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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.

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    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

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Entries in man +/- nature (4)

Thursday
Jun022011

civilized ku # 972 / man +/- nature # 5 ~ things go better with Coke

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Things go better with Coke ~ The Notch / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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+/-</> ~ The Notch / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
As mentioned a few days ago, I am revisiting my man +/- nature series (formerly known as man v nature). Doing so has caused me to conjure up the idea of including 1 man +/- nature print (24"×60") with 3-4 life without the APA pictures (20"×20"/each) for the upcoming IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit. The idea being to hang 3 life without the APA pictures directly below the man +/- nature print, creating a 44"×60" picture "cluster". The prints would be hung with a small, +/- 1/2", separation between them.

Additionally, and in direct response to (and instigated by the same) Sven W's question - ...does the intended audience for the show know they are looking at composites?... , I intend to also include 4 small prints, 6"×6", of the un-composited pictures of the original Adirondack scenes used in the making of the life without the APA pictures. Even though there will be an Artist Statement which makes clear the composite images factor, the "before" pictures will make that factor clear for those who don't read the Artist Statement and reinforce it for those who have.

Friday
Nov132009

man +/- nature # 4 ~ the Jay Range

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man +/- nature # 4click to embiggen
The beat goes on re: man +- nature and I must admit that leaving the house with a specific picturing intent feels a bit strange. Nevertheless, I'm starting to get with the picturing program.

That said, I am still wrestling with the presentation, re: the graphic elements. I have eliminated the "?" and I have reduced the size of the "+/-" but I still not certain that the graphics are "right".

As always, opinions and comments are appreciated.

Friday
Nov132009

man +/- nature # 3 ~ the rocks in Jay

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man +/- nature # 3click to embiggen

Tuesday
Nov102009

man +/-? nature # 1-2 ~ the grand landscape ?

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Man +/-? nature # 1click to embiggen
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Man +/-? nature # 2click to embiggen
As part of my ongoing effort to make myself crazy, re: Art, I occasionally read the blog DLK COLLECTION, a blog from one photography collector to another (from the blog's subhead).

In a a recent entry regarding the current Joel Meyerowitz exhibit - Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks at the Museum of the City of New York - the author opined:

... it wasn't what I was expecting, and as a result, I found myself wandering through the galleries with questions bouncing around in my head. The punch line is that I think this show is less about the art and more about the parks, so my frame of reference was meaningfully out of kilter .... I think ... this exhibit will end up being less about Joel Meyerowitz and his particular artistic vision for the landscape form, and more about the parks themselves and the various experiences they offer to visitors ... [A]s memorable art, I'm not sure it rates quite so highly; while these images are undeniably well crafted, I think the only way these pictures stand up to the tests of the canon of great landscape photography is if we redefine what the genre is based on the realities of our current time, placing a greater weight on those pictures which tell the ongoing story of the coexistence of land and man.

That last part, the part about "placing a greater weight on those pictures which tell the ongoing story of the coexistence of land and man" in redefining "the canon of the great landscape", has been ricocheting and pinging around in my skull ever since I read it. That's because, in part, I thought the landscape work of Robert Adams, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Misrach, and Mitch Epstein, to name just a few (and amongst the ongoing efforts of a host of others) had already "redefined the genre". But, in reading the DLK entry, I am inclined to believe that the author considers the great-landscape genre canon to be made up of pictures - grand vistas, majestic mountains, broad canyons, and sinuous deserts, etc. - by Ansel Adams and his like-picturing brethern.

That said, R. Adams, Sternfeld, Mistach, Epstein and the like do, in fact, make up part of the backbone of a genre that has come to be known as The New Topography. A genre which is distinctly different in dealing with the landscape than that of Sir Ansel and his devotees. Perhaps the DLK author is suggesting that the time has come to accept The New Topography as part and parcel of the "canon of the great landscape" as opposed to being considered as a separate landscape genre.

To which I can only add - sure, why not? I mean, if you make your decisions about pictures based upon "canons", which apparently helps avoid some sort of confusion in the Art World, then by all means "redefine" the canon, get on with it, and accept the fact that on the planet as we find it in today's world, the notion of "grand landscape" needs more than bit of "redefining".

All of that said, the other reason that this notion has been cluttering up my thoughts is because, as anyone who follows The Landscapist knows, I expend a great deal of my picturing time and effort making pictures "which tell the ongoing story of the coexistence of land and man". But, because I am not always certain that the idea comes across to viewers of my pictures, I have been festering and fixating upon the notion of how to make this point a little more obvious. In effect, how to "redefine" how I approach my idea of the grand landscape with a greater weight on those pictures which tell the ongoing story of the coexistence of land and man.

So, what you see here in the above pictures, is my first real stab at driving the point home. The pictures are not exactly what I set out to make when I ventured forth to make them. On the other hand, kind of going with the flow - both while picturing and while processing - has brought me to a place that I like or, at least, a place that gives me even more to think about.

Opinions - regarding any and/or all of the above, to include my pictures - much appreciated please.