ku # 1357 (with a bit of civilized ku) ~ dancing (with my cameras) in the rain
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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.
BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES
BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS
In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes on • Life without the APA • Doors • Kitchen Sink • Rain • 2014 • Year in Review • Place To Sit • ART ~ conveys / transports / reflects • Decay & Disgust • Single Women • Picture Windows • Tangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-gallery • Kitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)
covers • click to embiggen
quote / statement • click to embiggen
spread 1 • click to embiggen
spread 2 • click to embiggen
spread 3 • click to embiggen
spread 4 • click to embiggen
spread 5 • click to embiggen
spread 6 • click to embiggen
spread 7 • click to embiggen
spread 8 • click to embiggen
spread 9 • click to embiggen
spread 10 • click to embiggen
spread 11 • click to embiggen
Over an extended period of time, I have been making pictures immediately before / during / immediately after rainfalls which are one of favorite times to make pictures. That is to write that rain is one of the very few referents for which I suit up and go out to make pictures of a specific type. That's as opposed to my normal M.O. of going out with my camera(s) with no specific picture making objective in mind and making pictures of whatever pricks my eye and sensibilities.
What I find interesting about my approach to picture making is that I have had only a few bodies of work which I have intentionally pursued over time. Most of my other bodies of work have emerged from my archives when I recognize that I have a worthy collection of pictures which can make up a separate body of work. Once recognized and organized, I will then pursue, again over time, additional pictures for those almost serendipitous / newly 'discovered' themes.
My manner of discovering 'hidden' bodies of work within my archive stands in contrast to those who work on single bodies of work one at a time. My reason for not doing so is simple - I like to make pictures, lots of pictures. My archive extends back almost 13 years. Doing the math (6000 ÷ 13), that equates to approximately (on average) 460 pictures per year. And that's counting only the pictures which made it into my archive.
I can not imagine that my prodigious picture making habit will change any time soon. So, who knows what might emerge from that heap o' pictures in the future.
addendum: Borrowing a page from Andreas Manessinger, The Song of the Day is Singing In The Rain.
Moisture covered window ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenRain just keeps on coming - roads closed / washed out, mainline trains stopped dead in their tracks (pun) with 300 passengers transferred to buses, evacuations, and lakes and rivers well past flood stage. And guess what? - more rain is on the way for the next 3 days.
And, during those short intervals when the rain stops and the sun peeks out, it is so humid it feels like a rain forest - windows fog up, porcelain toilet tanks sweat like a 350lb person sitting in sauna, and heaven help you if you boil a small pot of water for rice - BTW, speaking of toilets, thanks to the rain that's where my golf game is currently located.
Enough already. Anyone out there know the dance steps for an anti-rain dance?
Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Dock / Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Picture maker ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Rapids above falls ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Even though Sunday was a misty/foggy and rainy day, we took a 180 mile drive through the northeast section of the Adirondack PARK.
First stop was Elk Lake Lodge, a lodge which is situated in a stunningly beautiful location - a 12,000-acre privately-owned forest preserve in the heart of the High Peaks. The lodge is situated about 6 miles through the forest off the main road so it is truly a wilderness lodge. Even though the lodge is pretty close to our home, the wife and I have had this place on our gotta-stay-there list for over 10 years. Maybe this year is the year.
A number of stops later, the next stop was at Buttermilk Falls (on the Raquette River near the village of Long Lake where the wife and I were married) which was running very high as a result of all of the recent rain. After checking out the falls, we adjourned to the Adirondack Hotel where I enjoyed a unique and quite tasty dinner of Guinness BBQ beef hash over risotto topped with a poached egg.
Downpour / light rain ~ Brooklyn, NY / Hoboken, NJ • click to embiggenWhile in NYC, one non-photography exhibit which caught my and and attention was Chrisa Biddy's Mobile Uploads - see pictures here / read about it here. While the exhibit was comprised of small 4×6inch (on average) realistic oil and watercolor paintings, what I really liked was the fact that the paintings were created using vernacular photographs culled from Facebook and other social media networks as their inspiration.
If you don't read the short PR announcement linked to above, about all you need to know about the work is contained in the following paragraph from the announcement:
Voyeurism, exploitation, subversion, sexual exploration, etc., are all words that can be associated with Biddy's work. At the end of the day, it is simply a boy painting girls, all the while ignoring the trappings of the femme fatale and political correctness. The subjects have allowed themselves to enter a world wide web of unknown onlookers and the artist has catapulted the impermanence and awkwardness of a snapshot to the permanence and artfulness of painting.
I found the small paintings to be visually very mesmerizing and emotionally / intellectually very stimulating (keep your mind out of the gutter). And like the PR piece states, I found the exhibit to be "Like watching a train wreck; you just can't divert your eyes." Really good stuff.
@ the W Hotel ~ Hoboken, NJ • click to embiggen
Corner / E4th and Ave.A ~ New York, NY • click to embiggenOn the entry, diptych # 31 ~ my thoughts on taking or making, John Linn commented:
First of all, the diptych attached works particularly well for me. Perhaps it is the color, or the relationship of the referents (to use your term), or the contrasting plains.
Which brings me to the text. By assembling these two images into one picture did you not make an image after taking it? I believe the making (assembling) has created a stronger picture than either of the pictures separated.
I may be splitting hairs / parsing words but, to my way of thinking and making pictures, the moment I tripped the shutter I made the image by using my eyes and in my mind's eye. At that point, the image was made.
Without a doubt and after processing the image file, I produce a print or representation thereof for viewing. However, once again to my way of thinking, the processing of producing a print (or prints in the case of a diptych) is a rather rote craft (albeit carefully and skillfully executed) of putting the previously made image on paper / the web / whatever.
IMO, the printing process is merely the act of making the already made image visible (or placing the already made image on a substrate) - certainly an important act but one which is made possible entirely by the existence of what has been previously made.
At least, that's how I see it.
Mark Hobson - Physically, Emotionally and Intellectually Engaged Since 1947