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 what is a photograph (7)

Monday
Jun012015

what is a photograph? (V2) # 17-18 ~ a new barrier

1044757-26276561-thumbnail.jpg
what is a photograph? # • click to embiggen
1044757-26276567-thumbnail.jpg
what is a photograph? # • click to embiggen

While in NYC recently, I made some pictures that some would label "street photography". In the process thereof I also made a new construction site barrier picture for use in my what is a photograph? series which continues to be a work in progress. The question now becomes, how many different construction site barriers do I need for the series?

The possible answer to that question floating around in my head is that, with the goal of creating a 20 picture body of work, I should use 5 separate construction site barriers and insert 4 square picture variations for each separate wall - essentially making 5 different yet thematically and visually similar "mini" series within the total body of work.

When it comes to picturing construction site barriers, the epicenter of those barriers is NYC where construction / renovations projects never end. While this suggests that another trip to NYC is in my near-term future, I will most likely have to only walk around a few city blocks to make more than enough barrier pictures.

FYI, see some of the barrier V1 pictures HERE
Friday
Apr032015

what is a photograph? # 10-16 ~ on with the show

1044757-26109692-thumbnail.jpg
# 10 • click to embiggen
1044757-26109713-thumbnail.jpg
# 11 • click to embiggen
1044757-26109719-thumbnail.jpg
# 12 • click to embiggen
1044757-26109723-thumbnail.jpg
# 13 • click to embiggen
1044757-26109738-thumbnail.jpg
# 14 • click to embiggen
1044757-26110593-thumbnail.jpg
# 15 • click to embiggen
1044757-26110776-thumbnail.jpg
# 16 • click to embiggen

As mentioned in the last entry, that voice in my head is urging me to make constructed / staged pictures. Also mentioned was to do so by continuing with an existing body of constructed / staged work such as my what is a photograph? series. So, here are a few in additions to that series.

That written, I haven't decided whether to work on an existing theme or to start something new. I just figured that by adding a few new pictures to this series, which is relatively easy to do, I could ease my head back into a made c/s picture frame of mind. To this point, the exercise has worked inasmuch as I have started to think, made c/s picture wise.

Part of that thinking has led me to wrestle with the idea of whether or not the what is a photograph? series is a work in progress, execution wise, or whether it is essentially good to go as is. A significant driver of that contemplation has to do with how, as mentioned, easy it is to make more of these images - I currently have 30 images. Of course, the ease with which I can make these images is the result of lot of time, effort and visual experimentation I invested at the start of this series so, once formatted, the ongoing effort is considerably easier, even though it does feel a bit like "cheating".

Thinging wise, one approach in the making of these images is that I decided that, unlike my earlier images wherein I limited myself to urban and non-urban landscape scenes as the primary pictures in these images (dictated by the fact that the construction site barrier was an urban landscape itself), I came to the conclusion that if I am to pose the what is a photograph? question in a more inclusive sense, I needed to include as many genres of picture making (at least of my picture making) as possible in the images. Hence, the appearance of still life and people pictures.

ASIDE: With these images, I am only posing a question - not suggesting an answer - and providing fodder for the inquisitive mind to ponder. END OF ASIDE

My made c/s thinking has also led me to a few vague-ish ideas for made c/s image making. Interesting enough, as an image making concept comes into my head, it is immediately accompanied by a few phrases, ala artist statement wise. Like the idea of picturing a normally considered "ugly" thing in a golden light environment in order to address the concept of referent + illumination = perception, or something like that.

And so it goes. It's on with the show whole hoping I don't break a leg.
Tuesday
Oct282014

civilized ku # 2822 / what is a photograph? # 11 ~ working backward

1044757-25595161-thumbnail.jpg
orange plastic chair ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
1044757-25595165-thumbnail.jpg
what is a photograph? # 11 • click to embiggen

Unlike a painter, a photographer starts with something finished and works backward. ~ Anonymous

Tuesday
Apr292014

pictures + words project ~ picture 10 • words i / what is a photograph? # 10, OR, civilized ku # 2700 ~ what's the point?

1044757-24801748-thumbnail.jpg
picture 10 • click to embiggen
1044757-24801751-thumbnail.jpg
word i • click to embiggen

Round and round, up and down. Again and again. What is ...? What is .....? What is .......? Mirage-like, an answer appearing - like the sun reappearing on the morning horizon giving way and hope to yet another new day - the perceived wisdom dissolves beyond a curtain of fog and mist. Why? Why? Why? The ornate carousel ride goes round and round and up and down and covetous clawing hands grasp at air and thin hope. And the golden ring hovers, tantalizing and teasing, just out of reach. What if...? What if.....? What if .........?

1044757-24801841-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph # 10 • click to embiggen
1044757-24801888-thumbnail.jpg
the point / POV Oblio imitator ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
As the Rockman states "... that's the central issue I'm putting down for you cats: you gotta open your mind as well as your eyes .... "

Thursday
Apr242014

what is a photograph ? # 9 (civilized ku # 2697) ~ a tourist's snapshot or something else?

1044757-24780711-thumbnail.jpg
Hugo and the CN Tower ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
I have high hopes of getting a few thoughts or ideas on the question if I keep on asking it enough times.

Tuesday
Apr152014

what is a photograph ? # 1-5 ~ framing an answer

1044757-24725690-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph ? ~ # 1 • click to embiggen
1044757-24725438-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph ? ~ # 2 • click to embiggen
1044757-24725538-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph ? ~ # 3 • click to embiggen
1044757-24725474-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph ? ~ # 4 • click to embiggen
1044757-24725471-thumbnail.jpg
What is a photograph ? ~ # 5 • click to embiggen
In an entry last week I wrote about the possibility of starting a new body of work / series from scratch. At that time the idea of a what is a photograph? series had never entered my thought box.

Now, approximately 7 days later, I find myself 14 final(ish) constructed images into a series by that very name. And while it's true that, for the past decade or so, I have been thinking, ruminating, contemplating, reading, writing and otherwise obsessing on the very notion of what is a photograph?, the fact of the matter is that I never thought of framing (gotcha, Jimmi Nuffin) the answer or, more accurately, my thoughts on the question in the form of a picture.

Wednesday
Apr092014

what is a photograph? (# 1?)

1044757-24699016-thumbnail.jpg
• click to embiggen