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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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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 personage (18)

Tuesday
Sep292015

civilized ku # 2980-81 / diptych # 166 ~ Tibetan Thangka art

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Tsering Phuntsok ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
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Thangka scroll / detail ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen
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Thangka paints ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen

As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, the wife and I had dinner - a small private affair at the home of the President of SUNY Plattsburgh (college) - with a couple notable Tibetans, most interestingly the Tibetan artist, Tsering Phuntsok. The dinner followed an exhibit of Tsering Phuntsok's art which is featured in The Festival of Tibetan Art & Culture at SUNY Plattsburgh. The exhibition is in honor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama who celebrates his 80th birthday this year.

Tsering Phuntsok is a warm and welcoming individual and he shared much information about his art and life. He fled Tibet after the Chinese excursion (invasion?) into Tibet and eventually landed in the US where he continues to practice his mastery of Thangka painting - Thangka is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, or silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala.

Tsering Phuntsok also demonstrated / explained some the techniques employed his painting. Things such using a brush made of 2 hairs from a cat's neck to paint the ultra-fine detail in his work. He uses traditional Tibetan paints which he makes from natural elements crushed to a fine powder and mixed with water. Many of his paintings are completed over 2 years (working in his spare time).

Needless to write, the exhibit and the dinner were an unexpected delight.
Saturday
Mar292014

civlized ku # 2686 ~ arrivederci (per la presente)

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Giuliano on the 120m Olympic ski jump ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
My time as a tour guide and picture making opinionator / racontour for the Italian guy - truly a very swell fellow - are over. Giuliano left yesterday for NYC* where he met up with my good friend, Robert, who while he is tending to a good friend in Queens, has graciously let Giuliano stay in his NYC apartment for the few days he will be in NYC.

I bid Giuliano arrivederci, per la presente, since I be with him again as I will be heading on Monday to NYC to: 1)visit my good friend, 2)visit picture galleries in Chelsea with Guiliano, 3)strange as it might seem, take Giuliano to an excellent Italian restaurant, and last, but by no means lest, 4)to see this film (you can read the review, The Nanny as Sphinx, Weaving Enigmatic Magic on the Sly ~ 'Finding Vivian Maier' Explores a Mysterious Photographer here). The film was just released and I doubt it will be shown in my area any time soon, if ever.

*Giuliano left for NYC on a train. An experience which contrasted, for the worse (much worse), with his train experience in Italy where he can board a high-speed bullet train and get somewhere fast and easy. Here in the good ol' USofA, we don't cotton much to public / mass transportation. In our little corner of the country, Guiliano (as was I) was stunned to learn, when we arrived at the train station (a tiny little room in the basement of the grand building which formerly was the train station) that one can not purchase a ticket for the train

There was a sign indicating an 800 number to call to purchase a ticket which, on the face of it, didn't seem like a problem ... except .... the ticket purchase automated voice system had great difficulty understanding Giuliano's excellent English because of his Italian accent. So much so that he said "the hell with it" and decided to board the train without a reservation number.

I didn't think that was the best of ideas, so I called the wife and she got on the computer and did the transaction, forwarding the reservation number by texting it to me. I could have done the same with my cell phone but if I had experienced anything near the difficulty Giulano had, I would have hurled my phone into nearby Lake Champlain.

Giuliano was also amused and puzzled by the fact that, once the southbound train from Montreal to NYC crosses into the the good ol' USofA, there but one, count'em, one track on the line all the way to Albany. Inasmuch as freight trains have the ride-of-way on the single track, a passenger train must be shunted to a siding where it might sit for 45-60 minutes while waiting for the freight train to pass. Needless to state, passenger trains on this line do not have a very good track record (take that Jimmi Nuffin) of on-time arrivals.

What a joke. Except, it's not a joke - it's a national disgrace.

Sunday
Jul152012

ku # 1152 / people ~ pine with camera

Hugo and pine tree ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOur favorite primitive campsite in the Bog River Flow / Low's Lake wilderness area is a shoreline site in a grove of magnificent soaring pine trees. As a result of those trees, the forest floor is a thick soft bed of pine needles. The breeze whispers in through top of the pines, sunlight dapples the ground, and a pair of loons is in residence immediately adjacent to the site.

IMO, it just doesn't get any better than this.

BTW, Hugo, pictured here chimping, made some pictures during the trip.

Tuesday
Jan102012

ancient history

The pre-Landscapist with his Nikon F Photomotic FTn, c.1967 ~ Japan - Okinawa Prefecture • no embiggenCredits: picture made by the ex-wife, most likely with my Kowa SETR. KODAK PLUS-X B&W film (before B&W was an "effect"). Hand processed and printed by the referent.

Monday
Jan092012

new gear

Lens hoods • click to embiggenWhile searching for a lens hood for the new Zuiko M 45mm lens, I also found lens hoods for my 20mm and 17mm lenses. So, for a mere $24.00US (total), I purchased all 3 lens hoods. Now, all of my lenses have lens hoods.

I'll never understand why lens makers don't include what must be a $3-4.00 item with their $400.00US+ lenses. Or why, in the case of Olympus*, even if they do offer them as an accessory, they cost $50.00US.

That said, how important for you is the use of lens hood?

*Olympus does include lens hoods with their more pricey "pro" lens.

Saturday
Aug142010

goofey ass kid

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3D glasses ~ Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - Washington, DC • click to embiggen
Just hanging out in the IMAX Theater and making faces while awaiting the start of Hubble 3D movie.

Wednesday
Jan062010

people / personage # 12 ~ concentration

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Daniel and Maureen in the pool • click to embiggen
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Hugo in the pool • click to embiggen
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Hug in the pool • click to embiggen
Despite how it starts, This is NOT a gear post.

That said, one of the reasons for my EP-1 purchase was to acquire a people-friendly camera in the sense that human picture subjects tend to be more at ease when a smallish P&S style camera is pointed in their direction than they are when an "intimidating" dslr is staring them in the face. This seems to be especially so when the human subject is a person-unknown to the picture maker.

The reason that I wanted / needed a people-friendly camera is simply because I want to put much more emphasis on picturing people - both known and un-known to me. It's time, or at least I feel that it is time, for people to start appearing, front and center, in my picturing endeavors. Something more like lifescapes as opposed to landscapes. Can you say, Lifescapist?

That said, I have been pondering the current state of human subject picturing - at least as it is presented around the blog-o-sphere / web. Much of that work is of people-looking-at-the-camera-with-a-sullen/deadpan-expression (as an example), especially so when the intent is to make "portraits". Happy people, at least those who manifest it, seem to be in rather short supply or, more likely, out of picturing favor in the Art World.

I really don't have any desire to contribute to that genre but what I am wondering is - do smiles or happy people have a place in the Art World?

I don't mean smiley faces posturing for the camera. What I mean is more like people just doing things like Daniel and Maureen in the pool. Or, is that just too fun and friendly - family snapshot style - to be considered as "serious" picture making? Is that too happy for the times in which we find ourselves?

My intent for people picturing is much like my intent for my other picture making - capturing the everyday in the daily flow of life. I am certain that some everyday people in everyday life will not be happy as a clam but does that mean I have edit out "happy" and only include "not happy as a clam"?

Just wondering ....

All that said, the focus of my people picturing is 2-fold:

1. While I certain that I will make a fair number of single / standalone / one-off pictures like the pool pictures above, my real interest is in making "relationship" diptychs / triptychs like the ones below. Pictures in which the subjects - happy, sad, thoughtful, confused, whatever - are somehow "related" but not looking at the camera.

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Family relationships • click to embiggen

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Dog and Man ~ Thanksgiving Day • click to embiggen

2. Continuing my life in pictures series which will include people - on the street, in stores / malls, etc. - doing whatever it is they are doing. A kind of street photography thing but with a big-brother-(who wants you to spend and get)-is-watching twist to the proceedings.

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A life in pictures ~ Bell Centre, Montreal, CA • click to embiggen
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A life in pictures ~ Madison Square Garden, NYC • click to embiggen
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A life in pictures ~ W34th & 8th, NYC • click to embiggen

My New Year's Resolution, such as it is, is to concentrate on a few focused / ongoing bodies of work - specifically, Relationships and Life in Pictures - both of which are people-focused. Hence, the EP-1 and just 3 "pancake" lenses - a 17mm f2.8, a 20mm f1.7, and a 25mm f2.8. I am also thinking that a second EP-1 body is in the offing as well.

FYI, I am certain that smiling faces / happy people will come and go as they present themselves.

Tuesday
Dec302008

civilized ku # 148 ~ is it real or is it Memorex?

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Hugo pictures Lily and Lily returns the favorclick to embiggen
On our holiday trip to New Jersey, Hugo made a paradigm-changing discovery about pictures. To be precise, moving pictures and, in particular, moving pictures as viewed on a television screen but, nevertheless, certainly one that is applicable to still pictures as well.

As mentioned, we (8 of us) interrupted our journey to south Jersey with a 4 hour stop in Newark, NJ to see a professional hockey game - the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the New Jersey Devils. It was a significant event for Hugo for 3 reasons - 2 eagerly anticipated reasons and 1 totally unexpected. The first 2 reasons were, simply enough; 1) his first in-person NHL hockey game, and, 2) his "date" with Lily at that hockey game. Both reasons were eagerly anticipated, especially the date part (have I mentioned that he is 4 going on 16?).

Unanticipated reason #3 came as a big surprise to me and to Hugo - Hugo has viewed countless Penguins games on television. He is well aware of players and stars like Sid-the-Kid and the Candy Man. His personal favorite is former Penguin Gary Roberts. We don't know why that is, it just is.

So, when we arrived in the arena, the teams were still on the ice for their pre-game warmups. While the wife was standing in line for refreshments, I took Hugo into the arena to see the whole deal - lots of people, the jumbotron, lighting effects and all of the general hoopla that is a pro-sporting event here in the good ole US of A.

As he was taking it all in, I pointed out Sid-the-Kid and the Candy Man down on the ice, whereupon he looked and looked and looked some more at them, especially so at Sid-the-Kid. His gaze was intense and I could almost hear the gears and bells and whistles sounding in his head. After a few minutes of looking and thinking, he turned to me and said,

"I didn't know Sid-the-Kid was real.", and, a little later, "I didn't even know Roberts was real."

Just like that, his view of the world changed in an instant. And, just like that, my view of what's the most important thing that he can learn for his future life - that is his ability, in a media saturated world, to distinguish real from the imagined - also changed in an instant. Sure, sure, reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic are much needed tools for survival but, if you really think about it, when it comes to distinguishing between need and desire in a media world saturated with pictures (both moving and still) that are solely intended to seduce and excite the lust to consume, a basic understanding of what's real and what's fanciful is a very important skill to have.

A skill that most people seem to have ignored or never have possessed in the first place.

That is why, Hugo and I are about to embark upon a concentrated program of both picturing and picture viewing. Nothing real "heavy", just what seems to come naturally to him - he does seem to genuinely like to both make and look at pictures. and that's a language that I would very much like him to learn right along side the language of the written word that he is currently starting to learn.

Not to mention, I really like how kids see their world. 1044757-2308085-thumbnail.jpg
Hugo and Lilyclick to embiggen
It is definitely quite different from the way adults see their world. IMO, that is is especially true when they picture each other. I believe that is so because when picturing each other, they relate to each other kid-to-kid as opposed to when an adult pictures them and they relate kid-to-adult.

I submit as evidence of my kid-to-kid vs kid-to-adult theory, the pictures that accompany this entry - the 2 kid-to-kid pictures above and my kid-to-adult picture on the left. IMO and to my eye and sensibilities, there is a sense of ease and directness as well as a far less posed quality that is very apparent in the kid-to-kid pictures than that which is captured in the kid-to-adult picture.

Call me crazy, but I am acutely aware - from viewing the pictures - of the fact that Lily and Hugo were sharing a very different picture making dynamic with each other from that which they were together sharing with me. Each gave to the other as part of the picturing act something that was quite different from that which they gave to me.

Both Hugo and Lily engaged in chimping after they made their respective pictures but neither have seen a print of their efforts. I will be especially eager to watch Hugo view his picture of Lily when he visits on New Year's day.

I really wonder what it is he will judge to be real.