counter customizable free hit
About This Website

This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

Search this site
Recent Topics
Journal Categories
Archives by Month
Subscribe
listed

Photography Directory by PhotoLinks

Powered by Squarespace
Login

BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES

  • my new GALLERIES WEBSITE
    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS

In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes onLife without the APADoorsKitchen SinkRain2014 • Year in ReviewPlace To SitART ~ conveys / transports / reflectsDecay & DisgustSingle WomenPicture WindowsTangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-galleryKitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)


Entries in life without the APA (7)

Wednesday
Jan162013

life without the APA # 9 ~ for me, yet another Warholian 15-minutes-of-fame event

Rural route # 10 ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenI've been rather busy the past few days, prepping for my video session interview with the local/regional PBS station.

During my recent trip to Montreal, I learned that the station wanted to do a segment on me and my life without the APA pictures for their series on the arts. A big part of my prep - a day and a half worth so far - has been the making of a new picture, with the emphasis on snow / winter, for the life without the APA series.

Since the segment will air during the winter (this month), the producer / host wants to get outdoor footage (in the age of digital video recording, is it still called "footage"?) to establish me, as a picture maker, in the act of making a picture - a winter picture. The producer / host also thought it would be a good idea to have an obviously winter-based life without the APA picture as well. So, as they say, his wish was my command.

The result of my effort is rural route # 10 as seen in this entry. That written, it's not quite finished - there is some cleanup and adjustments still to be made. Then it's print, mount, and frame.

Ain't show biz fun.

Tuesday
Nov292011

FYI ~ a note

a note from Renee

Every time the wife and I visit Montreal, we stay at the Auberge du Vieux-Port, a quaint 4-star hotel in Old Montreal. In addition to the fact that the hotel is rated # 7 in Canada and # 2 in Montreal, the staff is utterly magnificent. As has been stated by many, it's like staying with friends.

In particular, 2 of the staff - Matthew and Frederic - are indeed our friends (Matthew is mostly likely coming to visit us with his wife and child later this winter). Depending upon when you arrive, Patrick and Feredic are the first to greet you at the curb. They handle your luggage, park your car, and during your stay they there for your every need.

Federic has an interest in picture making so I usually bring some of my work along for him to see and we spend some time talking picture making. On our most recent trip, I brought my life without the APA book. I left it with him and during our stay he circulated it amongst other staff members. As a result, Federic purchased a copy of the book and I also received the note (pictured above) from Renee (another staff member).

While that was a very pleasant surprise, it is turning out to be a regular occurrence. In addition to some gallery / exhibition sales, during my last visit to my cardiologist, he purchased one. Recently, while dining out in Westport (here in the Adirondacks), the chef purchased 5 books. It seems the book really strikes a chord with those who see it, even in Canada where the issues, re: the APA, are not exactly front and center.

I find these ongoing sales to be rather extraordinary inasmuch as the book is a POD book and consequently, a bit pricey ($40.00US) for a 20 page book.

Seems like it's time to approach a book publisher with the book. There is one in particular which specializes in Adirondack books with regional appeal.

Wish me luck.

And PS - Renee, thanks for the note (and, in the best sense of the phrase, the kick in the butt).

Monday
Jun272011

FYI ~ the exhibit

1044757-12920678-thumbnail.jpg
Mission accomplished • click to embiggen
The wife and I drove to Blue Mountain Lake on Saturday in order to both see the exhibit and deliver a new and improved Artist Statement print - the original is visible on the right hand side of the above picture - which now includes a picture of the "no APA" house.

FYI, the exhibit opened on Friday but there was no opening reception so I have no idea how the work is being received. However, there will be a closing reception which will include a lecture by a representative of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Hopefully, that event will provide a good idea of the response created by the pictures.

Wednesday
Jun152011

FYI ~ finished book

If you wish to view the finished life without the APA photobook, click this link. Be sure to click on the Full Screen option to view the book at a larger size.

As mentioned, the book has all of the un-composited "before" pictures upon which the final pictures are based.

Monday
Jun062011

life without the APA # 1-8 ~ the complete collection (so far)

1044757-12489041-thumbnail.jpg
Forever Wild Development Corp ~ in my nightmares - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489060-thumbnail.jpg
Villa Motel / Bog River ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489050-thumbnail.jpg
A Kodak Moment ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489101-thumbnail.jpg
Free parking ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12533302-thumbnail.jpg
Masonic Lodge fog ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12546193-thumbnail.jpg
Stop / Shell gas ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12565991-thumbnail.jpg
Evening on the river ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12565999-thumbnail.jpg
Reflection ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Considering none of the life without the APA pictures were planned - that is, pre-visualized - but, rather, came together as an afterthought, so to speak, I am very pleased with the results. In fact, I am of the opinion that the pictures would not be any better even if I had planned them.

That said, when life without the APA # 1, aka: Free parking, was accepted into the IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit, it was the only life without the APA picture existent. Part of the juried acceptance required me to create another 3-4 like minded pictures for the exhibit. While I was confident I could produce, the prospect of the doing was daunting, re: the aforementioned drudgery and tedium involved in making these pictures.

As it turned out, the actuality was not nearly as bad as the imagining, making wise. Yes, there was an element of drudgery and tedium, however, that reality was mollified by the fact that virtually all of my personal picture making is performed, across multiple formats / mediums and over decades of picturing, with what is essentially the same lens, focal length equivalency wise - slightly wide angle lenses.

Some of the images - the street scene in A KODAK moment and the parking lot in Free parking (yes, John, they are Rochester scenes) - used in the making of the life without the APA pictures were made as long ago as circa 1980. Those pictures were made on color negative film in my 8×10 view camera. Some others were made on color negative film in my Nikon 35mm cameras. And, of course, many of the recent (last 8 years) picture elements were made using a digital camera of one sort or another.

In any event, all of the pictures which were used in the making of the life without the APA work were made with slightly wide angle lenses (relative to the various formats) and, just as critically, they were also made from my eye level. Once again, virtually every picture I make is made from an (my) eye level POV. That's because, since I see the world, especially so when I am making pictures, from a standing POV, and, because I picture what I see, I make most of my personal pictures from my eye level perspective.

Consequently, same focal length lenses + same eye level POV = a much less daunting task of selecting and blending the large number of pictures / picture elements - up to 60+ pictures were used in the making of the 8 final life without the APA pictures - than it would be otherwise.

FYI, it's time to get on with the show - printing, mounting, etc.

Friday
Jun032011

life without the APA # 5-6 ~ got a good thing going

1044757-12533302-thumbnail.jpg
Masonic Lodge fog ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12546193-thumbnail.jpg
Stop / Shell gas ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
While I'm on a roll, I figure I'll just keep creating more life without the APA pictures for submission to another juried exhibit that requires a body of work comprised of 7-10 pictures. Why not? As the Brits have stated, "In for a penny, in for a pound."

In any event, after yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 973 ~ reality bites, wherein I explain my MO, re: life without the APA pictures, Frank still (no link provided) believes, because I am straying from so-called straight picture making (where's the reality?), I am "whittling away at the edges of your (my) own philosophy ... the idea of an imagined reality, constructed for artistic purposes, is surely what Jeff Wall et al are all about."

Sven W (no link provided) also stated, "I'm sure there are plenty of real locations [in your State] where development has intruded on the natural environment. Has some-one created images of these areas with the message 'this is what happens when you take your eye off the ball'?".

In answer to Sven W's query ... there are plenty of places in NYS where development has intruded on the natural environment. However, my interest and concern is focused upon helping prevent intrusion in the Adirondack PARK, the place in which I live. Pictures of places outside the PARK - the APA's governance is limited to the lands in the Adirondacks - really aren't the issue that concerns me and they would serve little or no purpose in illustrating my point. After all, the entire planet outside the Adirondack PARK is, defacto, life without the APA.

In response to Frank's notion that I am somehow contradicting or invalidating my picturing philosophy .... I think not.

Nothing I am doing changes my opinion, re: so-called straight photography. In the case of my life without the APA picture making, I am not practicing straight picturing. I am acting in the role of an artist who uses the medium of photography to create - as stephen (no link provided) has accurately stated - photo illustrations.

Although I am attempting to make - by appropriating the medium's unique, intrinsic and inexorable characteristic of its relationship to and as a cohort of the real - the pictures appear as though they are the result of straight picture making, that tromp l-oeil is a ploy to capture and focus a viewer's attention and, hopefully, direct her/him to my intended message in my visual bottle.

That said, let me reiterate - I am not practicing so-called straight photography. I am practicing one of the medium's other possibilities (of which there are many) - one that is quite different from so-called straight photography. IMO, practicing one does not negate the other.

That said, I should remind one and all, I have never stated or suggested that there is only one true manner of making pictures. So-called straight photography is my preferred picture making MO. Viewing good/better/best examples of the same is, for my eye and sensibilities, the most enjoyable and rewarding picture viewing experience.

However, I am not a one-trick pony. There is too much feed in the bag to limit the palette to just one taste.

BTW, Nick S. asked: "Does the repeating tombstone in all 4 composites have a special meaning?" - Although that specific tombstone has no special meaning, it is intended to have a rather obvious specific meaning, that of Death. As in, we kill the planet, we kill ourselves.

Wednesday
Jun012011

life without the APA # 1-4 ~ in my nightmares

1044757-12489041-thumbnail.jpg
Forever Wild Development Corp ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489060-thumbnail.jpg
Villa Motel ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489050-thumbnail.jpg
A Kodak Moment ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-12489101-thumbnail.jpg
Free parking ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Late last night, 1:37AM to be precise, I crashed into bed. I crashed because I could barely see straight after spending the entire day - OK, OK, OK ... the wife will point out that I took a break to watch Gunsmoke - creating 3 more life without the APA pictures for the upcoming IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit (June 24th-July 14th, Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts / Blue Mt. Lake, NY - you're all invited). Even though the subtitle for the life without the APA picture is in my nightmares, I was able to sleep without a single nightmare because I had put the challenge of creating these pictures to bed (that is, until the next time, which may be today).

The challenge involved in creating these pictures is daunting and tedious. Daunting, because finding the right pictures from my picture inventory to mix and match is, in itself, a long and tiresome endeavor. Not only do the various POV perspectives of each picture have to be in close alignment, but so too does the quality of light - especially the direction of the light.

Once likely candidates are identified and assembled, the real tedious work of cutting and pasting begins. And, don't let anyone fool you, as many so-called "easy" selection tools as PS has - Magic Wand, Magnetic Lasso, Color Range, and the like - there is lots and lots and lots of handwork involved in making selections. Lots and lots and lots of 100% pixel level handwork that, I swear, will make you blind and/or brain dead.

Inasmuch as the life without the APA pictures are each assembled with elements from up to 7-8 different pictures*, the selection and blending of various elements is time consuming and very mentally tiring. Needless to state, the assembled pictures' visual success or failure - and hence their ultimate success or failure - is, in large part, dependent upon the assembly process. If the blending of elements looks in any way like it was done by a kindergarten kid with dull blunt-nosed scissors, the entire effect and affect is lost.

The challenge of successful blending of the elements is compounded by the fact that, as close as the elements might be in tone, color, and perspective, it is rare that a good amount of tone/color/perspective adjustments does not need to be applied to various elements. Some examples: the street scene in A Kodak Moment was nowhere near as warm as the Adirondack scene;
the Villa Office sign and the between the buildings debris in Villa Motel and the Woodlands sign in Forever Wild Development Corprequired a lot of perspective adjustment;
the skies in all the pictures are dramatically "enhanced" - tone/contrast/color, etc.

All in all, it is not an exact science and it requires of great deal of what the US Army calls "field expediency" - throw away the rulebook and make it up as you go along and as the situation requires.

BTW, just in case you can not read the "The Woodlands" sign in the Forever Wild Development Corp picture (it's a jpeg for the web), it states quite clearly and, apparently, with out a single hint of oxymoronic irony, "THE FOREVER WILD DEVELOPMENT CORP". FYI, I'm not making this up - it was a real sign, now gone (the FWDC part, not the entire sign).

*as an example, Forever Wild Development Corp: 1) the bridge (NYC), 2) the Adirondack scene (near Lake Placid), 3) hot dog guy and sign (Wilmington, NY), 4) the erratics (boulders) and excavator (Jay, NY), 5) the Woodlands sign (Jay, NY), 6) construction cones and barrel (Rochester, NY), 7) the tombstone (Au Sable Forks, NY).