civilized ku # 69 ~ John visits NYC

John shops for souvenirs • click to embiggen Eric Fredine and I had a full day of gallery crawling. Along the way we solved all of the riddles about the medium of photography. For us, there is nothing left to learn.

What was the most impressive photograph of the day? How about this 6 ft. picture. It can be yours for $20,000.

Too cheap to be real art? OK. How about this 8 ft. long number. It can be yours for $44,000. Better hurry, though. There are only 3 left from an edition of 10 prints.

Not everything was 3 for $20. More to come when I get back home.

FYI ~ an unexpected treat

I'm off to NYC for a day of gallery crawling with Eric Fredine. I have never met Eric in the flesh althought he and I have corresponded about the subject of photography - his, mine, or that of anyone - over the past few years. I respect his work and his opinion so I am very much looking forward to the day.

Although, it does feel a bit like a blind date.

As always, I'll let you know about what's happening now in world of photography NYC-style.

Decay # 8 ~ the assumption that a photograph is an indexical cohort with reality

Decay # 8 • click to embiggenI am starting to come to grips with my Decay photographs. By that I mean that I am slowly coming to a conscious understanding of what it is I am doing.

Here are some random thoughts.

On the subject of self-awareness, I have known since early childhood that I am interested in matters of decay. On the surface of things, I am seemingly preternaturally drawn to how things in the state of decay look/appear to the eye. I don't know why (but isn't that the way of things that seem to be preternatural?) Suffice it to say that I just plain like the way things in various states of decay look. I find them to be visually, if not appealing, at the very least, interesting.

Beneath the surface of things, I am beginning to think that part of my attraction to decay is that I know intuitively that the state of decay is, in fact, the true nature of everything. It's called "entropy", aka, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. We'll set aside, for the moment, the theory that from disorder comes order, aka, the Law of maximum Entropy Production.

Now, HANG ON FOR A MOMENT. I'm not gonna go all obtuse and scientific on you. What I'm driving at is simply the fact that all physical things and systems have period of maximum 'energy' or 'efficiency' after which they inevitably start to decay.

Obviously, my Decay photographs are about things that are past their prime. They are past their prime, not only as a source of nourishment, but also as things that, in their prime, are considered to be rather 'attractive' - both pleasing to the eye and the palate. But, once things start going downhill, most would rather not think about it or see it.

And that, I am beginning to realize, is a big part of the point of this exercise.

My life experience has taught me that life is 'messy'. Sure, there are moments (relatively speaking)of unadulterated joy, happiness, pleasure, and order. And, yes, when all is said and done, one can live a 'satisfying' life. Although, that 'reality' must come with a massive caveat - for some of us, but certainly, not all of us. And even for those who are lucky / privileged / blessed with a/the 'good' life, everything is not a bed of roses.

However, that 'truth' about the 'real' state of things stands in direct contrast to what the masters of desire want us to see (and not see) and consequently believe - the Leave It To beaver, Father Knows Best, Mary Tyler Moore slant on 'reality'.

So, I have deliberately set my objects of decay in what appears to be a very orderly environment. One that visually / literally opposes the disorder of objects of decay and also does so figuratively by what it connotes, humankind's proclivity to create order (even where none exists). A desire to create order that insulates us from disorder. Not by eliminating disorder, because that can't be done, but by creating a veneer that denies disorder exists. A kind of out of sight, out of mind slight of hand.

civilized ku # 68 ~ The old man's eyes boggled. Over come by art.

Rusticated Xmas tree • click to embiggenSo last evening I'm talking to friend on the phone and trying to describe our Xmas tree to him. After a few minutes of my descriptive ramblings, he thought it might be better if I just put a picture of it on my blog. "Good idea", I said.

The tree is a big departure from our regular fare - as big a 'live' tree as can fit through the front door - Douglas firs are my preference, one handed down from my father. A tree which would be decorated with ornaments acquired over the years, some with special meaning, some not.

This year, thanks to the wife's luck, we have an artificial tree. I say "luck" because she won it at a charity fundraising event. Seems that one day she was at a mall where on display were 39 Xmas trees that had been decorated by 39 different organizations. For $20 you could buy 6 tickets, each of which could be put a of your choice box (one for each tree) for a raffle for each tree.

The wife really liked a tree that was decorated with 'rustic' handmade ornaments - bark-ring garland, entwined twig garland, bark ornaments, pine cones, etc. Her reasoning was that if we won it, we would take the ornaments off the artificial tree and put them on a 'live' tree.

Well, we won it. But ...

It was delivered by a friend who brought it in the front door and set it right where our tree normally sits. We plugged it in, and, the snap a few sparks and a quick wiff of ozone later, viola. Just like that, a fully decorated Xmas tree. No fuss. No muss. Maybe, just little too 'perfect' and a little too easy but, hey, there it was, ready to go.

However, it became apparent that to disassemble it would be to destroy it. It really was an all-of-a-piece thing, kind of like a piece of installation art. And that's how I think of it - more as a piece of xmas decoration because it's not a tree. Never was. Never will be.

But, just like Little Ralphie's dad (from A Christmas Story), who had his Major Award, we have our Major Prize - an Installation Art Xmas Tree. And, as an added bonus, just like the Major Award our tree is also "frah-geee-lay".

So, for that fresh piney smell, it's off to the tree farm for a lot of pine boughs and garland. After all, what's Xmas unless you kill a few trees.

FYI, if you watch the linked clip take note of Ralphie's mom's reaction to the 'Major Award'. It's a lot like the wife's reaction to my wanting to hang my Decay pictures in our kitchen.

urban ku # 158 and 159 ~ swirling clouds

Cloud chasing • click to embiggenWriting in his essay, Qualifying Photography as Art, or, Is Photography All It Can Be?, Christopher Bedford stresses the importance of 'authorial concept' and 'authorial intention' (intentionality) in determining the value of a work of Art (photography division).

He lays bare, to those who didn't already know it, that AC and Intentionality are, in fact, the criteria which are the determining factors (for the academic 'lunatic fringe') when he wrote; "The ultimate referent is, therefore, not the form or content of his images, but the authorial concept." Translation = It's the idea behind the picture, not the picture itself, that matters.

Taken to the extreme, which many on the academic lunatic fringe have done, this means that any picture, despite its visual merits or lack thereof, is Art as long as it is accompanied by an intellectually interesting artist statement that speaks to the photographer's concept / intentionally, especially if that statement is theory-laden and contains enough references to art history to enable critics and the academic crowd to parse it from now until the cows come home.

To be fair to Bedford, his essay addresses this very proclivity amongst he and his brethren and he sounds a call to address this imbalance. It is time, he states, for critics, curators, and academia to learn about the - heretofore considered 'mundane and prosaic' - process of making a photograph because there is intentionality a-plenty in the process and that very intentionality "shape(s) the image, direct(s) the viewer’s attention, and contribute(s) to the production of meaning."

Duh.

Good for him and them. Better late than never. But ....

There is a whole other crowd, photographers themselves, that needs to come to grips with the notion that by itself the process of making a picture, with all of its intentionally, does not Art make. Authorial concept matters and some concepts are much better than others.

Consider this from Sir Joshua Reynolds writing for the Royal Academy in London in 1768:

The value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labour employed in it, or the mental pleasure produced by it. As this principle is observed or neglected, our profession becomes either a liberal art, or a mechanical trade. In the hands of one man it makes the highest pretensions, as it is addressed to the noblest faculties: in those of another it is reduced to a mere matter of ornament; and the painter has but the humble province of furnishing our apartments with elegance.

Anyone need to re-address the idea of Fine Art vs. decorative art?

urban ku # 157 ~ snow removal

The pile at the end of the driveway • click to embiggenI thought that this picture gives a new meaning to the wife's 'request' that I go out and shovel the pile at the end of the driveway.

On urban ku # 155, Don commented that "We didn't get as much as you, about 14 inches, but people ... shopped for food like the world was coming to an end..."

According to our newspaper, people 'round here shopped exactly the same way - as if the world were coming to an end - which makes me wonder why it is that you need to stock up on food if the world is coming to an end.

urban ku # 156 ~ big storm fun

All to ourselves • click to embiggenYesterday, smack-dab in the middle of our monster winter storm, the wife and I drove to the Olympic Winter Sports Complex at Mt. Van Hovenberg. On the way we noticed that; 1) we seemed to be the only ones on the road, 2) the snowfall had turned to freezing rain/sleet, and 3) trees were nearly bent over to the ground due to very strong gusting winds. We also realized that we had not phoned to see if the cross country ski complex - 90 km of trails - was actually open.

Undeterred, we motored on. Upon our arrival at the xc ski complex, the parking lot had only 2 cars in it. Not a good sign. Nevertheless, we walked to the lodge where we were informed that the complex was officially closed but, as long as we signed a waiver, we could ski. We were also informed that the trails were in superb condition. So, with the wind roaring in the background like a run-away freight train and a very frigid temperature - 12 degrees, feels like -5 degrees - we decided to give it a go.

It was delightful. The trails were near perfect and very well protected from the wind. Because of that, and once you built up a head of steam, the temperature felt more like a balmy 13 degrees. And, the solitude of having it all to ourselves was wonderful. There was a heavy and continuous sleet/freezing rain falling which added a slight crunchy-ness to the snow and a tinkling sound to the forest.

Altogether, it was a true winter wonderland experience. Now if I can only get the wife to let me hang my Decay pictures in the kitchen, everything would be perfect.

urban ku # 155 ~ a big storm

Big snow storm • click to embiggenIt's should be no secret to anyone on my side of the oceans that a huge winter storm has swept across the US from the central plains to New England. It hit us during Saturday night and all day and well into the night on Sunday. Throughout that time it just kept snowing and snowing.

We had some high winds and freezing rain thrown into the mix but, for the most part, there was little if any infrasture damage. So most people stayed warm and safe at home while the road crews worked round the clock.