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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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Entries from April 1, 2014 - April 30, 2014

Wednesday
Apr302014

civilized ku # 2701 ~ masked and anonymous

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mask and fan ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
A camera is a machine which is capable of ripping a moment and its attendant industry from the fabric of time, neatly packaging that time-stamped data into an ultra dense network packet comprised of other promiscuous and discursive evidentiary visual stimulus and presenting them in a convincingly real, ever-expanding, manufactured universe of interpretive meanings. Make of it what you will.

Tuesday
Apr292014

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

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picture 10 • click to embiggen
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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 .........?

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What is a photograph # 10 • click to embiggen
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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 .... "

Friday
Apr252014

urban canyons # 1 -5 ~ back to where I once belonged

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urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
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urban canyon ~ New York, NY • click to embiggen
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urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
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urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
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urban canyon ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
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8×10 view camera work / c.1979-80 ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
I have always liked, one might even write "loved", picturing urban environments. In fact, it would be quite accurate to write that my immersion into the world of moving beyond the pretty picture began with my first picture making, back in 1979-80, of an urban environment with my 8×10 view camera.

During my recent visits to NYC and Toronto, the call of picturing the urban environment has reemerged with remarkable insistence and clarity. However, there is a difference between the siren call which instigated my earlier work and that which is gnawing at me today; today's voice is drawing me to the often imposing and towering canyons of many modern urban settings and the play of light and shadow which regularly permeates those spaces.

In addition to their visual appeal, the canyons evoke in me contradictory feelings and thoughts of standoff-ish coolness and of an alluring warmth. Like their counterparts in the natural world, walking amongst them inspires a sense of wonder and awe, albeit in this case, at what man has wrought - a feeling which stands in contrast to but which also aligns in many ways with that which nature has wrought in the natural world.

In any event, I hope to explore urban canyons in a much more deliberate and concerted manner. Unfortunately, but by choice, I live in a place which is far removed from most urban canyons. Consequently, I will need to concentrate on urban canyon picturing opportunities when they present themselves to my eye and sensibilities.

And, I should mention that my long-unused 8×10 view camera is screaming at the top its bellowed lungs, "Take me! Take me! Take me!"

Thursday
Apr242014

diptych # 63 / civilized ku # 2698-99 ~ chance and circumstance

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CN Tower with shadows ~ Toronto, CA. • click to embiggen
As long as you are continually in a f8-and-be-there picturing state of mind, when chance and circumstance presents a golden opportunity you'll able to make a picture or two of a well pictured referent which transcends, at least by a little bit, the typical tourist snapshot.

Thursday
Apr242014

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

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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.

Saturday
Apr192014

civilized ku # 2695-96 ~ hockey, hockey, hockey

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outside NHL Hall of Fame ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
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Hugo scores - upper right (see orange puck) ~ Toronto, CA • click to embiggen
Our (I and Hugo) trip to Toronto was essentially instigated by Hugo's long standing desire to visit the National Hockey League Hall of Fame. So, naturally that objective was first up on our (his) agenda. That written, we both enjoyed the visit.

Friday
Apr182014

civilized ku # 2694 ~ and I don't do ...

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Zeroni-Moon and friends ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
.... kute kitty pictures. Never. Ever. Seriously. Never.

Wednesday
Apr162014

civilized ku # 2693 ~ you just never know 

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St. Dominic ~ New Haven, Connecticut • click to embiggen
Less than 7 days after my return from a short over night getaway I find myself in Toronto, Canada for a 3 day trip - my and Hugo's annual Spring Break All Guys getaway.

Like all of my trips, I never leave having a single thought about making pictures other than knowing I will be making some pictures. Most often, upon my return, I am very surprise at the number, usually substantial, of pictures I have made. Of course, my camera(s) are always at hand and, even more important, I just can not turn off my eyes and vision. I just never know what it is which might trigger my trigger finger. Like, say, my recent trip to New Haven, Connecticut ...

... who would thought / known that I would encounter a Roman Catholic saint, St. Dominic, about whom the story is told that before his birth his barren mother made a pilgrimage to Silos and dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth, and "seemed to set the earth on fire".

Seriously, who could resist a picture making opportunity with that knowledge in mind? Although, I didn't gain that knowledge until after the picture making fact. However, that written, I knew there had to something unusual about the dog with a burning torch in its mouth sitting at the foot of a saint.

And the story gets even better when I discovered that this story is likely to have emerged when his order became known, after his name, as the Dominican order. Dominicanus in Latin and a play on words interpreted as Domini canis, "Dog of the Lord." is truly ... ahh ... unique.

So, IMO, it is better to be prepared to picture what you see rather than to plan in advance to make pictures of what you have been told are good picture making referents.