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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 March 1, 2010 - March 31, 2010

Wednesday
Mar312010

ku # 699 ~ it's hard to get by the stink

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Flat top boulder ~ in the NE Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Pursuant to yesterday's entry about struggling to break out of the pretty picture mold picture makers, it is well worth directing added attention to the notion of the application of craft in making your vision viable and visible.

That's because one of the other things that I have noticed about those frustrated picture makers is that their pictures have a very noticeable lack of craft. Even on a computer monitor, the pictures have the look of "drugstore" prints - a derisive term that comes from back in the day when most amateur snapshot makers took their film to a neighborhood drugstore for "photo finishing". Photo finishing that was, at best, mediocre - as compared to what could be had from the same film in the hands of a skilled "custom" (read as "expensive") print maker.

An aside - in a somewhat ironic twist, in today's digital picture printing world, if you know what you are doing, digital-domain processing wise, you can take your files to a drugstore and get back prints that are quite literally, with just the push of a button, very very very close in print quality to those obtained from a very expensive professional printing source.

That said, here's the thing about a finely crafted print - if your prints look like horse manure - which is to say that they are not objects of beauty in and of themselves (independent of their referent) - then it follows that very few viewers, if any at all, are going to even make it to the point of getting to your "vision" / what you are trying to say.

That notion is not a radical one. It's been a known fact since round about the dawn of humankind that you can attract more bees with honey than you can with horse manure.

If, as a picture maker, you can not make a finely crafted print - or, more to the point, a finely crafted image file that you can route to a good print making machine and get a good print - then chances are good that you'll never be a good picture maker.

If, as a picture maker, you do not acquire the skills and make the effort to make good prints - as opposed to being satisfied with viewing your pictures on a monitor - then chances are good that you'll never be a good picture maker.

If, as a picture maker, you don't have a clue as to what a finely crafted print looks like, then chances are good that you'll never be a good picture maker.

IMO, a finely crafted print is the foundation upon which good pictures are grounded. In a metaphorical sense, a finely crafted print is like a carnival barker who gets you into the tent where you can discover a wealth of earthly oddities and delights. And heaven help the carnival barker who is piling shit so high that you can't even get near the place for the stink much less even see the door to the tent.

Wednesday
Mar312010

ku # 698 ~ rain drops

Like much of the east coast we've had 5 straight days of rain. For the most part, it has been just a steady rain as opposed to torrential downpours.

Consequently, even thought the rivers are raging, they are moving right along below flood stage and little if any flooding is predicted. The rain is predicted to end this PM and the next few days are forecast to be quite warm and sunny.

FYI, while I was out picturing in yesterday's rather heavy rain, I used the E-3 - and all of its weather sealed-ness - instead of the EP-1.

Tuesday
Mar302010

civilized ku # 451 ~ vehicle

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Suzuki SX4, AKA - FIAT Sedici • click to embiggen
Last Friday I mentioned that was on my to pick up a new car which caused Dennis Allshouse (no link provided) to ask, "Can't be that Fiat 850, can it?"

No doubt Dennis was remembering my tuscany # 32-36 ~ vroom, vrooom entry wherein I made public my lust for a FIAT 500C, a car which will not be available in the US until late 2010/early 2011. However, our "new" car, if we had purchased it in Italy, would, in fact, be a FIAT Sedici. Here in the good 'ole US of America, it's a Suzuki SX4 - the car is a joint venture between Suzuki (the mechanicals) and FIAT (the design via Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign Studio).

The "new" car is almost the exact same car that we purchased new 1 year ago. We purchased it then as a more fuel efficient AWD (the most fuel efficient AWD in the US of America) replacement for our Subaru Impreza. The Suzuki was everything we hoped it would be and more - 28 mpg average in all around driving, solid as a rock, and trouble free / ultra dependable.

Our only regret, actually my only regret since I drive the Suzuki much more than the wife does, was that we did not get the option package with bluetooth, cruise control, and fog lights - fog lights really do come in handy up here in the mountains. That, and a 6-speed manual transmission would be better than the 5-speed manual that was available at the time. Well, the 2010 SX4 comes with a 6-speed and a retuned engined with 10 more HP, both of which combined yield a quicker and even more fuel efficient car - up 3 mpg more efficient.

So, just for the hell of it, I went to the dealer to find out how much $$$ it might take to trade in the "old" car (18,000 miles on the clock) for a new one (+ fog lights, heated outside mirrors, and bluetooth). As it turned out - with our payment rising by $1/month for the same length loan - it took exactly $0.00US to make the swap. We even got a 1.9% APR.

The deal was simple - just bring in the "old" car, give them the keys, sign the papers, get the new keys, and drive away. So, that's what I did.

Tuesday
Mar302010

civilized ku # 450 ~ tunnel vision, redux

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Inside the covered bridge ~ in the Adirondack PARK - Jay, NY • click to embiggen
Last week I posted a picture, similar to this one, in civilized ku # 443.

I used that picture for that post because it suited the title, "tunnel vision" rather well. However, I much prefer this version.

Tuesday
Mar302010

ku # 697 ~ vernal water & ice

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Vernal water and ice ~ in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Something I have noticed as the result of viewing lots and lots of the pictures made by others - "others", in this particular case, being those picture makers who seem to be attempting to get away from the ubiquitous pretty picture / iconic referent picture making mentality - is that many of them struggle to do so rather vigorously but without a great degree of success. I draw this conclusion from both their own stated frustration / dissatisfaction and the generally not-very-interesting look and feel of their pictures.

Their own directly stated frustration / dissatisfaction is an obvious indicator that they are not achieving their picture making goals. I assume that their frustration / dissatisfaction is derived from the fact that, when viewing their own pictures, they also find them to be not-very-interesting, look and feel wise - a feeling that must be very frustrating indeed.

What I have often wondered about is if, with the proper guidance and tutelage, some of these frustrated picture makers might come closer to achieving their picture making goals. To be even more specific, wondering wise, I have often wondered if I could teach some of them what I know about picture making.

By that I mean, I know I can successfully teach stuff - especially the camera / PS processing stuff, but I don't know if I can teach what, for me (and I know many others as well), is the key to my picture making - the fine-tuned art of seeing, or, as I stated a few entries ago -

I do know my eye is attracted to a rather specific range of visual stimuli which, if pictured and presented with some sensitivity, skill, and application of craft, will result in pictures that I enjoy looking at. I also know that others will enjoy looking at those pictures as well.

I simply do not know if that concept is even teachable because, after all is said and done, the simple fact is that no one taught it to me.

And, truth be told, that concept is woven and layered over with a lifetime of experience - both in identifying and understanding my personal and "rather specific range of visual stimuli", as well as honing and perfecting the "application of craft" that makes my vision viable and visible.

All of that said, I am about to attempt to bring my can-it-be-taught wondering daze/days to a close by offering a limited number of Picturing Making Chautauqua* - small get-togethers (limited to 4 participants each) centered around the concept / art of seeing and, ultimately, through the application of craft, developing (pun) the ability to make it visible.

There will be much more on this to come in the next week or so but one thing that you can count on is that these Chautauqua will not resemble in the least the 20 mule team gearhead rabbles roaming around the countryside being lead by the nose to much-"treasured" iconic landscape scenes for the purpose of making yet another "personal interpretation" of the already known.

Another thing you can count on is that, in the spirit of the original Chautauqua, the cost of entry will be low. Most likely $250US for a 3 day event - I'm not doing this to get rich or make a living, I'm just trying to scratch an itch, wet my beak, and, hopefully, have some fun.

FYI, any participant who states that their goal is to make pictures just like mine will have to sit in the corner on a stool, back to the room, wearing a dunce cap while sucking their thumb.

*a Chautauqua - Chautauqua is an institution that began in the late 19th century - Chautauqua is also a lake, a county, and a town in southwestern New York—home of the Chautauqua Institution - to provide higher education opportunities through the combination of lectures, concerts, and public events. The institution grew from the early-American thirst for self-improvement and education.

A Chautauqua has come to mean a meeting, usually held in the summer, where the public could attend a lecture or performance.

Monday
Mar292010

civilized ku # 449 ~ My world - And welcome to it

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Onion and garlic • click to embiggen
A week or so ago I bumped into a friend / photographer/ my blog reader who, amongst other things, beseeched me to stop making pictures in and around my kitchen sink / counter. Needless to say, I made no promises.

My kitchen sink and counter have been very fertile ground for my picture making. Not by intention, inasmuch as my MO for picture making is to picture what I see no matter what or where I find it. Kind of like Adam Bartos expresses it:

“I don’t try to make pictures that refer directly to anything I have in mind, except in the way of self-editing a group already begun - or deciding where to go. When I’m photographing, I’m responding to what things look like, which is always different than what’s already in your head, even if you’ve managed to find what you were looking for.”

Quite obviously, one of my self-edited groups is my kitchen sink & counter stuff. My feelings about it are not unlike those of Steve Pyke's feelings about his space:

“The physical space I inhabit with people has always been interesting. There’s a reason I like to work in this space, it is very intimate ..... [I]t’s the space where usually we only allow loved ones. It’s a place to respect.”

I could probably wax poetic or obtuse, depending upon your POV, about my kitchen sink & counter stuff - both the self-edited group and its individual components - but, hey, that's not my job. My job is making pictures. It's the viewer's job to wax poetically or to wane witheringly regarding my pictures and I suspect the direction the viewer takes in that regard is based upon either "getting it" or not.

On a purely visual level relative to my kitchen sink & counter stuff, either your head is attuned to a picture's 2-dimensional organization of space (and its attendant visual energy) and the tension created by the framing or it's not. Both the organization of space, visual energy, and tension are created by relationships amongst shapes, color, and space that are independent of the specific referent pictured. That is to say that, when I look at a picture, I first see it as an "abstract" - much like the pure shapes, space, and colors of an abstract painting.

On the level of the referent to be seen and the connoted to be found in my kitchen sink & counter stuff, once again, I suspect that either your head is attuned to possibilities and the joys of plain seeing or it's not.

If it's not, oh well. If it is, it's kind of like My World - And Welcome To It ~ James Thurber and, like all good art, it can be a transformative experience that helps one make the leap from the specific to the the universal.

Monday
Mar292010

ku # 696 ~ Spring melt

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River eddy ~ East Branch Au Sable River - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Monday
Mar292010

ku # 695 ~ ice

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River ice ~ Au Sable River - in the Adirondack PARK• click to embiggen
On a recent entry Martin Doonan asked, "I wonder what happened to all those ice floes from back in the winter?

Fortunately, it seems most of the early break-up ice froze into huge ice fields which, when the real Sprint melt came, were too big to move. By the time they melted back into ice chunks, the rivers had receded to lower levels so the ice just sits and slowly melts away.