict Arnold owned a mine here), which in turn 'powered' the village. Later the mill was converted to paper product production and the dam served that industry as well. Today, it just stands there although it does help create some nice recreational water above its confines.

There are still quite a few (most likely, hundreds) dams hanging around on the rivers. They are a form of the 'living history' of the Adirondacks and they fit right in with a book I am reading - Down To Earth, Nature's Role in American History. The author, environmental historian Ted Steinberg, 'offers a bold new critical synthesis od American environmental history ... by demonstrating the myriad but all too often unacknowledged ways in which familiar historical events have been intimately tied to the transformation and exploitation of the natural world ... [he] places the enviromment at the very center of our story ... [he] reminds readers that many critical episodes in our history were, in fact, environmental events ...' - from the book's dust jacket.

The premise of the book is simple - the causal effect of the environment in shaping human history. In effect, turning history on its head - looking at the nature world, not as a backdrop to human events, but rather, as one of the primary shapers of human events.

When viewed through the lens of the environment, one particularly stunning example of this 'causal effect' is the natural world's considerable influence in creating slavery, the Civil War and the eventual defeat of the Confederacy.

Think in these terms - without question, the environment in the South - length of growing season, days of sunshine, rainfall, average temperature, soil quality, etc. (aka, the climate) - was the primary reason southerners turned to a 'one-crop' agricultural economy based on cotton (and to a lesser extent, tobbaco). The agricultural particulars of growing cotton/tobacco, especially the labor-intensive system of land rotation which required ongoing labor at the lowest possible cost, was ideally suited to slave labor. Bingo! Slavery seemed like a damn good idea. And, it's also interesting to note that slavery has never taken hold in a cold northern climate.

Most obviously, the institution of slavery was a primary causal instigator of the Civil War and, fittingly, in a form nature's poetic justice, it was the South's slavish (pun intended) devotion/commitment to King Cotton that came back to bite it in the ass - with it's land tied up in the production of cotton, there was little land left or the economic inclination to grow food. Once an effective naval blockade of southern ports was in place, the South was literally straved to death. General Lee wondered as early as 1862 whether starvation, more than enemy forces, might prove the greater threat to the South. In the end, it was starvation (military and civilian) which brought the South to its knees.

What about military action, you might ask? Sure, but in the latter half of the war, many of the South's military decisions were based on/restricted by it's inability to keep its troops (and horses) fed.

What an idea - the course of human events as decided by the landscape. The moral of the story is evident - ignore or abuse the environment, it's gonna get you in the end.

PS - in case you missed a slightly subtle moral herein, be aware that the decisions to grow just cotton/tobacco and use slave labor to do it were based on unregulated market forces. Seems like the much-idolized 'invisible hand' didn't get it quite right.

urban ku # 64/crafted ku # 6 ~ Parking lot at sundown

Parking lot at sundown • click to embiggenMuch thanks to Bret Kosmider for passing along info about the Toronto Photography Festival. The festival's theme is The Constructed Image.

The festival organizers describe the festival as this - The exhibition demonstrates how the constructed image has irrevocably transformed photography’s relationship to reality.

Whether photographs are composites of multiple scenes or of various disciplines, materials and influences, hybridity is now a fundamental feature of the medium. Images are digitally altered, theatrically arranged, artificially staged and fabricated. Fashion, advertising and marketing strategies, many of which, ironically, were originally influenced by photography, are now frequently reinterpreted by photo-based artists as a means of expression. This directorial nature of working has moved photography away from the objective documentation of the world, and aligned it more closely with the freedom and infinite possibilities that theatre, film, painting and sculpture have always provided. Constructed modes of working are essential for these artists as they articulate concerns relating to contemporary global experiences.

This tidbit from Bret arrived at about the same time I was reading this from Barry Frydlender (see urban ku # 5 for link), a photographer who creates constructed pictures; "David Hockney said that if you put five photographs of the same scene together, people look at them five times longer." Frydlender, when asked if his constructed pictures (which are made of many pictures) were/are an 'act of resistance to a culture increasingly focused on instanteous understanding and gratification?', responded, "Well, what could be more desieable? Do you want prople to just blink?"

My answer to Frydlaender is an emphatic, "No". But then again, how many of you out there want 'people to just blink' when viewing your pictures? No One? OK, but the question is, how do you get and hold viewers attention?

Those photographer-artists who work the found/unaltered side of the photographic street are faced with the monumental task of standing out from the overwhelming photographic clutter of the instant communication age. It was ever thus but now it is exponentially more so, especially considering the fact that there is some damn good stuff floating around in the clutter. These photographer-artists must find either 'new' referents or very new ways of seeing 'old' referents. Otherwise, it's 'blink' and they're gone.

Those artists who use photography to create 'constructed' pictures (in all of their guises) have an advantage on the new playng field - at least when it comes to attracting attention. The naturally curious and eager-to-learn on the planet are inevitably attracted to these pictures because of the ambiguity most often found in constructed pictures. Pictures that are usually packed with information and possibilities just waiting to be explored. Of course, I have always thought that what distinguishes decorative photography from fine art photography is that the objective of the former is to turn off the brain and that the objective of the latter is to engage it.

So, I for one welcome the challenge of picturing in a way which 'transform[s] photography’s relationship to reality' and which 'articulate[s] concerns relating to contemporary global experiences'. In fact, although no one seems to have picked up on it, I have been posting quite a few 'constructed' pictures. Hint: if it says 'crafted' it's constructed (in some fashion).

PS - anyone interested in going with or meeting me in Toronto for the festival? Looks like there's at least a couple days worth of gallery cruising available.