counter customizable free hit
About This Website

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.

Search this site
Recent Topics
Journal Categories
Archives by Month
Subscribe
listed

Photography Directory by PhotoLinks

Powered by Squarespace
Login

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 light (5)

Thursday
Mar172016

diptych # 208 ~ chased by the light

1044757-26920619-thumbnail.jpg
early / mid-morning Spring light ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

A handful of the medium's heavy-hitters / superstars are gravitating to Instagram as their preferred medium of choice, displaying their pictures wise. No less than Stephen Shore has stated that his Instagram feed is his main photographic outlet.

According to a NY Times LENS blog article, Shore is highly invested in Instagram and he shoots regularly, using Instagram like a sketchbook, posting one picture daily, always something made within the past week.

Shore's involvement with Instagram is such that he, along a few others, founded a new publishing venture - a quarterly periodical, Documentum - wherein they turn digital into analog. The first edition - limited to 1000 copies (I have ordered mine) - was accompanied by an exhibition at an Atlanta art gallery where prints made of Instagram pictures "sold like hotcakes".

For the record, Documentum is "a guest-curated periodical archiving and examining cultural phenomena" so it might be safe to assume that it won't always be devoted to publishing Instagram pictures. However, if you wish to see the current crop of Instagram pictures as selected by the folks at Documentum, they can be viewed at documentum.tv.

Re: what's it all mean? - I'll have some thoughts on that question within the next couple days.
Tuesday
Mar012016

diptych # 204 ~ same but different

1044757-26890110-thumbnail.jpg
early morning /mid-afternoon ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I might have had an evening (artificial light) variation on this still life but the wife put the dishes / utensils / et al in the dishwasher before I knew what she was doing.

I've got to get me a roll of that crime-scene-do-not-cross tape. Or, maybe somebody makes photo-scene tape.
Monday
Apr072014

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

1044757-24686328-thumbnail.jpg
Another Useless Artist ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
1044757-24686333-thumbnail.jpg
single women ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen

1044757-24686336-thumbnail.jpg
picture windows ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen

1044757-24686339-thumbnail.jpg
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
Feb112014

triptychs / the light ~ I'm not a b+w guy .... really, I'm not ... but ...

1044757-24357851-thumbnail.jpg
bathroom light • click to embiggen
1044757-24357861-thumbnail.jpg
stairs light • click to embiggen
1044757-24357868-thumbnail.jpg
yellow chair light • click to embiggen
1044757-24357855-thumbnail.jpg
kitchen light • click to embiggen
... every now and again one or more of my pictures seem to demand a conversion to b+w. Such a demand arose a day ago as I was working on an image from my the light series / book.

I was making a small localized contrast adjustment using the LAB Lightness channel - where I do all of my contrast / tonal and sharpening processing adjustments - when I became acutely aware of how interesting the pictured looked in b+w. Consequently, I started to explore the possibility of converting the images to b+w. As I did so, I was actually quite impressed by how the pictures translated, technically and aesthetically, into b+w.

I was even more more impressed when I printed a converted file on heavyweight matte paper. The print was very rich in tonal quality and, to a very significant degree, it rivaled results I use to obtain back in my wet darkroom days. In a word, nice. So the die was cast, and I set to converting all of the files from the series.

B+W CONVERSION TECHNIQUE ASIDE: Over the years I have read (online) about the trials, tribulations and angst experienced by dedicated b+w analog pictures makers regarding the problems of digital picturing and printing in their beloved genre. Some were even pining for a b+w/greyscale only sensor (their wishes were granted by Leica in the form of the $8K [body only] M Monochrom digital camera). Most were fiddling around using various PS adjustment tools - Black & White, Channel Mixer and the like - or test driving various stand alone conversion software.

Since b+w was very low on my picturing list - can't say I ever made a digital picture which was intended to be a b+w image - I didn't go down any of those paths. Instead, I concentrated on what I belief to be one of the best and easiest methods of color>b+w conversions methods available. A method, which in a sense, is not a conversion method at all inasmuch as it relies on a b+w/grayscale image / information embedded in each and every RGB RAW file - the Lightness channel in the LAB color space.

Most digital picture makers are unaware of this wonderful greyscale information simply because visits to the LAB color space are seldom, if ever, undertaken simply because LAB color space is little understood by most - there are only 2 color channels (+ the Lightness channel) and curves in the color channels work in a very different manner than they do in RGB color space. While figuring it out ain't rocket science, most tend not to bother.

I first started using the Lightness channel (years ago) for sharpening. One can perform significantly stronger sharpening - without corresponding sharpening artifacts - in LAB than in RGB color space. The same is also true with contrast/tonal adjustments. In both cases, you work on only the greyscale component of the file and the color channels are un-effected.

In creating these b+w files, I went into LAB with each picture and threw away the color channels which left just the Lightness channel. I then applied a tonal adjustment curve - the same for all the pictures in the series - to the Lightness channel and then converted the result to greyscale. The next and last step was to convert the greyscale file to a RGB file. IMO, in the name of high quality color>b+w "conversion", it doesn't get any easier than that.

An interesting aside to creating the b+w pictures was that I discovered several related pictures triptych possibilities along the way.

Will I forego the color pictures in this series for the b+w ones? No, I will not. IMO, they are different but equal. Will I print a b+w book in addition to the color book? Yes, I will. However, I will be very interested to see how my RGB b+w files print on a printing press.

Comments on the b+w vs color pictures, re: the light, are both encouraged and welcome.

Thursday
Jan232014

the light - quotidian to the core / box o' prints update

1044757-26220599-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220602-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220607-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220615-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220620-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220631-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220634-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220644-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220689-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220697-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220699-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220704-thumbnail.jpg
1044757-26220709-thumbnail.jpg
covers / page spreads • click to embiggen
I have created a new book which is off to the POD printer for printing / production. The book, titled simply "the LIGHT", is a collection of pictures - created over an extended period of time - the makings of which were instigated by chance encounters with fleeting light falling upon commonplace scenes. That is to write, while I am intrinsically drawn to picturing the commonplace, it was the light which pricked my eye and sensibilities.

My Artist Statement in the book:

George Eastman stated the obvious when he said, “Light makes photography.” inasmuch as the word “photography” derives from the Greek words φως (phos), meaning "light", and γραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light". Without light there is no photography.

That written, in modern photo speak, the phrase “the light” has come to mean natural light which baths the landscape in a dramatic and, most often, color-saturated fashion. Dramatic sunsets/rises and the sturm und drang of inclement weather are two ubiquitous examples and there are those whose picture making mission in life is to “chase the light".

In my picture making pursuit, I use whatever light I encounter - found light - in any given picture making situation. It is rare that that light does not suit my picturing intent. Equally rare are those times when ”the light” itself is the primary inciter of my picturing activity.

However, there are times when the found light streaming into interior landscapes creates fleeting moments of intense, focused, and transformative illumination which pricks my eye and sensibilities. While the rather quotidian illuminated objects and/or fragments of interior are of interest to me, it is the light itself which has instigated my desire to make picture.

And it is at those times that I feel “the light” is chasing me.

Box O' Prints project update: to date 4 participants have stepped up to the plate. A minimum of 4 more would be ideal in order to get the thing moving. Of the hundreds of Landscapist followers / readers, surely there must be 4 more out there who would like to participate.

FYI, this project is not intended to involve only "master printers" and it is not a competition. The intent is simply to create the opportunity to put prints, as the ultimate expression of one's work, into the hands of those who prefer prints over screens and it does not matter if one is using a cell phone, crappy/toy camera, or an 11×14 Deardorf view camera in the making of one's work. Nor does subject matter matter - people, places, things, found or made, color or b/w - it's all good.

So, come on. Put your insecurities, self doubts and reservations about your pictures / picture making aside if that's what's holding you back. No matter what your picturing thing is, this project is nothing if not win-win for all who choose to get involved.

BTW, my thanks go out to Markus Spring for his entry, From Love For Prints To "A Box O' Prints, in which he relates his love for prints and provides a link to this blog, re: the Box O' Prints.