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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

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Entries from March 1, 2009 - March 31, 2009

Tuesday
Mar312009

man & nature # 120 ~ it's a crying shame - emphasis on "shame"

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Part of our household fleetclick to embiggen
Currently, albeit temporarily, our household car fleet consists of 5 cars, 2 of which are off to college and 1 of which is soon to be departed from our employ. Within the week we will return to our normal fleet number of 4.

We have 4 cars because of where we live. To wit and to borrow a Ulysses Everett McGill line from O Brother, Where Art Thou? - "Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!"

While we're not 2 weeks from everywhere, we are, in fact, about 30 miles more or less from everywhere - 30 miles from the wife's office, 30 miles from the college kids' summer jobs, 30 miles from a really good restaurant, 30 miles from most necessity-goods stores, and so on. We are lucky enough to live in a very small village (pop. 800) that has a doctor, a pharmacy, a good liquor store, a decent sized grocery store, a pizza parlor, a movie theater (open 10 months of the year), a bank, a NAPA store, a bowling alley, 2 drinking establishments, 1 diner, 2 gas stations / convenience stores, a good deli/bakery, a 9-hole golf course, a handful of movie rental stores, and 3 or 4 beauty salons, but the fact remains that we are still very car dependent.

I bring this car thing up because I just can't get the picture of our Car Warranty Commander-in-Chief out of my head. I mean, who the hell could have dreamed that the Great Speechifier would be lecturing us about the reliability rankings of a Buick? Good grief, it's not like The Man doesn't have enough problems to deal with without having to add the title of Car Salesman to his resumé. As David Letterman is often heard to state, "I wouldn't give his problems to a monkey on a rock."

However, whatever the problems in the Oval Office, the problems facing the US auto industry seem almost insurmountable and I'll use the picture of our driveway as an example of why I think that is so.

I can not imagine how the US auto industry is going to meet, much less surpass, the products that are sitting in my driveway. Simply put, there are precious few cars in the US auto industry offerings that come close to matching what is sitting there. When it comes to build quality, standard equipment levels, warranty, fuel efficiency, and price point relative to the aforementioned, the US auto industry has been asleep at the wheel. Of the few cars they offer that come close to those in my driveway, all are johnny-come-latelys to the party and they are following the leader as opposed to leading the pack.

Case in point, the most recent addition - the Suzuki SX4. We need an AWD in the fleet. There are times when the wife has to travel great distances over back country roads during the Winter and the security of AWD is very desirable. But, we also want a fuel efficient car and the Subaru Impreza was OK for an AWD however the Suzuki is considerably better in that regard - and it even offers on-the-fly selectable 2W/FWD for slightly better gas mileage than its AWD mileage rating.

In addition to that, the car offers, as standard, so many things that are really important - alloys wheels, 4W disc brakes (ventilated front), ABS w Electronic Brake-force Distribution, Electronic Stability Control with Traction Control, front/rear stabilizer bars, side-impact airbags, roof rack rails, and a long list of "comfort and convenience" features. All of that for just a skosh over $15K (and that's without Suzuki resorting to "employee pricing" and/or other discounts) for an AWD car that is currently averaging 27mpg in all-around driving.

To my knowledge, there is not anything that Detroit offers that even comes close to the Suzuki SX4 at any price. That's too bad because there are quite a few of these vehicles on the road up here in the north country where they must outnumber AWD Subarus 4-1.

IMO, the problem stems from one incontrovertible fact - the industry single-mindlessly pursued the easy money that came from catering to a very profitable but unsustainable slice of the market and just ignored the rest. In short, short-term thinking, long-term buffoonery.

This is truly a very, very sad state of affairs - for the country, the industry, the workers, the economy, and the American car buyer. Good luck to anyone who has to deal with fixing this long-time coming mess.

Monday
Mar302009

man & nature # 119 ~ more from a rainy Spring day

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Asgaard Farm ~ Au Sable Forks, NYclick to embiggen
Asgaard Farm is the former home, farm, and studio of Rockwell Kent.

Monday
Mar302009

civilized ku # 168 ~ a vivid flashback

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A major awardclick to embiggen
Let me state right from the start that this entry is not a slam against the Papists and their particular form of education as administered - some might inflicted - by their legions of formerly black and white robed minions, aka, nuns. Both the wife and I are shining examples / products of that system.

And, if there are any doubts about my genuine affection for the following, let it be known that my mother's name was Mary, her brother's name was Joseph. Between them their off-spring were named Matthew (my cousin), Mark (me), Luke (my brother), and John (my cousin), Peter (my brother) and Paul (my cousin).

That said, on a beautiful, sunny and warm Spring day (last Saturday), my golf game was terminated after the 11th hole so that I could attend a dinner theater event. I knew nothing about it other than I was going to attend it. My dread was not about the dinner part, rather, it was about the theater part - it's no fun to have to endure an evening of bad local dinner theater.

As it turned out, the evening was a blast because it was an evening all about the joys of Late Nite Catechism. LNC is a traveling one-woman-dressed-as-a-nun show (albeit with 27 different women in various parts of the country) that is a complete on-the-road version of a long running Chicago theater play of the same name. The performance was excellent and very funny and I would highly recommend seeing it if comes to a theater (dinner or otherwise) near you.

That said, our local performance was greatly enhanced by the unwitting participation of the wife.

Sister had asked the class (aka, the audience) for an answer to the question, "Who can tell me what the Immaculate Conception is?". As was the nun's habit (ha, ha, ha,), a prize (almost always a religious object of one kind or another) for the correct answer was offered, in this case, a very small statue of the Blessed Virgin.

Up shot the wife's hand - actually one of a very few. Drawing upon years of Catholic school primary education, a near pavlovian response of award-lust and a deep seated desire for Sister's praise, she raised her hand with great vigor. She was rewarded by being selected to give the answer.

Sister asked for her name - first, middle, and confirmation names - and the wife responded with all three (Jacqueline, Marie, Teres [say Teresa without the "a"]). Sister then asked, "So, Jacqueline, Marie, Teres, did you attend Catholic school?" Whereupon the wife - totally unaware of the sinister trap that was being set - responded with a shoulder shrug and the words, "Ohhh, yeh."

About half the class laughed knowingly and the other half, immediately recognizing a gaff of major proportions, voiced variations upon the phrase, "uh, oh." Sister, of course, rubbed her hands with glee - another successful ensnarement - and picked up her ruler and, tapping it menacingly, asked, "Excuse me, missy. Is that any way to address Sister?"

The wife, recognizing her gaff, kind of shrunk a size or two, turned a little red-in-the-face, hung her head a bit, and very meekly replied. "No, Sister."

I nearly peed my pants.

What was truly amazing was the fact the wife had unwittingly become part of the act, although, it must be said, that her near rote /extremely well conditioned response had nothing to do with acting. I swear, she was immediately and quite thoroughly transported back to grammar school. Her contrite and rather meek response - BTW, something with which I am not familiar - was instantaneous and, I might say, quite "genuine". It was nothing short of amazing.

The wife was able to redeem herself by giving the correct answer although it did not conform to the exact verbal phrasing of the dogma - she had stated that the IC represented the fact that Mary was born without Original Sin (the IC was not related to the virgin birth of Christ). Sister accepted the slight verbal inaccuracy but offered the wife an award upgrade (to an even bigger statue of Mary) if she could use the word "stain" in her answer.

In another involuntary flashback, both the wife and I immediately recognized the "mistake" - of course ... how could anyone forget? - Mary was born without the stain of Original Sin upon her soul. Sister was very please and Jacqueline, Marie, Teres went to the front of the class and collected her up-sized award.

Ahhhh, the good old days.

PS - it well worth noting that the Sisters of Late Nite Catechism are not just making a living by spoofing the nuns and Catholic School. At every performance, the performance Sister stands at the exit with a donation bucket to raise money for real nuns. Over the years and all across the country, they have raised and donated over 2 million dollars to numerous religious orders.

Sunday
Mar292009

man & nature # 118 ~ rainy Spring day

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Spring rain on a country roadclick to embiggen
Today was a classic rainy Spring day - one of my favorite times to get out picturing. I had quite a bit of success. More to come.

FYI, as most know I live in the Adirondack village of Au Sable Forks. The French name comes from the early French Canadian settlers who came down from the provence of Quebec seeking jobs in the limbering industry. As is evidenced by today's picture, the name is very appropriate; Au -to/at/on, Sable - sand.

Friday
Mar272009

ku # 563/64 ~ what really matters

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Blue sky reflection and tree stumpclick to embiggen
In the next week or so I hope to visit NYC to see a photo exhibit at MOMA - Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West. The exhibit is comprised of 150 pictures (dating from 1850 to 2008) by 70 photographers that, according to one review - Mythic West of Dreams and Nightmares, "evokes that tension between myth and reality" regarding the American West.

The reviewer, Ken Johnson, opines that the exhibit:

... ultimately presents an all-too-predictably bleak view of America’s realization of its Manifest Destiny ... [W]hile photographers paved the way psychologically for transcontinental expansion in the 19th century, 20th-century modernists like Minor White and Ansel Adams helped to shape a new romantic poetry for an intensely industrialized society ... [A]fter World War II, however, that picture could no longer be sustained. It became a cliché for the tourism and real estate industries ... [F]or landscape photographers of the 1960s and later the West became a place where despoiling by industry and commerce could be revealed at its most unvarnished ...

As many of you already know, there is little if anything in that synopsis regarding the historic trajectory of landscape photography with which I would disagree.

I also tend to agree with Johnson's assessment regarding the "all-too-predictably bleak view of America’s realization of its Manifest Destiny" as depicted by "landscape photographers of the 1960s and later". The then (1960-1975) cliche-breaking work of photographers working under the banner of New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape has been continually practiced / emulated to this day and, in the process, become a bit of a cliche in its own right.

IMO, it should be stated (as a sort of withering defense) that the cliche is sustained and somewhat justified in as much as the continued (and really f**ked up) attempt to implement the American realization of its "Manifest Destiny" provides far too many "New Topographics" picture making opportunities. To ignore those opportunities and retreat into flights of landscape fantasy does not do justice to the medium's capabilities / possibilities re: truth and the real. Nor, for that matter, does it contribute in any meaningful way to our current notion of reinventing the American Dream - re: change we can believe in / hope.

That said, Johnson asks questions and, in doing so, presents a challenge of sorts:

Why does the exhibition project such a dim vision? Is it impossible for serious contemporary photography to see something better? Is failure and disappointment the real, unavoidable story? Or is it another myth, a paradoxically reassuring narrative to which many high-minded people now unthinkingly accede? If so, what would be the alternative? That could be an unknown worth exploring.

These questions/challenges have been on my mind for quite a while. Check out urban ku # 49 ~ a new place for some of my thoughts on the matter (dating back a couple of years) - and be sure to notice how I used the word "hope" long before that guy sitting in the White House did as well as an early example of a stutter step diptych.

Now, I could wax poetic and acerbic for days on end regarding how I believe that my pictures are an outstanding example of what is "worth exploring" as an alternative to the "dim vision" of "contemporary photography" but, not wanting to fall into the trap of making "sanctimonious declarations" that imply that I have "a higher calling" or that I am " blessed with divine insight", I will cite the work of Mary Dennis - a picture maker whose eye, IMO, is looking in all the "right places" for a new sense of hope.

Specifically, check out Mary's Display / Nature/Discordant / Scenic 1 & 2 / Road folders.

IMO, and in spite of its surface appearances which evince a nod towards more traditional pictorial / romantic methods of presentation with her use of color/contrast/saturation (however true and/or accurate they seem to be), that work avoids descending into "sappy sentimentality" and camera-club cliche. I have the distinct sense that Mary addresses her referent(s) with a genuine feeling of respect that "preserves its authenticity but still allows the photography-observer to move well beyond the 'actuality of the real world'".

In viewing her pictures - most of which are of the commonplace, I am never left with the impression that she is attempting to raise up the notion of despair but rather that she has a sense that all is not lost if we can only look in "the right places" - the very "authentic" ones she is showing us - in order to remember / relearn what really matters.

Or, if the phrase "what really matters" upsets your relativistic-sense apple cart - the idea that "what really matters" is, well, relativistic in nature, then how about this - she illustrates and illuminates a sense that all is not lost and if we can only look at the overlooked and learn/see what it has to teach us, the world just might be a better place.

And, IMO, although Mary's pictures address many of the same referents typical of New Topographic pictures, her work rejects, or does not fully embrace, the world-weary cynicism that is one of the so-called hallmarks of New Topographics style pictures. She pictures as if what she pictures really matters in and of itself, as opposed to just what it might signify - although, IMO, if you look at it "with your head at a certain angle" (thanks for that one, Gordon). it signifies much worth considering.

The only problem with Mary's work (and that of quite a few others) is that it has yet to be discovered by the Art World, Photography Division. IMO, that is simply because that world is still held captive to the academic lunatic fringe and their gallery/museum minions who prize the connoted - the more obtuse / self-referential / convoluted, the better - over the actuality of the denoted.

Thursday
Mar262009

man & nature # 116/17 ~ it pisses him off

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Plastic bottle, fence, and mossclick to embiggen
Many of the pictures of Minor White and Duane Michals are intended to be presented as a sequence - as diptychs, triptychs, or short narrative "stories". This approach to picturing as always interested me, most likely because my first photography job - to be more accurate, my US Army MOS (military occupation series) - was as a photo journalist.

An aside - The US Army trained me to be a supply clerk, a position that I never held. After training and arriving at my duty station in Japan (to which I was assigned as a supply clerk), I was immediately assigned by personnel as a draftsman (making charts and graphs) because of my ever-so-brief civilian experience in architectural studies. That job was excruciatingly boring, although it must be said that it was infinitely better than humping the boonies in Nam.

Long story, short - Being in a foreign land (that also happened to be home to a zillion camera makers) and bored as hell, I bought a camera and started making pictures (FYI, I processed the very first roll of color slide film I ever shot). In a matter of a few months, I started winning US Army photo contests and, as a result, just like that, I became a US Army photo journalist. My entire "training" in things photographic at that point was reading my camera manual - therefore knowing to center the in-camera exposure needle - and following some film processing instructions.

So, with that level of training, you can imagine my utter gut-twisting surprise and horror when (20 minutes prior to my first assignment) I was handed a beat up old 4×5 Speed Graphic as my Official US Army Photographic Equipment - say what? ... loading sheet film, the concept of parallax, a handheld light meter, rangefinder focusing ... say what?

In any event, as a matter of survival and not getting my butt chewed out, I needed to figure out how to make pictures that worked together to tell a story. Many of the "stories" appeared in Stars & Stripes and other Army pubs as "pure" pictures stories - a short couple-sentence intro and some photo captions but without any lengthy text. The "stories" succeeded or failed based solely upon the pictures and how they worked together to tell the story. It was a true out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire, learning-under-fire (pressure, not bullets) experience.

All of that said, I was making pictures that were intended to be presented in sequence long before I knew the names, Minor White and Duane Michals, or had access to any any of their ideas on the subject:

A sequence of photographs is like a cinema of stills. The time and space between photographs is filled by the beholder, first of all from himself, then from what he can read in the implications of design, the suggestions springing from treatment, and any symbolism that might grow from within the subject itself. - Minor White

It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they orginate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images. - Minor White

I think of them (photographers) as being newspaper reporters, and myself as a short story writer. ~ Duane Michals

I was an OK photographer at reportage, and to be a photographer then meant you had to do that, so when I did an exhibit where I began to tell stories half the people walked out ... Things that are now considered almost traditional to do in photography schools, I was the first one to do them! I'm saying that because I know when things get written up, in books on sequences, I'm just a footnote. It's outrageous, and it pisses me off! ~ Duane Michals

Wednesday
Mar252009

ku # 563/64 ~ stutter-steps in time: the decisive moment - what moment was that?

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A tangle of bare branchesclick to embiggen
You may have noticed that I have recently been playing with diptychs. This is nothing new for me - on and off, I have been "playing" with diptychs and triptychs for quite some time.

In the past, most of my whatever-tychs have been comprised of related but distinctly different pictures - more of a story / sequence about a place/thing. The related pictures might have been made over an extended period of time - up to an hour or more of an "in depth" exploration of a place/thing. IMO, the resultant whatever-tychs evidence a sense of "looking around" a place/thing.

The most recent diptychs differ from the previous efforts in that they are created from nearly identical pictures that have been made just seconds apart which, IMO, creates a sense of quick "glimpses" rather than "in depth" looking. And, in keeping with my snapshot aesthetic, creating / fostering the sense of seemingly quick, spontaneous, and thoughtless "glimpses" is what I am after.

However, I am also seeking to make pictures that deal with an expanded sense of time beyond that of a "normal" picture which, as we all know, "freezes" a given moment in time. In a real sense, a single picture stops time in its tracks, potentially preserving / isolating it for all time (one of the mediums inherent characteristics). My intent is quite simply to remind the viewer that time moves on.

That said, I am also screwing with the time-honored photographic notion of the decisive moment - a notion that has been alternately interpreted to mean 1) that moment when the essential activity/motion in a scene is "ideal" or 2) that moment when all of the elements in flux in a scene come together in a pleasing compositional arrangement.

Generally speaking, I subscribe to neither interpretation. For that matter, I do not particularly subscribe to the notion of the decisive moment at all. IMO, whatever you choose to picture, whenever you choose to picture, elevates that moment to a "decisive" moment. Hence, my anti-single-moment decisive moments - quite perplexing, right?.

In any event, this notion of anti-decisive-moment diptychs is a notion that's gaining a lot of traction with me at the moment (ha, ha, ha, get it?). IMO, it is another key element in my snapshot aesthetic whereby I have been attempting to create, in the minds of the viewers of my pictures, a sense of beauty-beauty-everywhere - all-you-have-to-do-is-just-look.

For the photographers in the viewing crowd, there is another message / meaning to be found in my pictures - if you can just get over the idea of the "perfect" picture (the "perfect" light, "perfect" composition, "perfect"/iconic subject matter, the "right" camera, the "right" lens, the "right" filter, et al), there are pictures to be found just about anywhere, at any time, at any place you happen to be.

As Minor White stated:

Vision without association - pristine vision.

And, while you're at it, consider this regarding "snapshots" from Duane Michals -

Because of my involvement with my photographs, it is difficult for me really to see them objectively. Talking about them is like talking about myself. The only real idea that I have about them is that they are essentially snapshots. For snapshots, I feel, often have an inherent simplicity and directness that I find beautiful. The roots of my photographs are in this tradition.

However, I think that the photographer must completely control his picture and bring to it all his personality, and in this area most photographs never transcend being just snapshots. When a great photographer does infuse the snapshot with his personality and vision, it can be transformed into something truly moving and beautiful.

FYI, I would be sorrily remiss if I did not give a tip of the hat regarding my notion of stutter-steps in time to Mary Dennis who, a few years ago, was herself briefly (to the best of my knowledge) playing with diptychs made with nearly identical pictures made only seconds apart. There is currently no evidence of that work on her website so I don't know whether or not she gave up the ghost with that stuff. If she has, more's the pity but, one way or the other, moment to moment, I'll carry on.

Tuesday
Mar242009

ku # 561/62 ~ avoiding the label of "fartster"

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Fallen log with moss and weedsclick to embiggen
It's a bit odd that of all of the photographers who have a had an influence on how I see the world (and there any many), two - with whom my picturing drives and desires most closely match, Minor White and Duane Michals - are conspicuously absent from my photo book collection. For whatever reason, no explanation for that oversight comes readily to mind.

Lots of words have been spilled on paper and screen describing and dissecting the work of White and Michals but, to keep it simple, it is reasonable and accurate to state that their picturing activities were/are concerned with making pictures that are not considered just "mere" documentation but, rather, with making pictures that explored/explore mysteries and questions surrounding the human condition.

Minor White was much given to doing so by pursuing Alfred Steiglitz' notion of equivalents - pictures wherein the photographer -

...recognized an object or series of forms that, when photographed, would yield an image with specific suggestive powers that can direct the viewer into a specific and known feeling, state, or place within himself. ~ Minor White ~ Equivalence: The Perennial Trend

Duane Michals, while not exactly a devotee of the idea of equivalents, nevertheless stated:

I don't want to catalog images. I want to get into something that I can't truly describe. I might fail in the process, but it's where true creativity is born.

Whatever their similarities re: intent, White and Michals created/create their respective meanings / questions / suggestions by picturing (for the most part) very different subject matter. White most often pictured places and things whereas Michals concentrated (and still does) almost exclusively on making pictures of people - most often multiple pictures presented as sequential narratives.

Those differences aside, what White / Michals was/is interested in was/is picturing something that can not be photographed - feelings and thoughts. As White stated -

When a photographer presents us with what to him is an Equivalent, he is telling us in effect, "I had a feeling about something and here is my metaphor of that feeling." ... [T]he power of the equivalent, so far as the expressive-creative photographer is concerned, lies in the fact that he can convey and evoke feelings about things and situations and events which for some reason or other are not or can not be photographed. The secret, the catch and the power lies in being able to use the forms and shapes of objects in front of the camera for their expressive-evocative qualities. Or to say this in another way, in practice Equivalency is the ability to use the visual world as the plastic material for the photographer's expressive purposes.~ Equivalence: The Perennial Trend

And, therein, lies my connection to them and their work.

While I strive mightily to make pictures that are, on the 2-dimensional surface of the print, very illustrative, I also strive just as vigorously to make pictures that are very illuminative with regard to things that can not be photographed. Things such as "what it means to be human", or, "being in the moment", or ....

I do that because (as Michals stated) -

If you look at a photograph, and you think, 'My isn't that a beautiful photograph,' and you go on to the next one, or 'Isn't that nice light?' so what? I mean what does it do to you or what's the real value in the long run? What do you walk away from it with? I mean, I'd much rather show you a photograph that makes demands on you, that you might become involved in on your own terms or be perplexed by.

I want to make pictures that "makes demands" on the viewer so that they might "get involved on their own terms" precisely because they are "perplexed". I place deliberate emphasis upon being "perplexed" because being perplexed, when viewing photographs that I did not understand, was the very reason that drove me to explore the notion of getting beyond the camera-club obvious scheme of things when it comes to making pictures.

Those pictures made demands upon me - I had to think about them, not just look at them. I really wanted to know what the hell the point of the pictures was. Why the hell had the photographer (FYI, Michals considers himself "the artist formally known as a photographer") made them? What the hell was the picture maker trying to say / trying to tell me? What the hell was I missing?

At the time, the only thing that was obvious to me was that the pictures had to be about something more than what they visually depicted 1044757-2736043-thumbnail.jpg
Eggleston's Tricycleclick to embiggen
because .. well ... to state the obvious, most of what was visually depicted did not exactly conform to time-honored subjects that were most frequently considered to be suitable subjects for picture making. I mean there must be something more than what is visually depicted that makes a picture of a tricycle worth $250,000.00, right?

In any event, the sensation of being perplexed incited in me a desire to explore, investigate, research, and hopefully learn more about the medium of photography and its picture making possibilities. And, I thank my lucky starts for that opportunity since it prevented me from becoming a fartster -

Michals is outspoken in his criticism of the current superstars of the photography world and has a particular lack of regard for fashion photography. He has gone so far as to come up with a term, 'fartster,' (first introduced in his article "Dr. Duane's Infernal Tongue and Cheeky Journal," published in the magazine 21) to describe "one who confuses fashion with art..." The word, both ridiculous and biting, plays with the idea that society has been transfixed for too long with the shallow pretenses of celebrity and personality. "Herb Ritts is a fartster, the Boston Museum is a fartster. ~ James A. Cotter, from his article on Duane Michals

I just knew that there was something more than what was visually depicted that I liked about Duane Michals.