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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 the forks (5)

Friday
Sep112009

civilized ku # 205 ~ getting outa town

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20 Main on Main Street ~ Au Sable Forksclick to embiggen
In a little over an hour from now, I'll be getting out of town - driving to Montreal (picking up the wife along the way, getting on a plane to Paris, then getting on plane to Florence, then getting in rental car and driving to an olive orchard/farm just outside of the Tuscan village of Arezzo where we will be staying in a quaint stone cottage that overlooks the olive orchard and the Tuscan countryside. I am fairly certain that I will spend 7 days immersed in wine, women (the wife), and song Italian-style.

In the meantime, Aaron (The Cinemascapist) will be posting entries of some of his new work for your commenting and viewing pleasure. I'll have plenty of pictures when I return.

That said, let me leave you with one of life's enduring mysteries:

Though nearly 22 percent of the state’s (Louisiana) adult residents have no health insurance — one of the highest rates in the nation — pollsters and political experts say voters in the state are overwhelmingly against Mr. Obama’s health care proposals.

How the f**k to Republican politicians do it - getting so many people to vote / campaign against their own self-interest? You know what I mean - in addition to the above, how do they convince so many lifelong poor / middle class people to vote against higher taxes on the wealthy?

Maybe Svein-Frode had it right when he opined that so many Americans would indeed rather be dead (read, "socialist") than Red.

Wednesday
Sep092009

man & nature # 228 - 231 ~ chimp away

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Clock Park AM fogclick to embiggen
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AM fog ~ Au Sable Forksclick to embiggen
I have always been somewhat confused / perplexed regarding the idea of post-picturing cropping. That notion was marching around in my cranium for a while yesterday as a result of reading a blog post wherein the author was mentioning that his new full-frame sensor camera allowed for a considerable amount of after-the-fact cropping while still maintaining a high degree of sharpness / detail / lack of noise and the like.

No doubt that that is true. But, my question is - if you feel the need to crop after-the-fact, where's the disconnect with that idea - cropping for better ... what? ... composition? - at the time one is picturing?

Or, to put it a slightly different way - if one of the principle characteristics of the medium of photography is the act of selection (and it is) why don't picture makers pay way more attention to that act while they are engaged in the act of picturing?

I am doubly perplexed regarding this question in the current digital age. I mean, for goodness sake, your camera has a screen on which to view your selection efforts on the spot. One can chimp away to one's heart's delight. Man, if you can't get it right with that help, once again, I might suggest taking up another time-killing sport other than picturing.

Saturday
Sep052009

nightlife in the Forks

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Firefighting and picture makingclick to embiggen
Last night around 12:30AM the quiet of the night was drowned out by sirens which seemed to come to a stop a very short distance away. Sure enough, just around the corner, an unoccupied house was on fire.

As I was making the picture on the right (the fireman with a camera) , I started to laugh because it brought to mind scenes from The Fireman's Ball, a delightful award-winning and somewhat controversial Czech film from 1967.

Friday
Aug212009

man & nature # 214 ~  prints

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Sundown from the Main Street bridge ~ Au Sable Forks, NYclick to embiggen
During last week's visit with Aaron's workshop participants, one person in particular - who was familiar with my decay pictures from viewing them online here on The Landscapist - was kinda blown away when he viewed an actual print (24×24') of one of those pictures. I'm paraphrasing here but the reaction was along the lines of ...

Wow. The difference between seeing this picture online versus seeing it in print is amazing. I know that you are an advocate for making and viewing prints, and I agree, but this viewing experience really drives that point home in a very dramatic manner.

... or words to that effect. And that set my mind to wandering.

The one photo constant in my life was the C print - a negative-to-positive chromogenic print also known as a color coupler print. They were there when I started (back in 1967) and they were there until I dropped out of film-based picturing long about 2003. As far as I know, they are still there.

For almost all of that time, I made my own C prints - thousands of them, most of them for my commercial photography endeavors - during which time I became intimately familiar with and quite enamored of the look of C prints. The fact that C prints are made from color negatives, which have the most extended dynamic range capability of all color films and are very adept at reproducing subtle colors, gave the prints a beautiful appearance that was quite natural in look and feel.

C prints were, almost by default, the preferred media for those in the Fine Art scheme of things. A small number of Fine Art picture makers used Cibachrome prints, primarily for their archival qualities, but Cibachrome prints never had broad appeal due to the fact that the printing process (which used highly toxic / abrasive chemicals) was a positive-to-positive one - from one high contrast media (transparencies) to another very high contrast one (the cibachrome papers). Cibachrome prints were tack sharp and long-lived but also known for texture-less blacks, blown highlights, and colors that were, well, metallic chrome-like. All of which was exacerbated by an extremely high-gloss paper surface.

All of that said, I believe that comment regarding online viewing v. print viewing came in large part due to the fact that, independent of subject matter, a beautifully crafted print is, in an of itself, an object that can command its own attention.

Obvious examples of such are the BW prints of Ansel Adams, the dye-transfer prints of Eliot Porter, and the C prints of Joel Meyerowitz. It is very easy to get lost in just the very surface of such prints. I would have no argument whatsoever with someone who purchased one those prints to hang on their wall just to admire the print - and so that they could say,"isn't that beautiful" - meaning the print, not the picture.

That is not to say that I would do so - my preference is for beautiful prints with interesting pictures on their surface.

All of that said, I was wondering how many of you have ever seen a C print and I don't mean of the drugstore, 1-hr print variety (yes, those were C prints). What I mean is a C print that is produced to high standards and mostly likely viewed in gallery. Prints made by/for the likes of Joel Meyerowitz whose Cape Light prints are amongst the most beautiful prints of any kind that I have ever seen.

Friday
Aug212009

man & nature # 213 ~ the face of The Forks

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The Hollywood Theatre ~ Au Sable Forks, NYclick to embiggen
On yesterday's entry, man & nature # 211, Matt Dallos commented:

A few weeks back I was up in the Adirondacks for a few days. In the process I ended up driving through Au Sable Forks. It was actually quite a jolting experience. I thought I had a good idea of what the town looked like from your photographs, but the actually place was much different than I had expected ... [T]oday's picture feels more like what I saw. But I didn't see much more than the few buildings you pass along the main road.

My first reaction to this comment is to express my disappointment that Matt was in town and didn't let me know or look me up. Damn. I always enjoy meeting the followers of The Landscapist. A few have even enjoyed the joys and comforts of an overnight stay in my house.

So, just in case any of you are in town or in the neighborhood, please feel free to get in touch and stop by. The more the merrier. Seriously.

That said, it's on to Matt's "jolting experience". I have only posted a relative handful of pictures of the village of Au Sable Forks. There is no particular reason for this "oversight" other than I really haven't taken seriously the idea of picturing the village other than on a very occasional basis.

That said, it is quite a coincidence that Matt should chime in about this at this time - over the past few months I have been contemplating a number of ideas regarding a picture project about the "Forks". Amongst many considerations, one factor that instigated this contemplation was the announcement that an organization from NYC had acquired / was acquiring the vacant Former Masonic Lodge building on Main Street for renovation and development as hub for Arts & Culture - the Tahawus Lodge Center.

Not that I am holding my breath waiting for this project to actually happen. In no way meant to denigrate the idea, it is worth noting that, barring an infusion of private money (lots of private money), this project could be years and years in the making. I have volunteered to help move things along, but ....

In the meantime, actually yesterday AM as I was making yesterday's entry I was struck with a flash of inspiration, I have proposed a mini arts & culture project to the owner of the local movie theatre on Main Street (right next to the Masonic Lodge).

It occurred to me as I was starring at the picture, Plant life at the Hollywood Theatre, that the "coming attractions" display windows on the theatre facade were empty - they have been empty ever since the theatre reopened after decades of vacancy. The new owners, a postal delivery person and his wife, put a lot of sweat equity and a relatively modest amount of money into fixing up the theatre. Nothing at all "fancy", just what has to be done to get the place open and showing movies - which, btw, are first-run movies at $5.00 a ticket.

Much remains to be done as time and money, mostly money, allow. The "coming attractions" display windows are on the list somewhere, but no where near the top. So, my proposal was simply this - I'll put in display boxes in return for using the "coming attractions" display windows to display my village (and surrounding area) pictures - 2 per window on a 2-3 week rotating basis.

The purpose behind this idea is to introduce the village to my work and to lay the groundwork for my picturing-making heart's ultimate goal - to picture every village resident, ala Richard Avedon style - which is to say; plain white bkgrnd, come-as-you-are, plain and simple style.

But I digress. I think that Matt's "jolting experience" regarding what I am reasonably certain was his surprise that the village of Au Sable Forks is not, by a long shot, a picturesque Adirondack tourist town (hey, we don't need no stinking Starbucks). The village, at least the most visual part on Main Street, has the look and feel of a slightly depressed and worn-down working class town - which, btw, it actually is/was.

But, on the other hand, if Main Street is the "face" of the village, the true character of the place isn't visible unless one sees the small residential areas off of Main Street. There you will find well cared for working family homes and yards, many of which have been recently renovated by the "landed gentry" (not) like the wife and me. Children play, adults power-walk (some just stroll), people sit on front porches and say, "hello", it's quite quiet and very very safe.

In an attempt to help others who may venture into our village from suffering the same fate as Matt, I will actually attempt to tag all of my previously posted pictures of The Forks with the tag "the forks" so that they can viewed as a "collection" of sorts. Hopefully this critical mass of Forks pictures will better prepare those who come to town to know what to expect.