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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 picture windows (60)

Thursday
Jul072016

Ireland / Scotland # 33-35 (diptych # 214) / picture windows # 70 ~ touch not the cat

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Cragganmore Distillery ~ Ballindalloch, Banffshire, Scotland • click to embiggen
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Coat of Arms / Cragganmore Distillery ~ Ballindalloch, Banffshire, Scotland • click to embiggen
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Gents / Laddies • Conway's ~ Ramelton, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

The first distillery we visited in Scotland was Cragganmore, one of many distilleries in the Speyside region - hence the name Speyside Malts. At the finish of the tour, one is treated, in the office of the founder John Smith, to tastings of various expressions of Cragganmore Malts. And it was in that office that I pictured the Coat of Arms which adorned a wooden cabinet. I was drawn to the weird, to me, motto of "Touch not the cat but a glove" not to mention the wreath-clad guy with a club.

They say that curiosity killed the cat but, since I am not a cat, my curiosity about the Coat of Arms and the motto therein caused me no harm. What I discovered was that the motto is, according to the curator of the Clan Macpherson Museum, that of Clan Macpherson which in turn was a member of Clan Chattan along with Clan Macintosh, et al. Furthermore, an "ungloved" cat - in this case, a Scottish Wildcat, the mascot of Clan Chattan - is one that has its claws extended. Therefore, be forewarned and "Don't mess with us".

Alternately, according to other sources, the motto could be interpreted to mean. "Touch not the cat without a glove." Either way, it would seem that it is best not to mess with the cat.

That settled, the Gents / Ladies signs in the diptych, while not a Coat of Arms, is one of many like-minded (potty humor?) gents / ladies signs found on many Irish pub restroom doors. I like them. I wish I had pictured more of them.
Thursday
Dec032015

picture windows # 69 / signs # 12 ~ carrying on

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dormer window ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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signs ~ Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggen
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book covers • click to embiggen

During my recent visit to Pittsburgh, I was able to add a couple pictures to 2 existing bodies of work - picture windows and signs / information overload.

FYI, while I have already made a POD book, Signs / The Signifer & The Signified: information overload, I have yet to post, for your viewing pleasure and entertainment, the gallery on this blog. Will do so within the next week.

The picture windows book/gallery can be accessed through the link in the BODIES OF WORK list at the top of this page.
Tuesday
Apr212015

door # 23 / single women # 29 / picture window # 68 ~ recent additions

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Budweiser Blvd ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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single woman ~ Utica, NY • click to embiggen
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office window ~ Plattsburgh, NY • click to embiggen

Wednesday
Jan072015

picture window # 64-67 ~ narrative and concept, pt. 2

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dormer window ~ Rist Camp / Newcomb, NY • click to embiggen
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hotel window ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
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hotel window ~ Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen
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porch window ~ Phoenicia, NY • click to embiggen
I concluded pt. 1 of yesterday's entry, the narrative and concept, with the idea that it seems obvious to me that the narrative to be found in a picture or a portfolio collection of pictures flows directly from a picture maker's picturing concept. To continue with that thought ...

... I believe that it is fair to write that every picture starts with a concept, from a simple snapshot - isn't my referent cute / pretty / funny / et al, it's time to take a picture - to the most convoluted self-referential MFA academic lunatic fringe pictures - I am engaged with the intersection of tomato soup and saltine crackers and the instagatory relevance of consumer driven imagery and its alienationatory effects and affects upon the transitory decision process of when to move my bowels, it's time to make some pictures*.

Somewhere in between those picture making polar opposites are those "serious" picture makers - to include amateurs and those involved in the Fine Art world - who make pictures without all the flapdoodle and green paint content in their Artist Statements and, IMO, every "serious" picture should have an Artist Statement. I believe that to be so, even if the intended use is for the picture maker's eyes only inasmuch as writing (get it out of your head and on paper) an Artist Statement is an opportunity to define / understand why you are doing what you are doing and exactly what it is that you are doing.

In any event, an Artist Statement is an opportunity for the picture maker to inform viewers of his work what it was that instigated a particular picture making endeavor, aka: the concept which drove the process. Outside of the academic-driven picture making world, where concept is King and interpretation of concept is the revenge of the intellectual on art, where many may find an Artist Statement interesting and even informative, most just care about the picture(s). IMO, no amount of flapdoodle and green paint, aka: artspeak, gloss is going to change their mind one way or another.

I will admit that it very pleasing when a viewer gets it, it = the concept. Especially so when he/she, to paraphrase Susan Sontag, has looked at the surface of a picture and then he/she "think - or rather feel, intuit - what is beyond it ...". IMO, that's best a picture maker hope to accomplish. That is, when a viewer gets it without having to read an Artist Statement which reads like an obtuse self-referential / analytical MFA term paper.

I believe that to be so because, first and foremost, the picture making medium, photography division, is a visual art. Hence, a picture, the 2D object in and of itself, must attract and hold the viewer long enough for a viewer to begin to think / intuit / feel about concept / meaning.

CAVEAT: The preceding paragraph should not be understood to mean that I am member-in-good-standing of the A Picture Which Needs Words Is A Failure club. That's because I believe that a concise well written Artist Statement has value which allows viewers to understand a picture maker's motivation(s) and I, for one, do not see the harm in that.

All of the above written, I must write that I believe, due to the pervasive influence and pressure, re: concept is King, emanating from the academic lunatic fringe many a fine picture maker has spent an undue amount of time and energy concerned with and, in fact, worried about whether his/her pictures pass the MFA lunatic fringe litmus test.

After spending some time myself thinking about that very thing, I have come to the conclusion that I make pictures simply because I like making pictures. And, yes, all of my separate bodies of work do have a concept which helps hold them together as a cohesive collection of pictures but .... truth be told most of those concepts came after the initial picture making had begun. That is, realizing after the picture making fact, that I had, in the act of making pictures because I like making pictures, created the beginnings of a body of work.

At the point of that realization, I worked on figuring out / understanding what the pictures meant to me. From that understanding I formulated a concept which would carry me through a continuing picture making process which would result in pictures for a given body of work. Pictures which conformed to a given concept. Now that may be an ass-backward / cart before the horse way of doing things but it works for me. Then again it has been suggested by many that, in order to find one's vision or at least a concept worth pursuing, one should just go out and start making pictures and see what happens.

A case in point is my picture window body of work (see a few latest additions in this entry). While began making those picture, in part because of the influence of John Pfahl's Picture Windows work, I came to realize that, for me (to my eye and sensibilities), the pictures had meaning for me beyond what I had originally thought. Meaning such as the comfort of one's immediate surroundings vs the vast unknown of the outside world; which can lead to thoughts of the one's personal world vs the impersonal uncertainty of that which we do not know; the life inside one's head vs the the life outside of one's comfort zone both mental and physical.

However, all of that is quite swell but ultimately it's up to the viewer to appreciate the pictures simply as pictures or perhaps to drift off to thoughts and feelings which are implied or inferred in the pictures. Concept and narrative are all well and good but if one concentrates on making fine pictures the rest will follow quite naturally.

IMO,it's up to the picture maker to identify emerging concepts in the picture making, fine tune the concept, make pictures according to the concept, edit and organize the results in a cogent and cohesive portfolio, and let the picturing chips fall where they may.

*Back in his 1952 review, for the NY Times, of Henri Cartier-Bresson's book, The Decisive Moment, Walker Evans wrote: "Cartier-Bresson's fourteen page preface essay has something quite unique about it, for writing of this kind: it is quite devoid of rubbish and ego."

Friday
Nov142014

picture window # 64 / ku # 1293 ~ another snowy Friday AM

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this morning / Mirror Lake Inn ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

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mountains and clouds ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Monday
Aug042014

picture window # 63 / civilized ku # 2775-76 ~ slipping effortlessly through life

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dirty window ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
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Kodak tower in the rain ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
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landmarks ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen

Polaroid's Sx-70. It won't let you stop.Suddenly you see a picture everywhere you look ... Now you press the red electric button. Whirr ... whoosh ... and there it is. You watch your picture come to life, growing more vivid, more detailed, until minutes later you have a picture real as life. Soon you're taking rapid-fire shots - as fast as every 1.5 seconds! - as you search for new angles or make copies on the spot. The SX-70 becomes part of you, as it slips through life effortlessly. ~ Polaroid advertisement (1975)

I have 4 SX-70 cameras 3 of which I acquired during the Polaroid-SX-70-pictures-as-art era. At that time, SX-70 cameras, which had been discontinued, where selling for as much as $ 500-1,000US in NY and other art hotspots. I found mine - mint, working condition - in flea markets, where the sellers had no idea of their worth - they were just old cameras after all - for $20-30US.

While I wasn't "making art" per se, I used them for many commercial assignments (mainly editorial work) and a multitude (thousands) of spontaneous everyday snapshots of family, friends, and just knocking around stuff. It would not be unreasonable to write that I was well and truly addicted to the Whir and Whoosh of Polaroid picture making.

So it was with much sadness and disappointment that I witnessed the end of SX-70 film.

That written, the digital picture making domain does have some "whirl and whoosh" characteristics which promote the "it won't let you stop ... suddenly you see a picture everywhere you look" effect. Not the least of which is the fact that the digital picture making domain doesn't set you back a nearly a buck a shot as did the Polaroid picture making domain. And, without a doubt, as the picture appears on a back-of-the-camera LCD screen, it does promote a "search for new angles" (and other picture making considerations).

Case in point. I just returned from Rochester where I went for lunch with some former classmates. On the short overnight trip, I added 20 - plus variations - new pictures to my finished folder. In a real sense, I did see pictures (nearly) everywhere I looked and my cameras (paraphrasing) "became part of me, as they (and I) slipped effortlessly through life."

FYI the landmarks in the landmarks picture are: Mercury (aka: Hermes), The Wings of Progress, and the Main Street bridge, which at one time was lined with buildings on its north side (the side pictured).

Monday
Apr072014

civilized ku # 2689 / single women # 26 / picture windows # 62 / kitchen life # 49 ~ another useless artist

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Another Useless Artist ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
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single women ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen

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picture windows ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen

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kitchen life ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
Even though I continue to be very productive picture making wise - 100+ new pictures in the last 30 days - I am feeling more than just a bit un-focused / aimless or, perhaps more accurately, plain and simple just flat out restless.

As evidenced by today's picture entries, in just the last week I have made additions to several of my bodies of work, including more which are not included here. And, it's worth noting that I am rather pleased with the work I have been adding to my various picture projects. I am even contemplating the start of yet another separate body of work which would begin completely from scratch.

Consequently, I can write with both conviction and certainty that I am not suffering from a picture maker's mental block, a deficiency of picture making motivation, or feelings of picture making inadequacy. No, not at all. After careful rumination and contemplation, there is no doubt in my mind that my current restless picture-related mental state does not stem from any of those picture making maladies.

Rather, I am quite certain that the bee in my bonnet, thorn in my side, idée fixe or monomania is instigated by the fact that I have not exhibited - gallery or art institution wise - any of my pictures for the better part of a year. Quite frankly, I don't find exhibition opportunities scarce or hard to come by. That is to write, when I set my mind to seeking them out. However, the truth of the matter is that I have been a slacker of sorts in that department.

I believe the reason for that situation is simple - most of my recent exhibits have been in not-for-profit art organization / institution galleries. Galleries which have funding which is not dependent upon selling something. Consequently, gallery goers who frequent those venues, generally speaking, are most interested in looking at rather than looking to acquire art.

Privately owned for-profit galleries are an entirely different matter. In order to exist, they need to sell something and in the process, make a profit. When the owner / director of such a place makes a decision to exhibit an artist, they do so with making a profit in mind - will the artwork appeal to and subsequently sell to their clientele? Which, in very real manner, makes getting one's work into a private gallery a real challenge.

Not only does an artist have to make interesting art but he/she must then find a gallery owner / director receptive to the work and who has a clientele receptive to the work and is willing to part with $$$$ to acquire it. Trying to win that trifecta is indeed a very daunting challenge.

All of that written, I want to exhibit my work in more privately owned galleries. That desire is fueled by my wish to sell pictures, but .... I want to sell pictures, not for the $$$$ (although I won't turn it down), but for the satisfaction of knowing there those who appreciate my work and are willing to part with something of value ($$$) to acquire something they consider to be of value, aka; one (or more) of my pictures.

So, it's time to make a plan*, get off my butt and implement that plan, and then sell some pictures.

*The biggest challenge I face in making a plan is to decide which of my bodies of work do I develop my plan around.

Tuesday
Oct012013

picture windows # 60 ~ seeing the outside world

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Bedroom window / Rist Camp ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
While at Rist Camp. I added quite a number of pictures to my picture windows series.