civilized ku # 977 ~ sitting pretty

Mirror Lake / High Peaks ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adironack PARK • click to embiggenYesterday evening the wife and I had dinner in Lake Placid on the deck at the Cottage.

I had just finished a round of golf and the wife was hanging out for a late client meeting. The weather was near perfect, the food good, and an osprey, not more than 100 yards off the deck, put on quite a diving/fishing exhibition.

"Relax" was the word of the hour.

civilized ku # 976 ~ after dinner spider

Spider ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenAfter dinner on the Cottage deck, a spider was busy spinning away.

civilized ku # 975 ~ no more monkey business, at least fro now

Our new neighbors / feeding time ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenEven though my butt has been affixed to my "darkroom" chair, making life without the APA pictures, for the better part of the last week, I have nevertheless managed to make some straight pictures.

Apparently, this will come as a relief for some (Frank?). In any event, it's back to picture making business as usual for the foreseeable future.

civilized ku # 974 ~ rolling thunder

Lots of bikes and a few bikes ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenThis past Saturday on Main Street.

FYI, a 3 frame auto-stitch (PS) with a touch of handwork.

life without the APA # 1-8 ~ the complete collection (so far)

Forever Wild Development Corp ~ in my nightmares - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Villa Motel / Bog River ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
A Kodak Moment ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Free parking ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Masonic Lodge fog ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Stop / Shell gas ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Evening on the river ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Reflection ~ in my nightmares - somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenConsidering none of the life without the APA pictures were planned - that is, pre-visualized - but, rather, came together as an afterthought, so to speak, I am very pleased with the results. In fact, I am of the opinion that the pictures would not be any better even if I had planned them.

That said, when life without the APA # 1, aka: Free parking, was accepted into the IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit, it was the only life without the APA picture existent. Part of the juried acceptance required me to create another 3-4 like minded pictures for the exhibit. While I was confident I could produce, the prospect of the doing was daunting, re: the aforementioned drudgery and tedium involved in making these pictures.

As it turned out, the actuality was not nearly as bad as the imagining, making wise. Yes, there was an element of drudgery and tedium, however, that reality was mollified by the fact that virtually all of my personal picture making is performed, across multiple formats / mediums and over decades of picturing, with what is essentially the same lens, focal length equivalency wise - slightly wide angle lenses.

Some of the images - the street scene in A KODAK moment and the parking lot in Free parking (yes, John, they are Rochester scenes) - used in the making of the life without the APA pictures were made as long ago as circa 1980. Those pictures were made on color negative film in my 8×10 view camera. Some others were made on color negative film in my Nikon 35mm cameras. And, of course, many of the recent (last 8 years) picture elements were made using a digital camera of one sort or another.

In any event, all of the pictures which were used in the making of the life without the APA work were made with slightly wide angle lenses (relative to the various formats) and, just as critically, they were also made from my eye level. Once again, virtually every picture I make is made from an (my) eye level POV. That's because, since I see the world, especially so when I am making pictures, from a standing POV, and, because I picture what I see, I make most of my personal pictures from my eye level perspective.

Consequently, same focal length lenses + same eye level POV = a much less daunting task of selecting and blending the large number of pictures / picture elements - up to 60+ pictures were used in the making of the 8 final life without the APA pictures - than it would be otherwise.

FYI, it's time to get on with the show - printing, mounting, etc.

life without the APA # 5-6 ~ got a good thing going

Masonic Lodge fog ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Stop / Shell gas ~ in my nightmares _ somewhere in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenWhile I'm on a roll, I figure I'll just keep creating more life without the APA pictures for submission to another juried exhibit that requires a body of work comprised of 7-10 pictures. Why not? As the Brits have stated, "In for a penny, in for a pound."

In any event, after yesterday's entry, civilized ku # 973 ~ reality bites, wherein I explain my MO, re: life without the APA pictures, Frank still (no link provided) believes, because I am straying from so-called straight picture making (where's the reality?), I am "whittling away at the edges of your (my) own philosophy ... the idea of an imagined reality, constructed for artistic purposes, is surely what Jeff Wall et al are all about."

Sven W (no link provided) also stated, "I'm sure there are plenty of real locations [in your State] where development has intruded on the natural environment. Has some-one created images of these areas with the message 'this is what happens when you take your eye off the ball'?".

In answer to Sven W's query ... there are plenty of places in NYS where development has intruded on the natural environment. However, my interest and concern is focused upon helping prevent intrusion in the Adirondack PARK, the place in which I live. Pictures of places outside the PARK - the APA's governance is limited to the lands in the Adirondacks - really aren't the issue that concerns me and they would serve little or no purpose in illustrating my point. After all, the entire planet outside the Adirondack PARK is, defacto, life without the APA.

In response to Frank's notion that I am somehow contradicting or invalidating my picturing philosophy .... I think not.

Nothing I am doing changes my opinion, re: so-called straight photography. In the case of my life without the APA picture making, I am not practicing straight picturing. I am acting in the role of an artist who uses the medium of photography to create - as stephen (no link provided) has accurately stated - photo illustrations.

Although I am attempting to make - by appropriating the medium's unique, intrinsic and inexorable characteristic of its relationship to and as a cohort of the real - the pictures appear as though they are the result of straight picture making, that tromp l-oeil is a ploy to capture and focus a viewer's attention and, hopefully, direct her/him to my intended message in my visual bottle.

That said, let me reiterate - I am not practicing so-called straight photography. I am practicing one of the medium's other possibilities (of which there are many) - one that is quite different from so-called straight photography. IMO, practicing one does not negate the other.

That said, I should remind one and all, I have never stated or suggested that there is only one true manner of making pictures. So-called straight photography is my preferred picture making MO. Viewing good/better/best examples of the same is, for my eye and sensibilities, the most enjoyable and rewarding picture viewing experience.

However, I am not a one-trick pony. There is too much feed in the bag to limit the palette to just one taste.

BTW, Nick S. asked: "Does the repeating tombstone in all 4 composites have a special meaning?" - Although that specific tombstone has no special meaning, it is intended to have a rather obvious specific meaning, that of Death. As in, we kill the planet, we kill ourselves.

Update on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 04:32PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Frank (no link provided) is apparently still bothered by what I am doing with the life without the APA pictures. Hence, he wrote: "Your photo illustrations look just like photographs. There is nothing inherent in the image that lets me know it is not an actual photo. You say that there will be accompanying text. But to my mind that is insufficient. There has to be something within the image that tells the viewer that they are not looking at a photograph, that they are not looking at ‘reality’.

my response: re: "...There has to be something within the image that tells the viewer that they are not looking at a photograph, that they are not looking at ‘reality’" - good idea. If only I had thought of that. I could have used something like, say, a repeating gravestone ... the same gravestone that is always seen from exactly the same POV perspective and appears, in every picture, in a weird, unlikely, and incongruous place.

Something like that would indeed give the observant viewer pause and cause the curious amongst them to take a longer/closer look at the pictures. Whereupon they might begin to notice other details that, upon further re-view and review, just don't look quite 'right'. Details like mountain top pyramids capped with the Christian cross or underground gorges in city parking lots. You know, things like that which really stretch, if not break, the notion of 'reality'.

civilized ku # 973 ~ reality bites

Cosmo's LAUNDERMA INC. ~ NYC, NY • click to embiggenSeveral questions / comments are being made, re: the life without the APA pictures, concerning the idea of "reality".

The items in question range from Frank's (no link provided) "Where's the 'reality'", to Markus Spring's, "I am still pondering my position regarding composites. For me it at least stretches the border of photography and probably goes beyond that Barthes' statement about photography telling 'it has been like that'", to Sven's W's. "...have you thought about taking up painting ;-)?"

Good questions / comments all. Especially so, in light of my fervent advocacy for the medium's intrinsic and inexorable relation to / cohort of the real. However ...

... for those who are unaware of the instigating factor behind the life without the APA series, I'll repeat, in very abbreviated form, the primary reason thereof - the APA (Adirondack PARK Agency) is the governing agency, re: the enforcement of the so-called "forever wild" Amendment of the NYS Constitution. The APA's purview covers all land use, public and private, within the boundaries of the Adirondack PARK. Think of it as a gigantic zoning agency.

Over the years the APA has been the much reviled target of host of individual / mercantile / political "adversaries". Some advocate for its total abolishment, others merely want it to be rendered ineffectual. Local politicians campaign against it as a "job killer" and the destroyer of the region's economy - the same-o same-o "let the market decide" BS that has been foisted off on the American public for decades.

That said, a while back I decided to create a series of pictures depicting an as yet unseen 'reality'. By appropriating the medium's intrinsic and inexorable relation to / cohort of the real, i.e. - the medium's 'believability', I am attempting to make 'real' the possible rape of the Adirondacks, via the castration of the APA.

Obviously, I can not time travel to the future in order to picture the reality of the that future. Nor can I positively state, with my constructed visions thereof, what the future reality will be. What I can do, by means of the medium's characteristic of faithfully depicting the real - as opposed to painting ;-), is to make many of the calamitous possibilities look real. Or, at least, look like 'real' possibilities.

There is absolutely no intent to deceive in the making or exhibiting of these pictures. The are not intended to represent Barthes's telling of "it has been like that". The viewers thereof will be well informed of their imagined construction / origins. However, and without doubt, they will viewed by some - APA adversaries in particular - as propaganda and dismissed out of hand as un'real'.

But, so what? What the pictures represent is my opinion on the subject of the APA and the possible outcome of its demise / castration - a 'reality' many fear might come to pass.

civilized ku # 972 / man +/- nature # 5 ~ things go better with Coke

Things go better with Coke ~ The Notch / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
+/-</> ~ The Notch / Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenAs mentioned a few days ago, I am revisiting my man +/- nature series (formerly known as man v nature). Doing so has caused me to conjure up the idea of including 1 man +/- nature print (24"×60") with 3-4 life without the APA pictures (20"×20"/each) for the upcoming IMPACT Our Changing Environment exhibit. The idea being to hang 3 life without the APA pictures directly below the man +/- nature print, creating a 44"×60" picture "cluster". The prints would be hung with a small, +/- 1/2", separation between them.

Additionally, and in direct response to (and instigated by the same) Sven W's question - ...does the intended audience for the show know they are looking at composites?... , I intend to also include 4 small prints, 6"×6", of the un-composited pictures of the original Adirondack scenes used in the making of the life without the APA pictures. Even though there will be an Artist Statement which makes clear the composite images factor, the "before" pictures will make that factor clear for those who don't read the Artist Statement and reinforce it for those who have.