man & nature # 194-195 ~ I survived and Hugo tries to grasp a new concept

Grassy Sound Channel ~ North Wildwood, NJ • click to embiggenI'm back and I survived my 4 days at the Jersey Shore. In fact, you could say that I not only survived but thrived since I returned with a signed gallery representation contract from a very nice gallery on the Jersey Shore - Beacon Art.

I was informed that the owner/manager would be in on Friday between 10AM and 1PM as well as later in the day between 5 and 10PM. That worked out perfectly - I made a cold-call at noon on Friday with a portfolio of 6 24×24" prints, a folio, and a book wherein we closed the deal. I played a round of golf in the afternoon and returned to the gallery after dinner to sign the contract.

The gallery will showcase 5 of my 24×24" Shore Light prints, 4 13×13" Shore Light prints, 1 9×12" 16 print Shore Light folio, and 1 12×12" 40 pg Shore Light POD book. The prints are editions of 15 ($2,000 for 24×24" print, $1050 for 13×13" print), the folio is an open edition ($250), and the book is an edition of 50 ($400).

I will be one of only two photographers represented by the gallery. The other, interestingly enough, also makes square pictures albeit with a medium format/digital-back camera and without vignetted corners.

The gallery kept the book and the folio for immediate display. I will make and frame the prints this coming week and deliver them to the gallery the following week.

Hugo and the wife accompanied me to the gallery in the evening. As we were walking up to the gallery and I was explaining to Hugo that the art gallery was going to sell my pictures, he paused for a moment to ponder the idea and then announced, "I didn't know that taking pictures was art."

This from the mouth of Son of Cinemascapist / Grandson of Landscapist. Where did we go wrong?

man & nature # 192-193 ~ the last day of Rachael Ray

Relaxing and living large • click to embiggenToday was the last Rachael Ray Show shoot and amazingly enough we had Summer today as well. At least what has been passing for Summer - it didn't rain all day like it did yesterday and the temperature shot all the way up to the mid 70s. Not exactly what we normally have for August. And guess what? Tomorrow, rain.

In any event, in another couple hours - around 1AM - I'm off to the Jersey Shore for 4 days. The wife and Hugo got there on Saturday, so it's solo run through the night - the only way to fly on the Jersey Turnpike and Parkway.

man & nature # 191 ~ pictures (aka, signs) of signs that are about signs and "signs"

Signs • click to embiggenI'm back in the picture making saddle once again and my brain is once again a-whirl with thoughts of meaning(s) to be found in a picture - see the following entry - re: studium and punctum. That said, part of the key to studium and punctum is found in ideas and notions expressed in the field of study called semiology or semiotics - that is the study of, in part, the role played by signs in the construction of meaning.

It was in the late 19th/early 20th century writings of Charles Sanders Peirce, an American Pragmatist philosopher, that, amongst many many other things, 3 components of signs, known as iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs emerged with a specific application to pictures. These types of signs are not distinct types of signs but rather features shared by signs in general.

Iconic signs, quite simply, resemble the things/objects they represent - think of a sign with a silhouette of dog in a circle that is bisected by a diagonal line (No Dogs Allowed) in which the representation of a dog looks like a dog.

Indexical signs do not always resemble the things they refer to but they do bear at least a casual connection to the things they point to. Think of a human footprint which points not so much to a foot as it does to idea/notion of a human presence/person. Like our index finger, indexical signs point to something other than itself.

Symbolic signs create and convey meaning by convention and consensus. As an example, we all operate our vehicles, by convention and consensus, in a manner that red means "stop", yellow means "caution", and green means "go".

Photographs combine these 3 features: Iconic - Photographs resemble the things they depict. Indexical - because photographs are the result of light bouncing off depicted objects, they bear an indexical relation to the thing pictures. Symbolic - photographs can also create symbolic meaning(s) as I mentioned in the pictures of my recent entry, man & nature # 189 - the face of an exuberant child as a symbol of "joy" or an empty pot of coffee as a symbol of "pleasure".

All of that said, I would like to point out that I have become aware of a "hidden" body of work within my total body of pictures - one that I was really not particularly conscious of as a body unto itself until I started going through my pictures for a distinctly different reason. That body of work consists of a fair number of pictures of signs.

IMO, given the right academic lunatic fringe spin, these pictures, which are "signs" in and of themselves, of actual signs, which working in concert bring into question/discussion the semiotic nature of "signs" as symbols ... well, I could have a runaway hit on my hands because, in a time when the meaning of everything is open to question, my sign pictures are definitely a sign of the times. Although, I have to be careful because my head is already beginning to spin - a sure sign that I'm break-dancing on the border of the academic lunatic fringe.

That said, I do have to say that I very much like the pictures as pictures - if you know what I mean.

man & nature # 190 ~ it's one thing + another thing

It's a tree - but what else is it? • click to embiggenAs discussed here on a number of occasions before, studium - the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph and punctum - the "wounding", personally touching detail which establishes, with the viewer, a direct relationship with the picture's referent are ideas put forth by Roland Barthes in his 1980 book, Camera Lucida. Simply put, studium is the visually obvious subject (referent) of a picture - the thing denoted. Punctum, on the other hand, is the not-so-necessarily-obvious thing(s) the picture can call into being - the connoted.

The denoted in a picture is easily recognized - I see it, I know what it is. The connoted in a picture is most often a very ethereal thing - very open to personal interpretation - of feelings and thoughts that a picture can incite. I have often used the the phrase illustrate and illuminate to describe the same ideas.

What I am curious about is this - I suspect that most picture makers focus more on making pictures that are illustrative than illuminative. [CAVEAT: I am intending no value judgement here, I'm merely stating an observation.] I also suspect that most picture makers look at pictures with the same bias, that is, a picture's illustrative qualities are foremost in the viewer's mind rather than its illuminative possibilities. In other words, picture-wise, a cigar is always a cigar.

That said, it should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed The Landscapist for any period of time that I most value pictures that are rich with the possibilities of both the illustrative and the illuminative. Pictures that are not only pleasing to the eye but also to the intellect. Pictures that incite, irritate, instigate, and infatuate not just the eye but also the mind. To my eyes and sensibilities, a cigar is not always a cigar.

But, back to my curiosity - how about you? What side of the fence do you come down on with your own picture making? Is it the same side you come down on for your picture viewing?

man & nature # 189 ~ too "smart" for our own damn good?

Morning joy • click to embiggenJörg Colberg's website / blog, Conscientious, is one of the very few sites that I check out every day.

I do so because he regularly addresses ideas and notions about the medium of photography and its many possibilities, characteristics, and qualities. Also thrown in on a regular basis are links to and entries about most often interesting pictures - actually, bodies of work. Throw in the odd entry about a few current cause célèbres and what you have is one of the most thoughtful sites about photography and its practitioners on the web.

In a recent entry, When do photographs become photo illustrations?, Colberg address's the ever-popular notion of:

It has become fairly obvious that lately that our understanding of what photography is and does has not quite caught up with, well, what it is and does. A wonderful case in point is the attempt to differentiate between "photographs" and "photo illustrations". What is the difference? When does a photograph become a "photo illustration"?

One of the things that I like most about his entry can be found in this paragraph:

Let's first get the obvious out of the way. Of course, any photograph is based on a set of choices made by a photographer (whether or not the photographer is aware of that or whether he or she had the choice is irrelevant). What type or camera do you use (film versus digital, and if film what kind of film, black and white or colour)? What lens do use (telephoto, macro, etc.)? How do you frame the shots? These are all choices already made, which one could interpret as pointing towards that any photo really is not a depiction of reality (whatever that might actually be). Thing is, though, first of all this argument is kind of trivial. Of course, you could now pick your favourite contemporary French philosopher and spend hours pouring over arcane theoretical texts - I don't think there's much (if anything) to be gained from that, though. (my emphasis)

Like Colberg I also believe that there isn't much to gain from "spend[ing] hours pouring over arcane theoretical texts" about "reality". That is unless you are in academia (student / teacher) and philosophical / theoretical constructs about the nature of reality is your field.

If one is engaged in making pictures with a camera of the actual world, one is not engaged in making pictures of theories, philosophies, or abstract ideas. One is engaged in making pictures of actual people, places, and things that we can see, touch and feel - things that are commonly accepted as real/reality.

In the best of photographic representation / documentation of actual people, places, and things the viewer is most often incited to think / ruminate about the nature / meaning of those actual people, places, and things pictured. In fact, in a picture in a medium that is unsurpassed as a cohort with the real, it is the fact that we come face-to-face with actual people, places, and things that we accept as real but in many cases don't fully "understand" that makes us think about the nature / meaning of things.

If we begin the practice of looking at pictures with the notion that "reality" / the "real" are meaningless words, what the hell is the point of even contemplating the idea of reality or the real at all? The idea of commonly accepted ideas about reality / the real, AKA - truths, is a totally bogus concept and even thinking about it a total waste of time.

In fact, If we begin the practice of looking at pictures with the notion that "reality" / the "real" are meaningless words, what the hell is the point of making pictures? Maybe the point of making and viewing pictures might simply be to create a pleasant, mind-numbing diversion from the fact that nothing is real.

But, that's not a place that I can go. All I know is that the realities of today's diptych are very real for me - amongst many things, the joy and innocence of childhood, the pleasure of morning coffee in the wilderness and the joy and happiness of knowing that it was prepared by loving wife, and the warmth and beauty of morning light filtering through the trees.

However, let me be perfectly clear - I did not picture joy, innocence, pleasure, happiness, warmth or beauty. I pictured the real face of real child, a real pot of real coffee grounds amongst the real clutter of an real outdoor breakfast, and the real light of a real morning as it fell upon a real tent and a real forest floor.

These real people, places, and things can and do suggest many meanings and understandings about the ideas /concepts / theories regarding joy, innocence, pleasure, happiness, warmth and beauty as they manifest themselves in my reality as well as, I am certain, to the reality of many others - ideas /concepts / theories regarding joy, innocence, pleasure, happiness, warmth and beauty that are held as commonly accepted realities and (gasp) truths.

If you want to opine against such realities and truths based upon "your favourite contemporary French philosopher... arcane theoretical texts" have all the fun you want with that reality. Square / tap/ ballroom dance away on the head of a pin if you like. I just think "that argument is kind of trivial" - no, make that very trivial when standing face-to-face with the realities of the real world.

man & nature # 188 ~ incredible, simply incredible

F***ing amazing • click to embiggenI've been looking at this picture - made by the wife - for about 5 days now and I still can't entirely wrap my head around it.

Last Tuesday AM while we were all waiting for Rachael Ray, Hugo picked up a double blade (kayak) paddle that coma-girl had used the evening before to paddle out to the site in a solo canoe - she's not very adept (getting better) with a single blade in a canoe. Hugo started mimicking a double blade paddling stroke so I suggested that he should give it a try in a canoe - our 12 ft. solo boat.

He said "no". I pushed a little more and he still said "no". I suggested that I would hold on to the canoe in very shallow water and, after careful consideration, he said, somewhat reluctantly, "ok".

I put a low folding camping chair over the canoe sea to elevate him just a bit, lifted him into the canoe, grabbed the back of the canoe, and he started to paddle. Within a few feet he was off on his own - straight as an arrow, turning when needed and even reverse-stroking to turn around.

About a half-a-dozen onlookers - including one of Placid Boatwork boat builders - stood on the shore in rather stunned and amazed incredulousness - keep in mind that Hugo is 4 going-on-5 years old. No instruction other than a few days in the front of a canoe with a single blade.

It was simply amazing. No fear, no second thoughts - he just headed for open water and was on his way.

Keep in mind when viewing this picture, the canoe is a mere 12 ft. long - that little figure doing the paddling is truly little.

FYI, the wife made the picture while I was in hot pursuit. Just when she has started to get the hang of manual exposure, she got fooled by a very high-key scene. I had to rescue the exposure in RAW processing as well as a bit of PS work. Nevertheless, kudos to the wife for a wonderfully memorable picture.

man & nature # 187 ~ let's swap

Rock, water, and flora • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry I mentioned making a folio in order to be able to reciprocate Michael Gordon's pledge to send me one of his work. And, as mentioned, it's been on my mind to make one (or more) regardless.

What has also been on my mind is to set up a section on the blog for folio sales and exchange - I would really like to start collecting work from others and the idea of folio swapping is a great way to do without any $$$$ involved in the transaction.

In an effort to jump start the idea, I'll print - at no charge - folios (up to 12 prints each) for the first 5 respondents to this offer. The only hitch is that I would like to get this done within the next 2 weeks, 3 weeks max.

How about it?

Update on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 02:47PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Don wrote: Mark, just curious, when are you going to announce the winners of your free print offer?

My response: Sorry for the delay on this - I have been sidetracked by a number of time-consuming things, the first Rachael Ray shoot and another one next Monday as well as a birthday wilderness canoe trip, to mention just a few. In addition, the first paper I purchased did not meet my expectations so new paper type is on its way to me as I type.

The printer is working fine and has a new set of fresh inks installed so as soon as the paper arrives - should be tomorrow - I'll run a few test sheets and be ready to go.

That said, I'll notify the "winners" by the end of the week.

Once again, sorry for the delay and thanks for all your patience with this.

man & nature # 186 ~ did I mention the rain?

Rain, rain, rain • click to embiggenIn the last 10 days I've canoed in the rain, camped in the rain, played golf in the rain, made pictures in the rain, been singing (and dancing) in the rain, and ....

... the weather forecast for the next 10 days - rain, 7 of 10 days.