making pictures ~ one way or another

Maggie with Maggie Parts ~ illustration for portfolio • click to embiggen
Brahms To Blues • click to embiggenIn the medium of photography, there are two kinds of picture makers. Those who make pictures as opposed to those who take pictures. The difference between the two, of course, is in the making.

Those who make pictures are generally considered to be "serious" amateur/pro picture makers, while those who take pictures are generally considered to be snapshot picture makers. The former expend a fair amount of thought and effort together with technique / craft in the making of their pictures, most often in the pursuit of creating art (Decorative or Fine). The later are true point-and-shoot practitioners whose primary motivation is to create memories.

However, within the ranks of "serious" picture makers, there are also (IMO and that of many others) 2 kinds of picture makers - those who make pictures of the found/seen variety and those who make pictures of the world inside their heads. For the former, think Henri Cartier-Bresson - although the found/seen is much broader than just HC-B's "street" work, to include referents such as landscape and nature. For the later, think Jeff Wall (or closer to [my] home, think of my son, The Cinemascapist) - once again, the picture the world inside your head camp is broader than Wall/Hobson-the-younger style work, to include genres such as still life to name just one.

In my mind, and once again that of many others, the best discriptive difference between the 2 "serious" picture making camps is to state that the found/seen practitioners make pictures which are often considered to be Art whereas those who make pictures of the world inside their heads make images - using the medium of photography and its apparatus - which are also often considered to be Art. The first camp's practitioners consider themselves to be photographers, aka: picture makers. The second camp's practitioners consider themselves to be artists first and foremost, and, most often, emphatically not photographers.

In my picture making life, I have, on numerous occasions, ventured into the camp of artist using the medium of photography and its apparatus to make images which would not necessarily be considered to be photographs in the strictest sense. In many cases, the work was for commercial clients. Two examples thereof accompany this entry.

At first glance, the first image, Maggie and Maggies Parts, looks less like a photograph than the second image, Brahms to Blues*. However, Brahms to Blues is a hand-colored BW photo of the Gibson guitar merged with a background picture of rice paper (the shadow was computer generated). The original print - on fiber-based matte paper - looks more like a photo-realist painting / illustration than a photograph.

It should be noted that, as the work of Wall and Hobson-the-younger demonstrates, images made in the artist using the medium of photography and its apparatus to make images genre do not have look like painting / illustrations. In fact, most often, those images appear to be regulation photographs, no matter the manner of their making. It is also worth noting that, despite the fact that many artist using the medium of photography and its apparatus to make images genre images (which appear to be regulation photographs but, in fact, are complete "fabrications") do, nevertheless, address very real truths.

I haven't delved much into the artist using the medium of photography and its apparatus to make images genre of late. One notable exception has been my recent life without the APA series - body of work I intend to keep expanding.

Have any of you delved into the artist using the medium of photography and its apparatus to make images genre?

*One of 8 images made for the Pittsburgh Symphony.

civilized ku # 2084 / people ~ home invasion

Ian + others ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenEven though it felt and sounded like 25, our home was invaded by 5 7-and-under kids - last Saturday through today AM. It was the annual Presidents' Day weekend + holiday visit by some of the wife's family who come up from somewhat warmer places to partake in winter activities.

Of course, this year the word "winter" is an illusory nomenclature - while the ground might be hard as rock, there is little or no snow (dependent upon elevation) for things like sledding, XC skiing / snowshoeing, or just general frolicking about in what should be a winter wonderland.

civilized ku # 2082-83 / ku # 1139 ~ doing laps

Olympic Center ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Whiteface Mt. / Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Church steeple and mountains ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDespite the dearth of snow, winter has been cold enough for ice on lakes, ponds, rivers and, in the case of wintertaining the wife's family, cold enough for ice making on the 1980 Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Lake Placid (the last Olympic outdoor speed skating venue - where Eric Heiden became the only athlete in the history of speed skating to have won all five events in a single Olympic tournament and the only one to have won a gold medal in all events).

So we all headed into Lake Placid for an afternoon of skating on the oval and on Mirror Lake. The day was cold, but not too cold, and the sun was out for most of the afternoon. Later in the afternoon, as the sun and its warmth were waning, there were some very pleasant late-day vistas to enjoy.

civilized ku # 2081 ~ Adirondack rustic

Adirondack rustic table ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenAfter an afternoon of turning laps and giving skating lessons on the 1980 Olympic Speed Skating Oval, it was suggested, by one of the non-skaters in the family contingent, that retiring to an indoor venue with a view, a fire and a bar would be a grand idea.

So, we all trudged on up the hill and relaxed in front of a fire with hot chocolates for the kiddies and other kinds of hot concoctions for the adults. The view was great (see the Whiteface Mt. / Mirror Lake picture in the above entry) and the place - the Great Room at the Crown Plaza Resort - was retted up with number of pieces of Adirondack rusticated furnishings - furniture made of indigenous Adirondack materials - bark, twigs, tree branches and trunks, antlers, and the like.

FYI, the picture is not square because it was created by stacking/blending 2 square pictures. I only had the Oly body with the 45mm f1.8 lens and could not get far enough away from the table to get it all in one frame.

civilized ku # 2079-80 / food ~ a loose canon vs. focused

Sign post at Macs ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Carrot on plate ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Red tangle ~ Au Sable Point / Peru, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenWithout a doubt, the canonical vernacular of the medium of photography is extremely diverse. One could even say that it is indeed, as a canon, a very loose one at that.

Within the medium's very wide-ranging boundaries of related-to-the-real images made with a mechanical device on a light sensitive surface, there is plenty of room for creative improvisation and tomfoolery. It is no stretch at all to state that, with a mechanical device at the ready and the world at large (and everything in it) at hand, if one can imagine it, picture-wise, one can create it. However ......

.... it never ceases to amaze me how many picture makers run into a dead end / a wall / a what-to-picture brain lock. One might think that, with the world and everything in it as one's picture making oyster, there would be an endless array of picturing opportunities. More than enough to fill up a life time of picturing, no matter how long that life might be.

Unfortunately, when it comes to making meaningful / good pictures or breaking out of a what-to-picture funk, one of the most oft heard / read dictates of the medium's canon - to concentrate / focus on a referent which interests one most - might just be the problem. Setting aside the fact that a whole lot of people (to include a whole lot of picture makers) are only interested in themselves, there are a fair number of people / picture makers who have no real passionate interest in their lives which can serve as the fuel for a blazing fire.

Add to that fact, there is a danger inherent in picking a referent one cares about and then falling into the trap of working to that particular genre's dictates and mores (as defined by the "purist" gurus of any particular genre). What one could end up making are pictures that one has been told are good pictures rather than actual good pictures.

In my experience, it seems quite clear to me, from my viewing of and "studying" the pictures of many of the medium's Greats - as well as the near Greats, potentially Greats, never-to-be-discovered Greats, and garden variety Greats, the one simple characteristic they all share, picture making wise, is their passion for making pictures. Not necessarily a passion for making a particular kind / genre of pictures, just a plain and simple passion for making pictures.

IMO, that passion is the stuff from which good pictures are made. Picture making wise, the fuel that feeds the fire. The obsession which drives the mind and soul.

And armed / driven by that passion, one is free to make pictures of not only what one wants to picture (unconfined by genre, with the world and everything in it as one's picture making oyster) but also, perhaps more importantly, make those pictures in a manner dictated by how one wants to make them, not how one is told to make them.

IMO, that's the recipe for making good pictures.

civilized ku # 2078 ~ survival

Bank and church ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 2077, John Linn wroted/asked:

Interesting bit of trivia regarding Jackson. Of course his work is not associated with the Adirondacks like Seneca Ray Stoddard or Bierstadt. Not sure if you agree, but their work was more in tune with your MO than most contemporary photographers. Search Google for "adirondack photographer" and you will get lots of pretty picture sites, but not much which is "being true" to use your words.

So thinking about this, do you feel any responsibility for documenting life in the Adirondacks in our time (your hundreds or thousands of pictures surely will be of interest to historians in the future). How accessible will your pictures be in 50 or 100 years? ... will your prints survive?

Do you ever think about this?

Re: the first notion - the work of Stoddard / Bierstadt being more in tune with my picturing MO - is an easy one to respond to. While I have never set out to emulate the work of either picture maker, I would nevertheless agree with John's assessment. Especially so, regarding Stoddard. The statement in the product description of the book Exposing the Wilderness: Early-Twentieth-Century Adirondack Postcard Photographers (a book which really helped me view/place my Adirondack work into some form of perspective) ...

The first third of the last century is considered by many collectors and historians to be the golden age of postcards. From that era the author has chosen six upstate men who recorded everyday life in small towns, popular resorts and tourist areas - and anywhere else that caught their fancy, from logging camps to train wrecks...

... is as accurate a description of my Adirondack Picturing MO as could be (minus the logging camps and train wrecks), especially the "anywhere(/thing) else that caught their fancy" part. Just as the 6 "postcard" photographers did, I live in in the Adirondacks and make pictures (of everyday life) where I live (my life).

That said, the aforementioned manner in which I picture where I live leads directly to John's second statement/question ...

I have thought about "this", if by "this", John means will my pictures survive (in any form) and will they be of interest (artistically and/or historically) to anyone in the future? - questions that are, IMO, borderline meaning of life-ish.

To be precise, my hope and wishes are emphatically tilted toward answering "Yes" and "Yes" to John's 2-part question. In order to accomplish that end, I have set a 2012 goal for myself - organize my work into manageable categories / folders, create small yet representative folios of work from those categories, and get them seen by as many appropriate organizations - historical societies, museums, galleries, etc. - as possible. Raising awareness / pique some interest and start the ball rolling, so to speak.

Doing so is not exactly a monumental task, but it is going to require a substantial amount of focus and effort. After all, as John accurately surmised, I have 1,000s of Adirondack pictures - in fact, approaching 4,000 - to edit, categorize, and then print as "teaser" folios.

My organizational umbrella for this task and presentation is that of a Modern Postcard Picture Maker, even if I don't make postcards as such.

FYI I do not feel any "responsibility" for documenting life in the Adirondacks. However, I do feel a responsibility to represent what I picture in as true/real a manner as the medium and its apparatus allow.

FYI ~ off topic

Blood pressure monitor ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSince obtaining my iPad, it has become a very handy and useful device. Some of those uses are picture based - downloading RAW files from a card to see picturing results on the fly and picture albums for portfolio style use, to name a just 2.

The iPad has also become quite handy since the loss of our only sort of nearby bookstore (a Borders) last year. I now get most of my books online and am reading them on the device. Not something I intended to do but I've acclimated myself to using it for that purpose.

That said, the newest iPad capability I am now using is its function as a blood pressure monitor.

After my recent AFib events, my cardiologist said I should take my blood pressure everyday, adjust 1 of my meds according the results, and keep a diary of the BP readings. That didn't seem like a big deal until I discovered that most BPMs available in drugstores are a pieces of crap - after taking one to my doctor to compare readings (his vs. mine), the results were so far off as to be totally useless.

Long story short, after doing some online research, I came across a BPM designed to work with the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. I ordered one and so far, so good. It has made the whole procedure easy - download their app, hookup the device to the iPad, and hit the Start button. The device not only takes a reading - it can also be set to take 3 successive readings and give an average result (with Morning, Day, and Evening settings as well) - but it also automatically creates a diary of the reading which is ready for emailing to my doctor right from the iPad.

IMO, that's technology I can live with. Highly recommended if you need to monitor your blood pressure.

civilized ku # 2077 ~ full circle?

House entrance ~ Keeseville, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThere's a village, Keeseville, just down the road a piece (12 miles?) from Au Sable Forks. At one time, late 1700s - early 1900s, the village prospered as an industrial area devoted, in part, to lumber, iron processing and milling. As those industries faded, literally out of existence (through the mid 1900s), the village went into decline to the point where it is now considered to be an economically depressed area.

According to the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the village was $32,813, and the median income for a family was $36,181. Males had a median income of $28,229 versus $21,500 for females. The per capita income for the village was $13,939. About 10.9% of families and 15.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.5% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over. The reality in 2012 is certainly worse than that.

However, despite that state of affairs, the village is home to quite a number of homes and building of architectural significance. Unfortunately, because of the village poverty rate and relatively high crime rate (for this area), much of this rich architectural heritage is in the state of decline. The flat out truth is, for the most part, it is not an especially attractive area for a family home and consequently there is little investment being made in the village's architectural heritage.

That said, and not coincidentally, Keeseville is also home the Adirondack Architectural Heritage organization. While the organization is devoted to architectural preservation, education, advocacy throughout the entire Adirondack Park, it's presence in Keeseville - in a recently acquired historic mill property - provides a much needed ray of hope for the village.

All of that said, here's a fact that few, if any, Landscapist followers might know - I began my university studies with the intent of pursuing a career as an architect. While that didn't come to pass - I lost interest after starting to wade through the ... let's call it the minutia of the trade - I have, nevertheless, maintained a life-long interest in things architectural. Therefore, it has not escaped my keen eye (and intellect) that nearby Keeseville is an architectural goldmine in more ways than one.

So, sometime over the next couple weeks, I will be assembling a small Keeseville architectural folio to present to the AARCH organization with the idea of instigating, one way or another, a picture project of one kind or another.

BTW & FYI, Keeseville was the birthplace of the famous picture making pioneer, William Henry Jackson.