civilized ku # 35 ~ a walk in the forest #3

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenBack in the early 80s, when I was a technical consultant to Sally Eauclaire, author of The New Color Photography, I had my first comprehensive introduction to ... well .... the new color photography. The book was a very complete overview of emerging Fine Art photographers and their pictures - Michael Bishop, Harry Callahan, William Christenberry, Langdon Clay, Mark Cohen, John Divola, William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Emmet Gowin, Jan Groover, David Hockney, Les Krim, Helen Levitt, Kenneth McGowan, Joel Meyerowitz, John Pfahl, Stephen Shore, Sandy Skoglund, Eve Sonneman, Joel Sternfeld, Boyd Webb and lots more. A NY Times review of the book (from 1981) can be read here.

My 'job' was to help Sally with matters technical. At the time she was a well-respected Art critic in the field of painting but not photography - she knew absolutely nothing about the mechanics and techniques of the medium. Enter me, to fill that role.

The result of it all was that I had the privilege and pleasure to view the portfolios of just about anyone who was an emerging anybody (see list above). Now, I was not a 'new color' virgin - I had seen some stuff in NYC galleries but for the most part, I was of the what-the-hell-is-going-on-here mindset regarding the stuff. It seemed to be more of an 'experiment' than a movement. A blip on the photographic radar screen.

Working with Sally on her book changed all that - I began to learn how to 'read' pictures. I began to understand that what was visible was not all there was to 'see'. Very much in the fashion of there's more than meets the eye. Pictures started to become deep and rich.

What I realized the most out of this experience was that, how 'deep and rich' a picture was, was up to me - in most cases, more so than it was up to the photographer. What a revelation.

Consider this from Graham Clarks's book, The Photograph - 'The intelligibilty of the photograph is no simple thing; photographs are texts inscribed in terms of what we may call 'photographic discourse', but this discourse, like any other, engages discourses beyond itself (emph. Ed.), the 'photographic text', like any other, is the site of a complex intertextuality, an overlapping series of previous texts 'taken for granted' at a particulat cultural and historical conjuncture.'

In other words, the viewer uses his/her experience ('texts' taken for granted) to construct the language of meaning that they get from a photograph. IMO, the greater your 'experience' in all things, not just photography, the greater your appreciation and understanding of Art, photography division.

Update on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 09:53PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comments: Bill Gotz asked: "What is it about decay? Why do many of us find it interesting? ... Is it that decay implies a history and so brings forth a rich set of thoughts and question?"

James Robinson suggested: "...Henry Miller wrote the following, and I think it applies to our interest in dacay, as there is nothing quite so "humble":

'In the humblest object we can find what we seek--beauty, truth, reality, divinity.'"

My comment: good question, interesting answer.

Fyi

I have posted an entry in the Guest Forum.

civilized ku # 34 ~ a walk in the forest #2

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenIn the introduction to American Series by Neal Rantoul, Joe Deal writes - 'The most basic question any photographer has to answer is what to photograph ... There are a variety of ways to answer that question, but often the first impluse is to try to find something extrordinary and to take a picture of a time and place unlike any other, one hopes ... Another way to answer the question, the one adopted by Neal Rantoul, is to be more open and accepting of the world as it presents itself to the camera and of one's passage through it.'

American Series is a book of 10 image-based chapters. Each chapter is a series of photographs which came from a single walk in a specific space, town or neighborhood. Each sequence reveals the great variety of subjects present in any given place or in the time it takes for a short walk.

Again from the intro - 'Each series unfolds in a way that is similar to the way in which we normally experience a place for the fist time. As our gaze and our attention shift from one thing to another we start to collect impressions that merge into a sense of place.'

Fyi ~ Mr. Lee's world

You just have to love this - it's part ingenious, part genius.

civilized ku # 33 ~ a walk in the forest

Traces and evidence of a different world • click to embiggenA few days ago Aaron 'discovered' - on Flickr - that my little village of Au Sable Forks has a 'secret' buried in the woods. His excitement, photography-wise, knew no bounds. So, yesterday, around 12:30pm, I got a phone call that he was at the mill and I should get my butt over there asap.

The abandoned mill is big rambling affair which I would estimate to cover about 400-500,000 sq. ft. It has been abandoned for almost 40 years. When it was first built, it was an iron ore mill. This region, extending from Lake Champlain, was the first 'steel' capital of North America - I'm talking Revolutionary War era - Benedict Arnold owned a mine here and many of his war exploits (the good ones) were conducted on Lake Champlain. He is honored around these parts as a hero with an astrisk. When the 'steel' industry moved elsewhere, paper became king at the mill until competition and environmental issues shut it down.

The mill is truly 'buried' on the forest - 40 years of grow has hidden it almost entirely from view even thought it sits on the banks of the West Branch of the Au Sable.
Aaron in one of the mill basements • click to embigggenWhile we were picturing, fly fishermen were in the river and we couldn't see them unless we hacked our way right up to the river bank through dense brush and trees, Needless to say they couldn't see the us or the mill either.

I came back from our walk in the woods with quite a number of good pictures. Viewed together they create, IMO, an interesting 'world'. So, it is my intent for this week on The Landscapist is to post one diptych a day. There will be a minimum of words, at least on the diptych entries, and emphasis on 'creating a world' based on the mill. I want to see if it is possible, on the web (the 'flow' thing and all), to actually 'create a world' with a series of pictures.

The presentation will visually follow this post - a broad view together with a more intimate view.

So, please let me know what you think as the series progresses.

urban ku # 71 ~ wherein I break radio silence

The Cottage • click to embiggenAs you know, The Landscapist is not about gear and technique. I rarely discuss it. This is one of those 'rarely's. The reason that I am breaking radio silence on the topic is simple - I want to give credit where credit due. In this case, to Olympus.

In my analog heyday, I was a Nikon guy (35mm-wise). Today, every once in a while, I glance over at the Nikon bodies and lenses (3 bodies, 6 lenses) and remember the good old days. There they sit, neglected and unused for going on 3 years now. Whenever I get the urge to shoot film, it's large format - 8×10, for me. 35mm color picturing just seems like to much hassle and too many limitations.

Once I made the leap to digital, I just became addicted to the speed, ease, and tremendous control of digital files in the digital darkroom. For the first couple years I pictured with a high-end 'prosumer' digicam - 7mp with non-interchangeable 4-1 zoom lens camera which could capture RAW files. A great camera which produced wonderful prints - keeping in mind that I am not a digital 'perfectionist'. Those early ku prints still stand up very very well when displayed side-by-side with those of made from my first dslr - an 8mp Olympus E-500.

I chose the Olympus because of the size of the camera and lenses (their 'pro' lens are optically superb) that result from the 4/3rds format,and the fact that the 4/3rds format is an "open' format, meaning that all lenses made for the 4/3rds format by any camera maker are interchangeable on any maker's cameras. Now that Leica has committed to 4/3rds, that is an exciting capability.

Yesterday, my new 10mp Olympus E-510 arrived and, halleluiah, it's a gem. The biggest benefit of the new camera is the fact that Olympus has put IS (image stabilization) in the body - now all my lens are IS. Halleluiah.

Last evening, after a very hot and humid round of golf, I retired to The Cottage in Lake Placid for some refreshing beer and gazpacho (the wife and kids are out of town). Out came the camera for its first exposures. All I can say is that I am very pleased with the results - very low noise at ISO 400 and very sharp detailed results aided by the IS (I balanced the camera on a railing at 1/2 second ss). FYI, the color balance is a bit on the warm side because I picture with only partially corrected WB under tungsten light - I like the warmth.

So there you have it - that's about a technical as I get. I posted this topic because I think Olympus deserves credit for bucking the 'system' with its commitment (along with Leica, Panasonic and Sigma [lenses]) to the 4/3rds format.

For anyone who is considering a 10mp camera, the Olympus E510 and E410 (no IS) are very worthy competitors in the marketplace - especially when you consider the superb compact 'pro' optics.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

ku # 474 ~ things with hooves and thinking out loud

Elk and Scottish Highland cattle • click to embiggenNo luck yesterday finding any referents for pigs - plenty of elk, Scottish Highland cattle, alpacas and assorted other animal oddities (including my favorite - exotic chickens), but no pigs.

re: thinking - I am re-reading An Adirondack Passage, The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome. The book is about a modern-day (1990) redo by Ms. Jerome of the 1883 trans-Adirondack solo canoe trip of Nessmuk, aka George Washington Sears. She follows a 180 mile route that very closely approximates that traveled by Nessmuk. In the book, Ms. Jerome quotes many passages from Nessmuk's writings about his voyage as she seeks out the same locations and places that he visited in 1883.

I am re-reading this book because I am seriously considering the same trip this summer. The fact that Nessmuk did it at the same age as I am now (forever younger than springtime) is an interesting incentive. The trip has been under consideration by me and the wife for a couple of years, but we never seem to be able to find the time to do it together, but the more I think about it, the more I think that I, like Nessmuk, should go it alone. Maybe the wife can join me for a few legs of the trip, which would be very nice.

The trip is really an interesting one because it slices diagonally, lower SW to upper NE, across the heart of the park. The route traverses stretches of wilderness and human habitation, which affords the opportunity to spend nights out under the stars together with nights on a featherbed in a 4-star lodge. Likewise with dining - cooking on the lightweight camp stove or dining at a lakeside eatery (4-star to diner).

I think that this something I just have to do, and my goal is to produce a lavishly illustrated book (and maybe a documentary film [video]).

BTW, since the route touches civilization nearly everyday (if I want it to), I can take my laptop along for the ride and use it to post almost daily updates - pix and text - along the way.

ku # 473 ~ real life

A lucky happenstance • clcik to embiggenI should clarify that this was a 'lucky happenstance' for me, not the cow. I assume that luck had little to do with the situation, although, I'm not very familiar with the circumstances of breeding Holsteins.

In any event, I was out yesterday scouting for the 'perfect' cow to photograph for reference for a county fair logo ilustration I am creating.
Fair logo • click to embiggen I spied a likely referent far from the road near a barn and drove back to see if I could find a human who might grant me permission to picture the cow. None was to be found, so I went ahead and coaxed the cow into a favorable pose and grabbed the picture.

As I was back in my car about to depart, there was tap on the window and there was the farmer/breeder. I quickly explained my mission and his response was, "Want to take a picture of a calf being born?" My answer was, "Yes", and there you have it.

Today, it's a hunt for piglets. - ahh, the glamourous life of a wilderness/rural creative director/designer/photographer/illustrator guy.