civilized ku # 529 ~ Asgaard Farm trees

Asgaard Farm ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen

decay # 38 ~ or, Basil Leaf Tragedy # 2 - the rest of the story

Blood and basil on plate • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 525-28 ~ Asgaard Farm's emotive power implosively contained

Green tractor ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Asgaard Farm - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
Farm buildings ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Asgaard Farm - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenBy means of the simple act of substitution - my name for that of Joanne Mulberg - a brief description / critique of one of her pictures by Sally Eauclaire (from her book, the new color photography) pretty accurately conveys a brief description / critique of my work (today's pictures in particular):

Mark Hobson's square format imposes a perfect stasis upon his composition, stymying attenuation and movement ... the square and the interior verticals tend to convey a state of being, rather than the suggestion of any visual or narrative action unfolding ... Hobson carefully coordinates his scheme with the square's proportions, supplying mildly varied quantities of dark, medium, and light tonalities, which remain chromatically subdued .... [W]ithin such stabilizing confines, Hobson derives rhythmic repetitions of horizontal, vertical, and complementary diagonals from the contours of walls and angled roofs ... the image's ambience seems mildly detached, its emotive power implosively contained.

One purpose of this substitution exercise is to expand and expound upon yesterday's idea that visual appearances also play a very significant role in getting me to raise the camera to my eye and to point out that, while my awareness to and of visual appearances provides significant raise-the-camera-to-my eye impetus, it is not an acutely conscious form of awareness.

When picturing, I do not overtly conspire to seek out or to effect rhythmic repetitions of horizontal, vertical, and complementary diagonals. However, that said, it is readily apparent after the act of picturing and upon viewing a print that my pictures do, in fact, evidence a great deal of rhythmic visual content. It is also very apparent to me that this rhythmic patterning propensity is somewhat, if not completely, of the preternatural intuition variety - I simply can not explain it any other way.

Another purpose of this exercise, and perhaps the more informative / interesting one, is to comment on the idea that reading critical commentary on the work of picture makers can lead to insights about your own work - a subject that I will delve into in detail in tomorrow's entry.

civilized ku # 524 ~ see title below ...

Basil and blood • click to embiggenIf I were given over to accompanying my pictures with dotty camera-club titles - you know the type, Spring Dance, Emerald Flow, Layers of Time, Electric Rocks, Aspen Affection, The Eternal Battle, et al - I would have to title this picture something like Basil Leaf Tragedy # 1.

Please, if the mood strikes, feel free to contribute any other titles that seem to be apt.

civilized ku # 522-23 ~ the only important evaluations ...

Rainy overcast afternoon ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenConcerning the notion found in civilized ku # 519 regarding "finding a great deal more in them (pictures) than the artist intended", Sven W asked:

For Mark's image, I can only see it's literal interpretation i.e the restaurant deck ... Mark, I'd be interested to hear what "else" is in your photo?

To a great extent, the question was answered by Jimmi Nuffin:

I think that Mark can only tell you what it is. Only "YOU" can decide what else it is.

However, Sven W believes that If there is a non-literal interpretation to an image (the "else") then I would expect the photographer would have it in mind. IMO, that ain't necessarily so.

Consider Henry Wessel's opinion regarding picture making MOs:

Part of it has to do with the discipline of being actively receptive. At the core of this receptivity is a process that might be called soft eyes. It is a physical sensation. You are not looking for something. You are open, receptive. At some point you are in front of something that you cannot ignore.

I know that, for my picture making, "something that you cannot ignore" plays a very significant role in getting me to raise the camera to my eye. And, I can state without reservation that, at the moment in time of making a picture, I don't always understand exactly - beyond visual appearances (which also plays a very significant role in getting me to raise the camera to my eye) - why something is something that I can't ignore.

Other than the fact that I am, first and foremost, interested in making pictures of the so-called mundane minutia of everyday life - IMO, life is primarily, but not exclusively, made up of small moments and small details, it usually takes me some time spent viewing one of my pictures to start to come grips with the specifics of a given slice of life that caused me to react to it (to make a picture) as something that I cannot ignore.

Of course, as Nathaniel Hawthorn opines, I start to come to grips with the what else-ness of a given slice of pictured life because of a picture's suggestiveness, which interestingly and ironically enough derives from a picture's specificity as a cohort of the real/actual.

Relative to Sven W's question about civilized ku # 519 (restaurant deck), some of the preliminary conclusions I have come to regarding its specific "what else-ness" involve notions of the feelings associated with lazy hazy days of Summer - pleasant days spent just hanging out and enjoying good food, libations, and companionship (or, at times, companionship-wise, lack thereof). And that the pleasure derived from such experiences need not depend upon grand and glorious locales - little pockets of respite, wherever they might be found, will suffice quite nicely, thank you very much.

I also believe that there is much "what else" to found in this restaurant deck picture (and most of my pictures) that connects with Robert Adams' idea of Form, beauty, intuition, and hope. To understand those notions and how they might apply to my pictures, read Robert Adams' Why People Photograph, and, most specifically, Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values.

All of that said, I have already said way too much - my "what else" should not be nearly as important to anyone out there as it is to me. Jimmi Nuffin was right and Robert Adams agrees ...

Silence is, after all, the context for the deepest appreciation of art: the only important evaluations are finally, personal, interior ones.

civilized ku # 520-21 / ku # 721~ just 1 of the joys of country life

Yesterday, Asgaard Farm ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
Asgaard Farm on a sunny day ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenYesterday, the wife and I went up the hill to Asgaard Farm (and HERE) for some fresh chickens. When we got there, the cupboard was bare, chicken wise, so we opted for some of their feta cheese, fresh eggs, and fresh bacon.

Last evening, the wife made a fresh salad with the feta and some fresh lettuce and tomatoes (from another local farm) and this AM I made a fresh bacon and egg breakfast.

You may have noticed the multiple use of the word "fresh" - that's because fresh, locally grown, and certified organic produce and grass-fed / pastured poultry and meats are so tasty in a way that grocery store stuff isn't.

civilized ku # 519 ~ "... to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock." ~ Edward Weston

Restaurant deck ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Lake Placid, NY • click to embiggen

Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

ku # 720 ~ Tiger Swallowtail butterflies

Tiger Swallowtail butterflies ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggenYesterday afternoon, quite a few Tiger Swallowtail (?) butterflies visited a large blossom bearing shrub next to our house.

I noticed them as I was heading out to the grocery store. As always, my Olympus E-P1 with 20mm f1.7 Lumix prime/pancake lens was hanging from from my shoulder so I spent about 20 minutes following the little things around and making pictures.

Considering the fact that the E-P1 has a "bad" rap as a slow-focusing POS, I nevertheless was able to make quite a number of very good pictures of the butterflies as they twitched and jerked and fluttered their way in, out and all around the blossoms.