civilized ku # 40 ~ a bug's life

Ron watches me watching bugs • click to embiggenLast evening during dinner we discovered these guys doing whatever it is they are doing. Whatever they are doing, they were still doing it this morning.

Maybe I left the cap off the Viagra.

There were 3 teenage girls at the table and the conversation rapidly devolved into giggles. They eventually deduced that the bugs must be gay because whatever they are doing, they are doing it cheek-to-cheek.

In any event ... Obladi, oblada, life goes on, rah. Lala how their life goes on.

FYI - one of life's little photo lessons

I have always been amused, bemused and occasionally annoyed throughout my life in photography by the equipment geeks. Seems like they can never get enough about pixels, photosites, arrays, edge sharpness, noise, startup times, lens comparisons, and on and on and on and ...

Good for them. If they enjoy that kind of stuff, I say, have at it with all the gusto you can manage.

For the educated and experienced, it's all rather harmless. However, for the neophyte and inexperienced it can be ... well ... if not actually harmful, confusing, distracting and quite beside the point of learning how to make good pictures.

Case in point - Aaron, of recent exponentially expanding Cinemascape fame, who definitely qualifies as a neophyte. He purchased his first camera and began picturing in earnest about 6-8 months ago.

After an exceedingly quick and short tour around the photography-style block, he has settled into his Cinemascape MO. His most recent cinemascape is not only made in a cinema, but also features a cinema person, Steve Buscemi. How Aaron was able to pull this off is another story and not germane to this story.

Aaron made this picture within a day or two of our conversation about his desire for a new camera. He had done some internet photo forum/tech review searches and arrived at the conclusion that his current camera wasn't good enough (for a variety of equipment geek reasons). He was seeking my advice on a solution. My advice was to keep taking pictures and get on with it - advice that he wasn't all that eager to heed.

Fast forward to a small private dinner with Steve Buscemi where Aaron cornered him and presented a few of his Cinemascapes for the purpose of luring him into doing one. Obviously, the mission was accomplished.

His mini-portfolio also attracted the attention of the other guests and the result was; an intro to a LA rep who handles 'hot' new shooters, a request from another cinema person, James Tolkan (the principal from Back to the Future, the cigar-chomping admiral from Top Gun, and an occasional golfing companion for me), to have a cinemascape done of himself and a request from a wealthy entrepreneur to stay in touch because he likes to support young artists. Not bad for an evening's fun.

The other result, which I really like, was a stroke of unintended marketing genius/luck. After the closing party at which Aaron had a Buscemi cinemascape print to show around, he was feeling in a celebratory mode. He adjourned to a local watering hole, aptly name The Waterhole, were he again showed the print around. Before you know it, patrons (complete strangers) were going out to an ATM to get cash to purchase prints. One individual purchased 5 prints which he said would be sealed and conserved until the day Aaron was famous.

So, all of that said, here's the point. Not one person in any of the aforementioned activities mentioned a single thing about resolution, pixel count, noise, etc., etc. - they just liked/loved the pictures.

I think Aaron learned something. Me, I'm going out tonight to a bar and see if I can sell some prints.

urban ku # 74 ~ a violent afternoon storm

Afternoon thunderstorm • click to embiggenIt has long been said that, in the Adirondacks, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. This adage has never been more true than over the last couple years. The weather has been very unsettled and changeable.

Yesterday started out extremely hot and humid with a clear cloudless sky. Around 3pm violent thunderstorms with winds up to 74mph swept into the area. At one point, between outbursts, the air was so thick and still you could cut it with a knife.

I really like to picture at times like that. There's quality of ominous expection and power that is very electrifying and charged.

Yesterday, I had just finished peeling the bark from the cedar logs we're using for posts on our new Adirondack rustic-style front porch when the weather moved in and, for several hours, put on quite a show.

civilized ku # 39 ~ a walk in the forest #7

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenThe picture that is the subject of today's entry is, for me, a very interesting one. It addresses a sentence written by Graham Clarke in his book The Photograph - '...they return art photography to a popular forum, releasing it to deal with the terms of our existence rather than the idea of formal content divorced from the world of its meaning.' FYI, the 'they' he refers to are various so-called postmodernist photographers.

I mentioned in an earlier entry that what observers 'read' and subsequently get from a picture is based, for the most part, on the their own life experience. The photographer creates a world that the viewer may enter and explore at will, right up to the limits of his/her ability to use their imagination in coaxing meaning from the signs/signifiers found in all pictures.

My imagination was greatly influenced by my upbringing in a Roman Catholic environment. All of my education was presented to me on a platter from the hands of 'people of the cloth' - nuns, brothers and priests (Jesuit) or lay persons so chosen to reflect their RC sensibilities. Part of what I took away from the experience was two-fold - a sense that things were not always (if ever) what they seemed to be, and, a deep and abiding sense of curiousity/need to find out. The main influences were 'mission babies' and the Jesuit propensity to pose questions and then let you figure it out for yourself - just like Brian (from Monty Python's Life of Brian) said, '... You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves ...!'

Both of these qualities have certainly provided me with a couple of personal assets which dovetail nicely with postmodern sensibilities. One could say that, from a very early age, I was predisposed in life to wrestle with the terms of our existence and to look beyond the idea of formal content divorced from the world of its meaning - in the context of 'life', read 'formal content' to mean 'accepted' dogma (art, religion, politics, culture).

Since my Art is more than just personal entertainment and is an extention of who and what I am, it just seems that I am, by nature and nurture, a postmodernist through and through. While many who distain postmodernism in Art dismiss it as an adopted affection, nothing could be further from the truth. In my particular case, (and I am sure that of many others) I was a 'postmodernist' in thought and action (life and art) long before I even heard the term.

And that's why a walk in the forest # 7 is interesting to me. Amongst the many emotions and questions that the picture creates for me, I am curious to know why someone who lives in the largest wilderness in the lower 48 would chose to build a fire ring and bench on an upper level of an abandoned mill - although I must admit that the tree growing through an opening is a very nice touch.

I came across this scene near the end of my walk and it was interesting to encounter signs of human construction in the midst of decay and destruction. I also wonder if the constructor had a direct or legacy connection to the mill - a relative who worked there, perhaps. Did the mill's demise effect them personally?

On the other hand, maybe it's just a hangout for teenagers - it is hard to access and not visible from ground level. It would be a great place to cop a first feel, smoke a little dope or drink some beer without too much chance of adult interference.

Who knows? - but, that's exactly what interests me because I am drawn to pictures which '...seek[s] meaning in what is to hand, so that the camera is part of a constant probing and measure of one's terms of existence; the daily rhythms and objects of everyday life.' (again from Graham Clarke).

urban ku # 73 ~ a walk in Wadhams

A walk at the Wadhams Strawberry Festival • click any photo to embiggen

As any of you who have been around for awhile know, I have always been a fan of picture series. Seems like I have been picturing that way since forever although my ku body of work is not organized in that manner. While many of the pictures were made in a 'mini-series' fashion - same location, same 'shoot' - they are all just lumped together under the ku banner.

I have created many triptychs from mini-series shoots. You can see many, but no means all of them, here. I like triptychs (mine and those of others) quite a bit, but, as my mill 'walk' series (more to come, just taking a break) demonstrates, there is nothing like employing an extended series of pictures to create a world/sense of place.

Today's pictures are from a very short walk in Wadhams where we spent some time yesterday afternoon at the strawberry festival. All the pictures were made within no more than 100 yards of each other. While they create a small sense of the place called Wadhams - it's really tiny - they also create a sense of the greater place called the Adirondacks by demonstrating how close a relationship man and nature have within the park.

civilized ku # 38 ~ a walk in the forest #6

Traces and evidence of a different world •click to embiggenThe little red things, which were scattered in clusters in some areas throughout the mill, at first encounter seemed to be organic - like small leaves/buds. Upon further reflection it became apparent that, whatever their composition, they were used to make the dyes which were then used to manufacture colored paper. In civilized ku # 37 there is a cluster of black ones at the bottom of the picture.

Before the mill (which was situated up-river from the village) closed, the good citizens of Au Sable Forks knew exactly what color paper was being made on any given day because the Au Sable River was that same color.

I am certain that these little things are not organic in as much as they are still around nearly 40 years after the mill closed. One of the many reasons that the mill closed was because of its inability to meet environmental regulations. No doubt, one of the regs had to do with whatever pollutants the discharge of the by-products of these little things created.

civilized ku # 37 ~ a walk in the forest #5

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggrnYesterday's entry prompted this reply - re: All art works either in service of or as a challenge to the status quo/prevailing cultural paradigm. One way or another it's part of the language of meaning of any picture - from Paul Maxim - 'Horse-pucky. Sadly, you've once again lapsed into making statements that simply echo restrictive postmodernist sentiment. The above is one of those "either / or" proclamations that, when translated, simply means that "you're either with me or against me". There ain't no middle ground here, folks, so pick your side carefully. This is a fight to the (cultural) death!...

But, on the other hand, Tim Atherton stated - '... as you say, all art is political (as is all life)'

Now, I come down with Tim because I actually believe it to be so - all art, as all of life, is political. I don't believe that there is any act that doesn't not have consequence (great or small). Whether you are 'with me or against me' really isn't the point at all - rather, the point is everything you do matters and, as Dylan says,

We live in a political world,
Love don't have any place.
We're living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don't have a face

We live in a political world,
Icicles hanging down,
Wedding bells ring and angels sing,
clouds cover up the ground.

We live in a political world,
Wisdom is thrown into jail,
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail.

We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank,
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.

We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last.

We live in a political world.
The one we can see and can feel
But there's no one to check, it's all a stacked deck,
We all know for sure that it's real.

We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear,
Little by little you turn in the middle
But you're never why you're here.

We live in a political world
Under the microscope,
You can travel anywhere and hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope.

We live in a political world
Turning and a'thrashing about,
As soon as you're awake, you're trained to take
What looks like the easy way out.

We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all,
It's turned away from the door to wander some more
Or put up against the wall.

We live in apolitical world
Everything is hers or his,
Climb into the frame and shout God's name
But you're never sure what it is.

Eventually, you do have to 'take sides', either by action or inaction, but make no mistake about it - inaction is a political act.

civilized ku # 36 ~ a walk in the forest #4

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenYesterday, James Robinson wrote (in part) -'There's no doubt that I bring my own experiences with decay to these photos. I have held jobs that revolved around removing/replacing dacay. Those jobs had a major impact on my life and the lives of the individuals I worked with ... Therefore there is a profound love/hate relationship for me with these photographs that I am so drawn to ... I'm angry at the environmental impact and the toll most likely paid by the workers with their immediate and long-term health. But I think that is what defines true art for me now--gritty reality that makes you uncomfortable because you are so drawn to it and hopefully even a little pissed off by it.'

Tim Kingston also mentioned that he felt '... Sorrow, perhaps , not just for the environmental problems to come, as this scene decays, but a sense of sorrow for the lives forgotten and all the hardship they experienced.'

Both of these comments reflect a sense of the 'political' meaning that can be found in these pictures if one's sense and sensibilities are so inclined to 'find' them. If not, they may be just visually interesting pictures of decay. For me, the pictures satisify both my intents (in making) and my motivations (for making).

Recently, on another site that shall remain nameless, the author suggested that he tends to not like art that is politically motivated because, for the most part, once the 'political' is removed from the equation, what remains is generally 'awful'.

IMO, this notion is flawed for two primary reasons -

1) It suggests that some art is politicial and some is not - at least by intent. While that is true enough, it really doesn't address the fact all art is political whether the intent is there or not. All art works either in service of or as a challenge to the status quo/prevailing cultural paradigm. One way or another it's part of the language of meaning of any picture.

2) It also suggests a notion of 'compartmentalization' of intent and effect - that somehow the 'lanauage of meaning' can be separated from the work itself. That the picture can be stripped of that language and then somehow be evaluated as an object devoid of meaning. This notion is pure rubbish - it suggests that the author has little understanding of what constitutes good/great Art.

Art is art with meaning.

PS - mucho thanks to those have 'given back' to me with comments and feedback on this series of pictures.