civilized ku # 3038 / single women / life in pictures ~ people, people everywhere

Le Club Chasse et Pêche (The Hunt and Fish Club) ~ Old Montreal, QC / CA • click to embiggen
single women ~ • click to embiggen
life in pictures ~ Queens / East Village / NYC, NY • click to embiggen

Right from the get go let me write that I am not a devotee of street photography. For the most part that is simply because it all looks sorta the same to me. For another part, it could be argued that I just simply have not made the time and effort to really "understand" it.

That is not to write that there are not notable exceptions to that feeling, there are. For instance I have Robert Frank's book, THE AMERICANS. However, as the photographer Ed Ruscha said (which sorta supports my feelings on the subject of street photograhy):

Seeing THE AMERICANS in a college bookshop was a stunning, ground-trembling experience for me. But I realized this man's achievement could not be mined or imitated in anyway, because he had already done it, sewn it up and gone home.

Although ... it must be noted that Frank was inspired by an early photographer's work, Walker Evans' American photographs (I have this book as well). While it could be said that Frank mined Evans' seeing / vision, Frank's work - "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness" as described in Popular Photograph magazine - stands in direct contrast to Evan's formal / precisely framed view camera work.

Over the years, many have tried to mine or imitate Frank's work but, iMo, only a very few have succeeded in creating the same impact and feeling elicited by that masterpiece of seeing.

All of that written, I nevertheless do practice what might be considered as a variant of the street photography genre. Which is to write, and as evidenced by the pictures in this entry, that I enjoy making pictures of people pictured unawares, i.e. - not aware that they are being pictured. A manner of picturing which is one of the hallmarks of the street photography genre.

My one primary deviation from the genre is that I do not confine my picturing to the street / outdoors. Outdoor, indoor, it's all the same to me. Which, I guess, is just another example of my picturing promiscuity.

diptych # 200 / art reflects # 30 ~ one thing leads to another (maybe)

art reflects ~ Old Montreal, QC., CA • click to embiggen
sunrise / view from bed ~ Auberge Du Vieux-Port / Old Montreal, QC., CA • click to embiggen

Back in the saddle after our 4 day visit to Old Montreal. As is always the case (with one notable exception), the visit was replete with good food, good digs, good friends, good wife and a few other assorted goodies.

Picture making wise, I wasn't really too focused on making pictures. Nevertheless, I did come back with a few keepers to include adding one more picture to my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects work.

Over the past 10 years the wife and I have traveled to Old Montreal a couple times a year, occasionally more. we always stay at the the same small luxury hotel, Auberge Du Vieux-Port. During most of our visits, we rarely leave the Old Montreal district / neighborhood since there are many restaurants, art galleries, boutiques and variety of other things to do - the waterfront and the Montreal Science Centre to name just two. Our car is whisked away when we check in and returned to us when we check out.

In any event, it has been on walks through the district that my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects picture making began. In a sense, it's a picturing project that never ends inasmuch as, every time I return to Old Montreal, the art on display in gallery windows constantly changes. This situation creates a nearly endless series of changing referents so I am always on the lookout for interesting opportunities.

Speaking Writing of opportunities, on occasion one opportunity can lead to another. In the case of my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects work, my opportunistic picturing seems to be leading to another opportunity....

.... the Auberge Du Vieux-Port, like most hotels, has artwork on the walls, in rooms and in common areas. Over the years I have noticed that artwork in Auberge Du Vieux-Port is not Montreal / Old Montreal specific. Rather, the artwork is mostly that of a generic nature and, during this visit, the artwork in our room was of NYC scenes - photographs made to look like paintings, printed on canvas with textured (clear thick acrylic varnish?) brush strokes.

So, I purposely brought along my ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects POD book with the intention of bringing it to the attention of the hotel's management. The Directeur Général was not in over the weekend but I left the book, my card, and a short note which suggested that he might be interested in acquiring prints for use on the premise.

The day after my return I received an email from the Directeur Général in which he wrote that he "is very interested in talking to you". That is interesting enough, but the really interesting thing is that the Auberge Du Vieux-Port is just one of 16 properties - restaurants(8), hotels (6), a spa - all in Old Montreal which are all owned and managed by The Antonopoulus Group. A company - founded by 2 brothers from Greece who arrived in Canada 30 years ago - which has built a portfolio of elegant restaurants and boutique hotels in historic Old Montreal.

At this point, who knows what the possibilities might be but one thing is sure, that's a lot of wall on which to hang stuff.

civilized ku # 3032 / diptych # 2003 ~ what he said

wind turbine ~ , NY • click to embiggen
meters ~ Pittsburgh, PA / Saratoga Springs, NY • click to embiggen

It was Garry Winogrand who said:

I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.

And, for good measure, he also mentioned that "Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed .... by me." I mention these Winogrand quotes as an intro to some thoughts on the notion presented on the refrigerator magnet as seen in yesterday's entry:

EVERYTHING HAS BEAUTY

On that entry, Jim Roelofs wrote, ".... my take is that there's a lot of beauty in this world ... and then there's stuff like warfare." Relative to part of the comment, re: "then there's stuff like warfare" - and without too much parsing of the word "thing" in the Confucius quote - my reading of the quote is that thing refers to tangible / tactile physical objects, not to human events, occurrences or conditions.

Whether or not that's how Confucius meant it - I'll leave that to philosophers, scholars, and language experts to theorize and argue over - that is how I will address it in this entry.

In my picture making I am all about how a thing looks photographed and I picture things as a literal description or the illusion of literal description of the thing pictured. I do so because I belief that there is beauty all around us as can be witnessed in the predominately commonplace / quotidian world that we inhabit. HOWEVER ...

.... as my awareness of what the hell I am doing, picture making wise, I have come to understand that there is no intrinsic beauty, at least not in the conventional sense of beauty, in many (or most) of the referents I picture. I mean, as just one example, most people and quite a few picture makers probably wonder about what it is I see in a kitchen sink drain stopper with green bean, mushroom slice, noodle and oatmeal flakes.

Nevertheless, I am drawn to picturing things for more reasons other than what the referent is. My eye and sensibilities are attracted to the possibilities of making something beautiful - the resulting print, in and of itself as a thing, of my picturing encounters with all kinds of referents. In a sense, that is to write, quotidian referents are just a readily available excuse to make pictures.

The pictures I make, if they are successful in meeting my expectations - as Winogrand said, "The photograph should be more interesting or more beautiful than what was photographed" - they do so because of the Form (on the 2D surface of the print) within the Frame that I have seen, captured and subsequently presented to those who view my pictures. Form wise, that is to write, the visual energy which results from the organization of shapes, colors, lines, tones (aka: highlight and shadow values), and the like within the Frame that I have chosen to contain / restrain the arrangement of such visual elements which make up the Form in my pictures.

To my eye and sensibilities, the fulfillment of those expectations, independent of the depicted referent, is what constitutes a good picture.

FYI, the complete Confucius quote is:

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

Perhaps that is why those who see only the referent in my pictures, but not the Form, are disappointed in what they see.

civilized ku # 3029 / diptych # 2000-02 ~ little Xmas joys

a Ruby Slipper ~ Lake Placid Lodge / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
between courses things ~ Lake Placid Lodge / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
appetizer / butter ~ Lake Placid Lodge / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
soup / dessert ~ Lake Placid Lodge / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Since moving to the Adirondacks in 2000, Xmas tradition at our house has been a Xmas Eve family sleepover gathering for tree decorating and dinner followed by Xmas morning gift giving and a hearty Frittata breakfast. By just after noon, non-household family members depart to their household and the wife and I are left to our self amusements and the predominant amusement is Xmas day dinner at the Lake Placid Lodge.

The Xmas dinner at the lodge is a prix fixe four-course affair consisting of 2 starter / appetizer courses, the main course and dessert. Each course has 4-5 choices, some of which can be found on their "regular" menu (which changes according to the season to feature seasonal fare) , some of which are unique to the Xmas affair.

I find the menu itself to be rather obtuse inasmuch as I did not attend culinary school where I am certain they have courses in menu writing. Writing which I am also certain is design to confuse and, at the same time, impress the non-cognoscenti (food / ingredient speaking wise) fine diners of the world. I am equally convinced that, if the menu stated, using everyday Americanized English words, clearly and exactly what it is you are eating, they might never be able to justify the prices they charge for the stuff.

As an example, the picture of the appetizer exhibited in this entry is listed on the menu as:

SCOTTISH OCEAN TROUT ~ HOUSE CURED, MANDARINQUAT, CITRUS CRÈME FRAÎCHE, DILL, PINK PEPPERCORN, KNÆCKBRØD

Reading that is kinda like being in a foreign country where you know just enough of the language to get the jist of what is being said.

Because I didn't picture the menu, I could not, in any detail, tell you what the other food is other than to name the primary food item. And, to be honest, in several cases I did not know exactly what (other than the main food item) it was I was eating although some recognizable ingredient tastes emerged in the various offerings.

In any event, the cuisine at the Lake Placid lodge is uniformly excellent. In large part, that is due to the local farm freshness of many of the ingredients, exquisite preparation, and just the right light touch / blend of the various ingredients - in some cases, seemingly odd combinations - which make up each dish. There is most definitely an artful coming together of the taste of the featured food item and the various accent ingredients which compliment but do not overwhelm the taste of the featured food item - striking a truly delicate (and delicious) balance.

As an example, the soup pictured in this entry is butternut soup with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some other minor ingredients which are either lost to memory or never recognized in the the reading of the menu. Now, I never would have thought of putting any kind of ice cream into any kind of soup, but the contrasting sensation in the mouth of warm and cold was quite interesting. And, as the not overly sweet creamy ice cream melted, it progressively changed the texture and taste of the soup itself. A truly outstanding combination.

In addition to the preparation, as should be made obvious by the pictures in this entry, the presentation is very visually intriguing. At several points in the meal, I commented to the wife that I wanted to have 2 of every dish I ordered - one eat and one to just look at.

I also mentioned that I wished someone would develop and offer a menu translation dictionary.

diptych # 199 / civilized ku # 3028 ~ it's beginning to look a NOT like Xmas

Au Sable River / tree ~ near Clintonville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Supercuts Santa ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen

As one Xmas song goes, "Oh the weather outside is frightful ... Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

Well, the weather outside is frightful. That is, unless you like 65˚F-with-rain-showers weather on Xmas Eve day. Personally, I don't, so, for me, the weather outside is indeed frightful. And, there is no let-it-snow in the forecast.

However, if that weather situation puts one into a funk, one can always take delight and get into the Holiday Spirit by watching and listening to a life-size mechanically gyrating Santa screech out Xmas Carols - - through crappy sounding speakers - at a local shopping plaza.

In any event, Happy Holidays to all and to all a good night.

civilized ku # 3027 / diptych # 198 ~ channelling the view

9N / I87 entrance / exit ~ near Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
channeled views ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

To my eye and sensibilities there is something visually interesting to be had by making pictures which look through enclosed diminishing-perspective spaces.

civilized ku # 3026 / diptych # 197 ~ cultivated urban flora

church window ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
urban trees ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen

During my recent walk about in Pittsburgh while looking for urban flora / scrub I did come across some cultivated urban flora.

diptych # 196 / photo noir # 3-4 • 3a-4a ~ choices

restricted views ~ Pittsburgh< PA • click to embiggen
photo noir # 3 ~ • click to embiggen
photo noir # 4 ~ • click to embiggen
photo noir # 3a ~ • click to embiggen
photo noir # 4a ~ • click to embiggen

I have completed preliminary BW conversions on 34 of the 42 pictures which deemed noir worthy. The conversion process was also an editing process inasmuch as I converted only those pictures which more emphatically conveyed the bleak pessimism, and a lurking sense of danger feeling of the noir film genre.

Now that preliminary conversions are at hand, I have been contemplating the notion of color vs BW. The 2 noir pictures in this entry are presented in both color and BW because they represent the challenge of deciding between the color / BW formats inasmuch as, in the case of these particular pictures, I feel that both color and BW work equally well. Not every noir picture works both ways, so I have some deciding to do.

Then of course, the big deciding is editing down the collection to 5-7 pictures for submission to the gallery / juror for consideration.