a f***ing idiot ~ moose are returning update

Last week I made an entry about attempting to picture a moose in the wild. In that entry I mentioned the idiots who shot a moose in our area.

Well, those jerks still have the honor of being the worst, but the moron pictured here (from the front page of today's Lake Placid News) is running a close second.

The thing that makes this all the more idiotic is the fact that several onlookers were yelling at and imploring the woman to back off and leave the moose alone. To which she replied, "I know what I'm doing."

The one thing that makes this incident incomplete is that the moose kept her cool and didn't get violent. Not that I want anyone to get hurt (well maybe I really do want that), but if that happens, I certainly hope that the horse doesn't get injured.

Update on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 09:31AM by gravitas et nugalis

Aaron bags a moose - most likely a calf of the cow pictured above.

I'm back

The Cinemascapist at the Collette Blanchard Gallery ~ NYC • click to embiggenAaron's opening was very well attended. It drew a very interesting crowd and he sold some prints that night (as well as some pre-opening sales made by the gallery). This opening took place almost exactly one year after his first NYC show and I must say that both his work and his presentation of it have evolved considerably. I guess that's why he's had a few repeat collectors buying his work.

In any event, the gallery owner/director believes that she can sell at least 1/2 of the prints available in the show - that would be 30 sales (10 prints, editions of 6). Now that would be quite something.

Update on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 10:39AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Matt asked: "How do you catch a collector's interest enough to keep them coming back for more?"

my response: On one hand, that's simple enough to do - just make interesting pictures and have really good gallery representation.

On the other hand, the really complicated and difficult part is to just make interesting pictures and have really good gallery representation.

I'm not attempting to be amusing because it's true - it does seem "easy" once you've made interesting pictures and have really good gallery representation but either and/or both of those prerequisites are not so easily accomplished.

That said, I'll be making an entry this week about the inside look I've had over the last year into the NYC Art/gallery world.

Featured Comment: Martin Doonan asked: "What is the print nearest left?"

It's this one - incident at the flume

FYI ~ an open invitation

Incident at the flumeFor those of you in the NYC area who might be interested, tomorrow, Thursday - Nov. 13th, is the opening of Aaron-The-Cinemascapist's new exhibit. The opening is from 6-8pm at The Collette Blanchard Gallery - 26 Clinton Street, NYC. That's just south off of E. Houston St. (between 269 and 299 E. Houston).

Both Aaron and I would love to meet with any of you who might be so inclined to pay a visit. We hope that some of you might be able to stop by.

Cinemascapist ~ getting dressed

Getting dressed click to embiggenEven though I am more than 400+ miles from home, I have been hard at work trying to post and entry. First on a PC laptop. No luck there, the "improved" SS software doesn't work on Explorer. Then on a Mac laptop. No luck there until I downloaded and installed Firefox. I wish a f**king pox on all "updates".

In any event, I'm at the Jersey Shore - one of my least favorite places on the planet but one of the wife's most treasured. Ah, the sacrifices one makes to insure domestic tranquility.

TO keep my mind off the oppressive heat/humidity (it's fair and mild back home in the Adirondacks), I am picturing like crazy. I guess it is just an extension of the Meyerowitz / plain seeing "coincidences" that I find myself at a summer place right next to the ocean - my very own "Cape Light".

Even though I hate this place and everything it stands for - conspicuous consumption and waste as new cookie-cutter, pretentious, and soul-less shore McMansions replace the quaint and somewhat indigenous shore cottages - I am still attempting to picture this place and its unique shore light without letting my contempt for it influence my picturing.

I am just trying to get into the spirit of the place and let the viewer decide where the chips may fall. As Meyerowitz stated in the Focus interview:

It's not about a picture of the place. It's about the spirit. If you can allow yourself to come to the photographic act from a spiritual doorway then you're likely to have experiences in the places you find yourself that seek to a deeper core of your being.

Now, I have to admit that I get a little hinky when people start throwing around words like "spirit" and "spiritual" in discussions about photography. Not because I don't think and believe that picturing can not be a spiritual thing - both the act of making and the act of viewing. It's just that those words start to sound a bit hippie-dippy, pie-in-the-sky-ish, cult-ish, and, rather "serious" and perhaps more than a little pretentious.

IMO, using those words tends to set up even more barriers to those wanting to make good pictures. In a sense, making good pictures has to do with, as mentioned before, just being curious and receptive. Not trying too hard to be "creative" or "clever" or "serious". Stop looking for "pictures". Where ever you happen to be, just look around and see what there is to see.

That is all I am trying to do for the next few days. No agenda. Just - stop. look. listen. However, you and I will have to wait for my return home to judge whether I have accomplished my intent. I left my darkroom at home.

BTW, thanks to the Cinemascapist for the use of his work.

FYI ~ the beat goes on

You'd think he has a PR agent (he doesn't).

Italy
Turkey
China

And, this week he's in Europe for his solo exhibit opening in London.

Don Gregorio Anton ~ mystical retablos

Retablos • click to embiggenWhile I was in Syracuse, I visited Light Work, where I viewed the work of DON GREGORIO ANTÓN. Anton is most definitely an artist who uses photography.

From the show description: Don Gregorio Antón creates mystical retablos that look like sacred objects. They are intimately small and sit on stands to be viewed individually. Each retablo is one of a kind. Frida Kahlo described retablos as the truest representation of the people’s art. Also called ex votos, they have been part of Mexico’s tradition since the seventeenth century. They were originally hung behind the altars of Catholic churches, and remain a tradition to this day.

Antón uses the visual language of the retablo to create existential tales of human existence that speak of spiritual searching, suffering, hope and despair, life and death ...
Close views • click to embiggenAntón’s work is likely to provoke a different response in every viewer. The retablos can be appreciated for their mysterious beauty, their haunting narratives, and their intense spirituality. Where we find ourselves in our lives may be where we find ourselves in Antón’s retablos.

The Catholic altar boy in me likes the use of the monstrance and the small prints (translucent images on copper) also take on the appearance of scared objects / religious icons. My only issue with the work was that the narratives where very difficult to read.

Check out the link to the show and let me know what you think.

more evidence of past lives

Evidence of past lives • click to embiggenI received an email yesterday about a multi-year, multi-school reunion weekend in my hometown of Rochester, NY. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link to see what it was about.

It actually seems like a fun event so I clicked on an Image Gallery link, thinking that it might have pictures from past reunions. Wrong. It was actually 6 galleries, one from each school included in the reunion event, of pictures from the good old days. And there, in amongst some from my school, I came across this picture which includes yours truly.

I have absolutely no memory of the pictured event. I'm totally clue less as to exactly what it was we were trying to convey. Although, there does seem to be an organizing concept of 'signs', not to mention eye wear, white socks and bare calves. I am absolutely certain that, whatever we were up to at that moment, it must have seemed like a damn good idea at the time.

Update on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 02:39PM by gravitas et nugalis

Yep, that's me 3rd from the right. And, yo, as for gangsta signs, there was no such concept as 'gangsta' in the early 60s and, as for signs, the only one we knew involved the middle finger. Nevertheless, I and my fellow preppies will be happy to accept the mantle of avant-garde re: introducing the concept of gangsta and gangsta signs.

The 'reality' and 'truth' in this photograph is ample evidence of that.

Chuck Avery ~ Landscapes of Progress

Chuck Avery sent pictures back in July and, as I mentioned, I totally overlooked them ( along with some others). So, better late than never is the order of the day.

Chuck and I share both a similar 'how we came to photography' stories and a similar approach to how we approach our subjects. Like me, Chuck started out in architecture but for one reason or another, became disillusioned with it and then, again like me, turned to photography. There are other interesting parallels in our lives but I won't get into that because it all starts to sound a bit 'creepy'.

Photography-wise, we tend to approach our subjects in as similar manner - he states on his website that, "...Instead of taking a dogmatic approach with this project by condemning urban sprawl, I would rather inspire awareness of the process and help to pose questions ..." I appreciate the fact that Chuck is picturing in a somewhat objective 'bear-witness' manner - using the medium's 'reality effect' to 'inspire awareness' about a subject to which he is drawn. He then has the artistic confidence to 'pose questions' about his subject rather than imposing answers - hopefully inciting discourse and thought. I also find his pictures to be visually stimulating. My eye enjoys working the visual landscapes that he presents - they have a quite and engaging visual beauty, albeit a 'horrifying' one, of which I never seem to tire.

Some might (correctly) pose that Chuck is doing nothing 'new', that his pictures are very 'derivative' of the New Topography school. While this certainly has an element of truth, what I most appreciate about his pictures is that they are linked to a sense of place - his place - and his concern for his place. His pictures do however transcend the merely 'local'. The 'connoted' subject they address is indeed a global one.

All in all, I find Chuck's pictures to be both illustrative and illuminating. Would that there were legions of Chuck Averys doing the 'same' thing (rather than the ubiquitous pretty landscape crap) The planet just might be a better place.

You can see more of Chuck Avery's pictures on his website. The pictures presented here are from his Landscapes of Progress gallery, but don't stop there, check out all of his galleries.

Update on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 05:06PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Paul Maxim wrote ; "... Do you honestly believe that if all of us who tend to engage in creating that "ubiquitous pretty landscape crap" switched to "picturing" the realities of our consumer based culture that anything would change? ..."

my response: Well, what I wrote was "...just might be a better place ..." which, I guess, expresses hope if not outright assurance.

Paul also wrote about the "larger political forces" whose "... Money is power and (that) power determines the fate of the landscape that all of us want to protect ... Those "forces" are not likely to be swayed by thousands or even tens of thousands of photographers whose "message" is all the same and whose images look like yours ..."

my response: There is no question that the rich and power wield great influence in determining the 'shape' of the world we live in on many levels. That said, history is replete with a zillion instances (great and small) of 'little guys' working together to ameliorate or irrevocably change that influence.

Here in New York State, we have an 125 year old amendment to the state constitution, enacted by the legislature (after much pressure from 'activist citizens) and voted on by the public, that took the state lands within the Adirondacks out of the control of commercial interests that were devastating the environment. And, it must be noted, that one photographer - Seneca Ray Stoddard - and his 'magic lantern' show (that documented much of the destruction of the Adirondack flora and fauna) who had a great influence on the public (the 'little guys') and the body politic.

You're absolutely right that the 'big guys' won't be influenced directly, but, if enough 'little guys' show up outside their doors ...

Paul also wrote; "... the bulldozers will keep pushing the earth around, skyscrapers and malls will continue to sprout from the land, golf courses will replace farms, and the climate will continue to change. To imply that all this is occurring in part because some of us prefer "pretty" to "pretty ugly" misses the point entirely.To imply that all this (is occurring in part because some of us prefer "pretty" to "pretty ugly" misses the point entirely."

my response: my thoughts on eco-porn are well known to those who have been following The Landscapist regularly since its inception.But let me repeat the words of Linda Miller (from The High Country News); "..."...picture-book nature, scenic and sublime, praiseworthy but not battle-worthy. Tarted up into perfectly circumscribed simulations of the wild, these props of mainstream environmentalism serve as surrogates for real engagement with wilderness, the way porn models serve as surrogates for real women. They are placebos substituting for triage."

Referring back to the pictures of Seneca Ray Stoddard, it was his pictures of the destruction of the environment that got people activated. "Pretty pictures" may stimulate a love for nature (but only the pretty bits, not all of the messy rest of it) but, they are indeed a form of fiddling while Rome burns.

Ever wonder why power companies, waste management companies, petrol companies, auto companies, AKA 'the big guys' fill their advertising and PR with 'pretty pictures' of the environment? Think about it.

And BTW and FYI, I don't think making pretty pictures is 'wrong'. On the other hand, I do think that there are more worthy pursuits to be followed in the medium of photography.