Entries in uraban renewal (3)
urban renewal # 3
Intellectual masturbatory drivel •click to embiggenExpect traffic delays at the border this weekend. Changes in normal patterns and heavy traffic associated with the Easter holiday will strain the faculties. Consternation and confusion will be the norm.
Please exercise caution, patience and understanding. Be sure to remove dirt and detritus from head and hair and avoid, at all costs, those attempting to take matters into their own hands.
gravitas et nugalis
in uraban renewal
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urban renewal # 2
Series Premiere • click on photo to embiggen itSometimes the incredibly obvious is difficult to see.
Yesterday, on civilized ku # 13, Ana wrote; "I've always known in an abstract sense that photographers have power -- I've admired a lot of photographs that are either in-studio or set up or manipulated or obviously created in some way. But "knowing" that about other people's work turns out to be different from realizing that I, too, can exercise that power, which I'd simply never had a sense of before."
As a relatively recent newcomer to the photography game, Ana has a bit of an excuse for not realizing that she 'too can realize that power'. I, on the other hand, with 30 years of experience making pictures for commercial clients, not to mention viewing the work of artists-who-use-photography (one favorite, Joel-Peter Witkin, as an example) for about the same period of time, have no excuse for not realizing I 'have the power" to do the same with my own non-commercial picturing.
DUH.
I guess that's one of the reasons I like going NYC, one way or another, it always seems to shake up how I see things.
urban renewal # 1 - a new kind of ku
Throughout my commercial photography career, I specialized in 'creating' creative solutions to tell a client's 'story'.
Virtually all of my commercial work depended upon controlling every detail in a photograph - models, props, locations, sets, lighting, etc. In the commercial world the last thing we depended upon was the 'contingient features of the actual world'. I can't tell you how many hours I spent picking and arranging peas (as an example) for food photography but, you know what? - I enjoyed it.
Since I have been (and still am) a proponent of landscape photography that is true to 'the spirit of fact', I never thought to bring that commercial sensibility to my landscape photography. Jeff Wall's work has opened up a new awareness in me of 'the spirit of fact' - that the 'fact' does not always have to be about the literal 'contingient features of the actual world'.
There is meaning and narrative that is also 'fact' and those 'connoteds' might sometimes be best served by selectively arranging 'referents' in order to better convey those "spirit of fact(s)'.
The Adirondacks without the APA • click on photo to embiggen itThe bitch of it is though, I can't bang these photographs out like I can (and will continue to do) my 'contingient features of the actual world' ku. Urban renewal kus need lots of planning/photographing and lots of post pro-filmic moment(s) work - what Lee Bacchus labeled 'artistic rigor and craft'. If I really apply myself, I might be able to create 3-4 urban renewal kus a year.
PS - the self-referential particulars of urban renewal #1 are; Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Oddessy , Jerry Uelsmann - everything he has ever done, Jeff Wall, and a tip-o'-the-hat to Terry Gilliam and the road scenes in Brazil.
Featured Comment Joel Truckenbrod wrote; "...One of the problems that I'm running into, is that it looks like a constructed image to me..."
publisher's question: Joel, could you please explain this in a little more detail?
gravitas et nugalis
Joel's response to my request can be read in in the comments. Joel basically stated that he could see 'artifacts' of digital creation in the image - mainly related to spatial and light relationships. In fact this image was created from separate photographs that were not pre-planned in order to maintain flawless blending characteristics. I was just playing around with an idea and exploring possiblities with existing photographs.
That said, I have been showing this photograph around in print and on online forums. The absolutely remarkable reaction by everyone who has seen the print is; at first - they immediately accept it as a photograph of a real place. They spend a great deal of time trying to figure out where it was taken. Failing that, they then start to ask questions like - what happened to the pavement? Did runoff/melting snow from the mountain have anything to do with it?
Online responses have run something like these; "Wonderful light and colors ... Another example that there is beauty everywhere if you want to see it." and "...What a fantastic photo. I love it. The colors are superb. Especially love the water gushing by in the trench. Easily a 10 from me." No mention of fakery at all.
Interestingly, no one asked about the gravestone. I wonder what that's about?
Also interesting, is the fact that the only ones who immediately recognized it for what it was were 2 teenage girls, my step-daughter and her friend. My step-daughter's immediate reaction (after only a few seconds) was; "You made this didn't you?"
Teenagers are such smart-ass know-it-alls.