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This blog is intended to showcase my pictures or those of other photographers who have moved beyond the pretty picture and for whom photography is more than entertainment - photography that aims at being true, not at being beautiful because what is true is most often beautiful..

>>>> Comments, commentary and lively discussions, re: my writings or any topic germane to the medium and its apparatus, are vigorously encouraged.

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BODIES OF WORK ~ PICTURE GALLERIES

  • my new GALLERIES WEBSITE
    ADK PLACES TO SIT / LIFE WITHOUT THE APA / RAIN / THE FORKS / EARLY WORK / TANGLES

BODIES OF WORK ~ BOOK LINKS

In Situ ~ la, la, how the life goes onLife without the APADoorsKitchen SinkRain2014 • Year in ReviewPlace To SitART ~ conveys / transports / reflectsDecay & DisgustSingle WomenPicture WindowsTangles ~ fields of visual energy (10 picture preview) • The Light + BW mini-galleryKitchen Life (gallery) • The Forks ~ there's no place like home (gallery)


Entries from June 1, 2013 - June 30, 2013

Saturday
Jun292013

# 3 ~ all different / but the same

I have been watching it. On everything it falls. Moon-eyed and restless, ever moving, ever washing us with its long cycle: rain. Globes in ferocious gallops hurling into an unknown to be broken, dismantled around our dirty hands; yet each single note is still the same long song, sung around and around us as we too hurl, our watered globe ever ready to break apart within this fractal of existence.

Nota bene: FYI, even though the writings on today's and yesterday's entries do relate (in a fashion) to the pictures which accompany them, they were not written with the pictured referents in mind. And, furthermore, the intent of the pictures + words project is to deliberately avoid matching words and pictures which could be obviously related to one another.

In fact, it is quite probable that the pictures and the words will be presented in entirely separate sections of the book or an exhibit. They appear together here as merely a work in progress and to (hopefully) instigate some comments or feedback about the project.

Friday
Jun282013

# 2 ~ all different / but the same

We have moved the moving earth. We have cut it, melted it and poured ourselves new rock faces, hollow ones into which we hive and collect our shiny things. We have become the flowers that grow and bloom and wilt into bones. The things we touch have been refined, as if the world were not fine enough. It needed cost. Process. It needed fingerprints. We vacation to reconnect with nature as if we do not touch it every second of every day, as if it is not the mother of every object that brushes us. As if it is not our very skin. Now we look through glass and do not see the sand.

Wednesday
Jun262013

# 1 ~ all different / but the same

She looked at it. Her eyes danced over it. A dance, remarkably so. A slow circle, taking in each detail. Then familiarity. Intimacy. And a beginning. She relaxed her gaze and it captured her, led her somewhere; she followed a line and repeated the same pattern. To what end? To where had she been drawn? I like it, she thought, it doesn't stop. An endless cycle, round and round, at a pleasant cadence. She looked at it.

Wednesday
Jun192013

civilized ku # 2539 ~ late Spring / early Summer lushness

Lush backyard ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIn a comment on the entry ku # 1244-47, Peter Nilsson wrote:

Without wishing this to sound like the Mark Hobson fan club I do particularly value the regular reminder that I don't need to buy a new camera. Saves me thousands...

Peter, thanks for non-fan club comment although, nevertheless, I am willing to give you preferred fan club standing. That written, I'm happy to read that I am having some impact / doing my part in helping some stay off the never-ending upgrade merry-go-round. Although ... Olympus has finally introduced the new E-P5 - a camera which "looks as though the E-P5 is the camera we'd always hoped the PEN series could be" (DPReview).

If I had unlimited resources, I might be tempted to acquire the E-P5 (the upgrade force is still strong within me). However, please note the emphasis on the word "might". The reason for that is quite simple - I'm still very satisfied with my current crop of E-P2s.

Sure, the sensor in the E-P5 is much improved and the high ISO performance is vastly improved - the only 2 things I actually might care about in the new model - but, while those improvements might be needed by some and desired by others, I'm not so sure that either of those rational or emotional states of mind are at work in my picture making world.

To wit, re: improved definition / sharpness - I have never been on the eye-bleeding razor-sharp bandwagon. What I want is for my prints to look very nice at a normal viewing distance (it is beyond my comprehension why anyone would want to view a picture from an abnormal viewing distance). That is to write, a distance which is dependent upon print size and appropriate for viewing the picture in its entirety because it is only by viewing the entire picture that a viewer can (hopefully) see and appreciate what it is I am trying to convey. IMO, my pictures (and those, made by others, which appeal to my eye and sensibilities) are about more than the sum of their nose-to-the-print-surface parts.

In addition to my non-addiction to razor sharpness, I am concerned with the idea that a sensor which produces pictures which, when viewed at a normal viewing distance and when added to any of the pictures in my ongoing bodies of work, would look visually different from my earlier pictures in that same body of work and therefore out of sync within the body of work.

As for improved low-noise high ISO performance, it would be nice but, in fact, noise is not something I struggle with on a regular basis. Having a few fast pancake lenses in my bag really helps avoid having to use high ISOs (I rarely go higher than ISO 400). In those cases where noise becomes a concern, I find a little bit of noise reduction works very well to solve the so-called problem.

That written, if I were to start a body of work which concentrated upon low-light situations and referents, I would undoubtedly feel differently about high ISO performance.

So, I'll soldier on, dancing with the cameras dates I brought to dance. If I'm going to spend money on any cameras, it most likely will be to snap up a few of the inevitable supply of new (not used), bargain basement priced E-P3s which will become available.

Tuesday
Jun182013

ku # 1244-47 ~ a beautiful rainy Father's Day

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Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
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Dock / Elk Lake ~ North Hudson, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
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Picture maker ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
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Rapids above falls ~ Buttermilk Falls / Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

Even though Sunday was a misty/foggy and rainy day, we took a 180 mile drive through the northeast section of the Adirondack PARK.

First stop was Elk Lake Lodge, a lodge which is situated in a stunningly beautiful location - a 12,000-acre privately-owned forest preserve in the heart of the High Peaks. The lodge is situated about 6 miles through the forest off the main road so it is truly a wilderness lodge. Even though the lodge is pretty close to our home, the wife and I have had this place on our gotta-stay-there list for over 10 years. Maybe this year is the year.

A number of stops later, the next stop was at Buttermilk Falls (on the Raquette River near the village of Long Lake where the wife and I were married) which was running very high as a result of all of the recent rain. After checking out the falls, we adjourned to the Adirondack Hotel where I enjoyed a unique and quite tasty dinner of Guinness BBQ beef hash over risotto topped with a poached egg.

Monday
Jun172013

diptych # 37 ~ (on seeing) the possibilities of form and color

W23 / restaurant ~ New York, NY / Digby, Nova Scotia • click to embiggenDuring my recent visit to NYC I purchased a used book - Robert E. Sheehan Color Photography 1948-1958 - which was published in 1987. I had never heard of Robert Sheehan and I doubt that very few others have as well. However, a quick glance thorough the book convinced me it was worth acquiring inasmuch as I gleaned that Sheehan was an early (pre 70s / New Color era) practitioner of color picture making.

As it turns out, the book is a great look / insight into the early days of serious non-commercial use of color film. A time when color picture making was considered to be an amateur-snapshooter-only practice - if one was interested in making serious (fine art) pictures, the predominate aesthetic of BW was the only way to go.

While a number of name BW picture makers gave color a try, the technical limitations of that era's color film were considered to be insurmountable for serious picture making. Nevertheless, Sheehan was one picture maker who ignored the prevailing picture making paradigm and made color picture making his life's work (a life shortened by alcoholism), pursuing what he called " the possibilities of pure color and form".

From the book:

I am not seeking a completely purified image in the painter's sense. Rather, I abstract my area from existing matter, designing it from edge to edge in the viewfinder ... it is their (the referents) selection and arrangement which makes the complete picture. If the subject matter happens to have unique qualities, then the effect is greatly heightened by incorporating it with an absorbing design."

IMO, that statement is yet another short-and-sweet how-to on the the notion of so-called composition.

Friday
Jun142013

decay # 49 ~ Cindy didn't eat her corn and other edible disasters

Corn and other perishables ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenRe: the subject of some projects seeming to slide by without much attention, I haven't made any decay pictures in a while. A fact I was reminded of yesterday when an awful smell nearly overcame me in my decay staging / fermenting room.

At first, I thought it to be a dead mouse which I searched for without success. Then it dawned on me that I had forgotten - travel and other commitments will do that - about a fermenting plate of food stuffs. So, I covered the plate with saran wrap and the odor disappeared.

Upon checking the plate this AM I discovered maggots had taken up residency so I figured I'd better make a picture before things got out of control. Hence, the beautiful picture you see here.

Friday
Jun142013

diptych # 36 (rain # 58-59) ~ catapulting the impermanence and awkwardness of a snapshot to the permanence and artfulness of painting. 

Downpour / light rain ~ Brooklyn, NY / Hoboken, NJ • click to embiggenWhile in NYC, one non-photography exhibit which caught my and and attention was Chrisa Biddy's Mobile Uploads - see pictures here / read about it here. While the exhibit was comprised of small 4×6inch (on average) realistic oil and watercolor paintings, what I really liked was the fact that the paintings were created using vernacular photographs culled from Facebook and other social media networks as their inspiration.

If you don't read the short PR announcement linked to above, about all you need to know about the work is contained in the following paragraph from the announcement:

Voyeurism, exploitation, subversion, sexual exploration, etc., are all words that can be associated with Biddy's work. At the end of the day, it is simply a boy painting girls, all the while ignoring the trappings of the femme fatale and political correctness. The subjects have allowed themselves to enter a world wide web of unknown onlookers and the artist has catapulted the impermanence and awkwardness of a snapshot to the permanence and artfulness of painting.

I found the small paintings to be visually very mesmerizing and emotionally / intellectually very stimulating (keep your mind out of the gutter). And like the PR piece states, I found the exhibit to be "Like watching a train wreck; you just can't divert your eyes." Really good stuff.