(un)civilized ku # 1 ~ Black Friday

A Black Friday feeling • click to embiggenBlack Friday, for those of you not in the US of A, is the annual post-turkeyday bacchanal that kicks off the Xmas shopping season in frenetic style.

It's difficult for me to accept, but zillions of my fellow citizens set their alarms for 2-3 AM so that they could beat feet to the nearest mall/store to stand in line for a 4-5 AM opening. All in the name of getting first shot at 'door-buster' bargains (only until 7 AM). Many have scouted the store days in advance so that, the moment the doors open, they can bolt directly to the most desirable object in the world of their choice. After all, there are only a 'limited' number of 'specials' to be had.

IMO, this no longer can be called 'shopping'. It's a sport - competition of the highest order. I have known Olympic athletes who spend less time, effort, and focus on their sport than these so-called bargain hunters do.

Me? No way. Today, I'll be at least 30 miles from the nearest frenzy center. None of that-stand-in line, spend-and-get nonsense for me. No sir. I plan on spending a quiet day at home in front of a warm fire and my computer screen searching for a good deal on that new Olympus E-3

FYI - that's 'The Biggest Toy Store In The World' - the NYC Times Square ToysRUs - in the righthand photo. It's a paragon of shopping run amok on just about any day of the year. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like today.

civilized ku # 64 ~ before and after

Before and after • click to embiggenIn more ways than one, it's sort of like the quiet before the storm. Thanksgiving day in the USA.

Today it's eat 'til you burst. Tomorrow it's 5 AM door busters - shop 'til you drop.

FYI, before by Mark, after by Aaron.

urban ku # 137 ~ a pre-hanging event

Nature's bounty • click to embiggenI went out today to try and shoot a turkey but had no luck so I shot this deer instead. Turkeys are not considered to be amongst nature's brightest but they do prove to be, at least during hunting season, very elusive game.

Turkeys, unlike deer, are blessed with very keen eyesight which is certainly partly responsible for their ability to remain unshot. It is also totally responsible for the adage amongst hunters that goes something like, "When a deer sees a camouflaged hunter, it sees a stump. When a turkey sees a camouflaged hunter, it sees a stump with a rifle."

Of course, the shoot/shot I am referring to is of the picturing variety. Not that that should be construed as any kind of anti-hunting sentiment because I don't have any problem with hunting within the rules.

In any event, even if I did have a problem with it, the hunting harvest is pretty hard to ignore in my little part of the planet. Our local 'dive' bar, 20 Main - a place where you will see some skanky people and may be served a skunky beer - sponsors a deer-hunting contest. I don't know all the conditions for victory but one of them involves weight. I know this because right there on Main Street, right next to the front door of the place, is a hanging weigh-scale and, at any given hour of the day or night during the season, the latest kill is on prominent display.

It adds are real touch of reality and class to a trip to the bank, the theater, the hardware, the grocery, the tanning salon, and Sandy's Hair Hut. I am not aware of anyone caring all that much about the display. It's just a part of life 'round these here parts.

Update on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 07:09PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Don wrote; "You have captured the perfect picture of stereo typing of us north country folks. A dead buck in the back of a 4WD pick-up of a volunteer firemen with two Jeff Gordon stickers and one sticker permit to hunt terrorists...........it says it all."

my response - need I write any more about 'truth' in photography?

FYI check out James Robinson's post-hanging event in the Wildness Close to Home gallery

ku # 493-95 ~ a frenzy

Mini-worlds unto themselves • click to embiggenYesterday I went out on a mission, photography-wise - I have been a bit under the influence of a 'quarry' fever of sorts ever since seeing Burtynsky's Quarries exhibit in NYC.

For a number of years, I have been promising myself to stop in for visit to our local quarry with the intention of seeking permission to do some picturing. The quarry itself is rather invisible. It can only be seen from the air or from one of the trail-less nearby peaks. And, even though I can walk to the quarry - it's that close - I have never gotten around to visiting it.

Unfortunately for me and my picturing desires, I discovered that the quarry is off-limits for photographers - an unwavering directive from the home office in Minnesota. The local onsite office wouldn't even give me the name of the company. Their position was simply, "No chance. Forget it. End of discussion. Here's your hat. What's the hurry?"

So, I moved on and, much to my delight, I found a 100 yard stretch of nearby road that sent me into a picturing frenzy. In little more than 20-30 minutes I created 15 'keepers'. It seemed like everywhere I looked something was screaming, "take me, take me".

It was wet and cold but the wet-ness saturated everything and, even though it was a grey dreary day, the colors were deep and rich. No need to use the H/S slider at all, nature was just doing its thing.

ku # 492 ~ I Luv NY, pt. 2

Stump with orange fungus • click to embiggenRe: complexity, James wrote about I Luv NY (pt.1 - the previous entry) that simplifying it would be "...removing the entire experience of exploring this place visually over time through the artist."

He also wrote; "...Isn't it interesting to pay attention to how your eye moves from one area to the next and how even that can change your experience or the "subject" as you uncover details? The more of this the better as far as I am concerned...I also think the real challenge is showing more and still making it feel like less...

Both of these statements are great observations, but I think his last statement is best - "I prefer to focus on the story that unfolds as you spend time with the work itself. A certain level of complexity allows for this I think and moves us away from the quick "wow factor" that we've come to demand and then just as quickly forget about."

And, in answer to his question - "It also respects your audience just a bit more, don't you think?", all I can give is resounding "yes".

Thanks, James.

civilized ku # 63 ~ I Luv NY

NYC - the view, lower and upper Manhattan, from E 4th St. • click to embiggenThere is just something about 'pure' urban landscapes that I love. I'm pretty certain that it's the crazy-quilt 'mathematical' patterns of line and form that dominate a 'packed' urban landscape. Which, when I think about it, is very similar to what I like about my natural world landscapes as well - the crazy-quilt patterns of nature, although, in nature's case, less 'mathematical' and way more chaotic.

In either case, it's the complexity, which stands opposed to the conventional photo-wisdom of 'simplify', that I like. And, I suspect that it that complexity, which doesn't seem to have an obvious or easily identified 'subject', that oftens causes difficulty for some viewers - they usually want to know/ask what the picture is 'about'.

It's worth mentioning that that question - what's it about/what's the suject - is most often encountered on photo forums, i.e. from photographers, and far less (if at all) from the 'general' or 'non-photographer' public. Although, it's also worth mentioning that there is a similar divide in the photographer ranks along the lines of fine Art photographers and camera-clubists.

In both cases, I believe the difference is between those who cling to the 'rules' and those who don't, or, in the case of the general non-photographer public, those who don't even know about the 'rules'. Or, put another way, those who care more about how a picture makes them 'feel' than how the picture 'looks'.

Not that the two aren't connected, because they are - how a picture looks can greatly effect how how it makes you feel. It's just seems that some let how a picture looks stand in the way of connecting to its 'feel'.

All of which brings me to this point - I think one of the best prescriptions for taking/making good pictures came from the pen of Brooks Jensen of LensWork;

Real photography begins when we let go of what we have been told is a good photograph and start photographing what we see."

urban ku # 136 ~ it's back

Winter delights • click to embiggenMy two favorite winter pastimes are back. One is winter itself.

The other is luge.

If I could, I would be sliding everyday. As it is, I am limited this winter to sliding every Saturday evening and, as far as I know there will be no competitions. This means that I will not be able to improve upon my back-to-back silver medals from two prior season ending regional competitions. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with the adrenalin rush and shaving a couple thousandths of a second off of my run times every week.

These pictures are from earlier today. Yesterday and today was the FLI World Cup Luge season opener - the top luge sliders in the world, men, women and doubles, compete in this World Cup event. Only the top luge sliders in the world are in this event.

Coasting to a stop • click to embiggenThe winner of the men's event, Italy's Armin Zoggeler, is pictured (on the left) coasting to a stop on the uphill straight after crossing the finish line. It takes quite a stretch for gravity to slow these guys down from speeds of up to 85 mph. Zoggeler set a new track record while recording his 37th WC victory.

Hugo was fascinated by the whole deal. He's ready to start "when I get a little bigger" and he set a goal of 'going fast like a motorcycle". That will be no problem at all.

civilized ku # 62 ~ fiction?

Neighborhood bar - Pittsburgh, PA • click to embiggenThe literary critic and academic Frank Kermode has stated that "... fiction calls for conditional assent and fiction, if successful, makes sense of the here and now." - a notion with which I wholeheartedly concur.

Many photographers use the medium's 'reality effect' to great advantage when creating 'picture fictions'. Jeff Wall is an obvious example as is Aaron Hobson and his Cinemascapes. The 'staged' events come across as 'real'. In some cases they may seem improbable and even though we know that the pictures may have taken months of planning, there is no denying their apparent veracity. They have the look and feel of a HCB 'decisive moment'.

For me, part of the appeal of these 'fictions' is the fact that they use with the medium's reality effect to play with the idea of photographic truth. The obvious message is simply that you can't 'believe' everything you see, picture-wise. But a more subtle 'message' for me is that the pictured staged event is a true representation of that event. My brain bounces back and forth between what I know to be 'true' - it's a staged event - and the apparent, implied, conveyed or imagined 'truth' of the picture which, of course, is a fiction. When all is said and done, inevitably, I give myself over to the imagined truth and it is that 'reality' that I carry away with me.

I will go to my grave believing that photographs can be 'true'. One last example of that and I'll drop the subject - many who viewed my pictures of Maggie in the ICU found them to be disturbing and very upsetting. Some, knowing that they were online, refused to view them.

Now, even though many would claim that they are 'subjective' and 'not truth', most viewed them as exceedingly 'real' both literally and in what they conveyed or implied beyond the merely visual. The pictures were not particularly gory but their connoted meaning was too true for many to handle - the truth about human frailty, the truth about the fear of serious illness and disease, the truth about the specter of death, the truth about the loss of loved ones.

I didn't photograph any of those things. I pictured Maggie in the ICU. Even if one considers the pictures to incomplete or inadequate representations the real world, the 'reality effect' of the medium was able to convey 'truths' about the human condition - some truths so real to those who did view the pictures that they cried or turned away.

PS In an interesting aside, Maggie, who has no memory of the ICU - she was in a coma - was very fascinated by the pictures. They made the event 'real' for her. She now uses one the pictures for her MySpace page and she has taken to calling herself 'coma-girl'.