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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..

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    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

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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 uraban renewal (5)

Friday
Sep172010

urban renewal # 1 / ku # 781 ~ art? photography? both? neither?

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Without the APA ~ Whiteface and The Flume - somewhere in my head, in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Stormy sky ~ Lake Placid Resort GC - Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
I am about to do something that I rarely do* - enter a picture in a juried event.

Actually, 2 different juried events. 1 that is conducted by an Arts organization, the other conducted by a Photography organization. And, therein lies my dilemma. Let me explain ...

As noted and discussed in previous Landscapist entries, there are picture-makers who are artists and then there are artists who use photography. The distinction between the two can be rather complex. However, 1 particular difference is most often apparent - picture-makers who are artists tend to picture what they see, most likely with a very focused vision in a very specific genre, whereas artists who use photography tend to make pictures wherein the concept that drives the picture-making is the most important thing.

FYI, in the post-Szarkowski era, concept driven pictures are very much in favor with the Arts community / movers and shakers.

This distinction is not to say that the twain never meet although the concept MO most often mixes with the picture-makers who are artists crowd rather than the picture-what-you-see MO does with the artists who use photography crowd. That's because, in practice, concept driven picture-makers tend to "construct" their pictures with either staged picturing subjects or post-picturing manipulations of one kind or another, sometimes both. Neither technique lends itself to the notion of picturing what you see.

All of that said, it's back to my dilemma ... considering my 2 "picks" (see above) for the juried events, IMO, there little doubt that Without the APA is much more concept driven than Stormy sky is. Therefore, it seems obvious that that picture is much more suited to the juried event that is being conducted by the Arts organization. As mentioned, the Arts crowd really likes concept-driven work (of any art genre).

But, here's the real dilemma ... I also believe Without the APA to be the better choice for the juried event being conducted by the Photography organization.

Why so? Well, as I was purusing my collection of pictures - almost 3,000 pictures - for likely candidates for submission to the events, I was struck by the fact that, while many of my picture-what-I-see pictures are good (maybe great?) pictures, they make their strongest impression as part of a body of work rather than as stand-alone, AKA- "greatest hit", pictures.

Since I was entering in the Single Image category (in the Photography organization event), IMO, the Without the APA picture is the best picture for that juried event as well as the Arts organization event (which only accepts 1 piece per artist) .

That's because, in addition to it's concept-driven character, it is also a very good picture. It is, in a word, "interesting". As discussed in civilized ku # 669, the picture contains many of the qualities that make a picture "interesting" - What makes a photograph interesting? I’ll count the ways: It can be our first look at something. It can be entertaining. It can evoke deep emotions. It can be amusing or thrilling or intriguing. It can be proof of something. It can jog memories or raise questions. It can be beautiful. It can convey authority. Most often, it informs. And, it can surprise. ~ John Loengard

So, Without the APA it is for both juried events.

*I am not a fan of juried events / competitions. In part, that is because, even though quite obviously some pictures / bodies of work are better than others (some much better than others), I really don't think of picture-making as a form of competition. And, in additional to that notion and considering my experience as a judge for many juried events/contests (some of both national and international scope), such events really are crap-shoots that are entirely dependent upon the personal biases of any given judge. Hopefully, those biases are informed biases based on knowledge of the medium and its history but ....

Friday
Apr102009

urban ku # 200 ~ ?

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A sign(s) of the Information Ageclick to embiggen
The village of Lake Placid has only 3 traffic lights but it doesn't lack for signs.

Friday
Apr062007

urban renewal # 3

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Intellectual masturbatory drivelclick to embiggen
Expect 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.

Thursday
Mar222007

urban renewal # 2

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Series Premiereclick on photo to embiggen it
Sometimes 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.

Sunday
Mar042007

urban renewal # 1 - a new kind of ku

mixedsignalsm.jpgThroughout 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)'.

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The Adirondacks without the APAclick on photo to embiggen it
The 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?