civilized ku # 127 ~ A SURVEY

Rowers and bridge on the Schuylkill River ~ Philadelphia, PA. • click to embiggenThe nominal reason that the wife and I were in Philadelphia / South Jersey over the weekend was to watch college-boy compete in the Frostbite Regatta. Although it must be said that with coma-girl in college in Philly, the wife's family cluster just over the river in Merchantville, NJ, and a very good friend of mine who just moved to Philly, the excuses needed to travel there are many.

A SURVEY: I am very curious to know 2 things about you, The Landscapist visitor. Your responses will be a factor in how this blog evolves, so please respond.

1) a.Where are you on your picturing making journey? and, b. What do you most want to learn / discuss photography-wise at this point in your journey?

2) At this point, what keeps you coming back to the Landscapist?

As I mentioned a little while back, I am feeling that "everything has been said" or, at least, everything I have to say has been said. Now, I don't mean that literally, but most of time, judging by the number of comments, I don't have any idea whether I am striking a chord - word-wise, picture-wise - with visitors or not.

The reason that I am wondering about this is because one of the primary reasons I started and continued with this blog for the past couple years is because I was thinking out loud / talking to myself in order to clarify some of my thoughts and ideas about the medium of photography. Now, I'm not going to don a flight suit, stand on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declare, "Mission accomplished", but I am feeling that, for me, much has been resolved.

Consequently, these words have been on my mind:

Philosophy can forsake too easily the details of experience… many writers and painters - and photographers, I might add - have demonstrated that thinking long about what art is or ought to be ruins the power to write or paint. (or photograph) - Robert Adams

That said, I don't feel in any way that my power for picture making is anywhere near to being "ruined". However, I do feel that I need to move onto the next stage in all of this. That stage definitely includes continuing this blog - because of where I live, it's virtually (pun intended) my only contact on a regular basis with the "outside world" of photography - and continuing to make pictures pretty much as I have been (subject, style, vision). But ... I absolutely feel that the time has come to do something public (non-virtual) with my pictures.

In order to do that, I must spend a considerable amount of time editing my pictures and organizing them into coherent / focused bodies of work. At the same time, and here's the part that doesn't come easily / naturally to me, I have to start schlepping, backed with a heaping helping of chutzpa, my pictures to galleries and publishers.

Ugh.

The only way I am going to make this work is to start by making POD books of my edited work. I do enjoy doing that so hopefully the process will be more fun and ugh.

civilized ku # 126 ~ more fall foliage forever

A carpet of yellow leaves on City Line Ave. ~ Philadelphia, PA. • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 124-25 ~ fall foliage forever

Looking left and right on City Line Ave. ~ Philadelphia, PA. • click to embiggenOne of the "features" of our recent travels has been that of following the fall foliage. We lost most of our leaves about a month ago although even around here, depending upon elevation, there is a transitional factor at work - higher elevations lose leaves first, lower elevations last.

3 weekends ago, the trees were in fine color 75 miles south of us during our day-trip to Saratoga Springs. 2 weekends ago in Montreal there was still a healthy amount of fall foliage still in evidence. Even though Montreal is north of us, it's much more temperate - not only at a lower elevation but it also has the tempering effect of the St. Lawrence River.

This past weekend in Philadelphia, most trees were sporting quite a display of color and, as I was picturing some of it, I came to the realization that in many ways I like fall foliage in city environs at least as much if not more so than I do in the mountains of the Adirondacks. In fact, it is rather amazing how much trees (at any time of the year) in a city transform the urban landscape.

The unfortunate aspect of that equation is that trees are usually only found in neighborhoods that are higher up on the personal income scale. And make no mistake about, the City Line Ave. neighborhood pictured here is well into the upper income register. FYI, I found myself in this neighborhood while visiting coma girl in her student-housing apartment (Saint Joseph's University).

In any event, it's kinda weird having a rolling / extended fall foliage season as we travel about the NE region.

civilized ku # 123 ~ empty space filled with details

Recently vacated parking spot ~ Philadelphia, Pa. • click to embiggenLast weekend it was Montreal. This weekend it was Philadelphia / South New Jersey. Later this week, it's NYC (for the opening of Aaron's show). I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round that won't stop.

In any event, everywhere I go, there I am and with cameras at the ready, there's always something to grab the eye.

A picture should draw you on to admire it, not show you everything at a glance. After a satisfactory general effect, beauty after beauty should unfold itself, and they should not all shout at once . . . This quality [mystery] has never been so much appreciated in photography as it deserved. The object seems to have been always to tell all you know.. This is a great mistake. Tell everything to your lawyer, your doctor, and your photographer (especially your defects when you have your portrait taken, that the sympathetic photographer may have a chance of dealing with them), but never to your critic. He much prefers to judge whether that is a boathouse in the shadow of the trees, or only a shepherd's hut. We all like to have a bit left for our imagination to play with. Photography would have been settled a fine art long ago if we had not, in more ways than one, gone so much into detail. We have always been too proud of the detail of our work and the ordinary detail of our processes. - Henry Peach Robinson

IMO, the ability of the medium of photography to capture details is a big part of what it's all about. The medium's ability to do so is so much a part of its intrinsic and inimitable relationship with the real. But, that said, if your pictures are all about the details, maybe you should consider a career in CAD (computer aided design).

civilized ku # 122 ~ two people walking

Signs - Deux Cotes et Arret • Montreal, CA. • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 121 ~ 3 red rectangles

Camion $20.00 • Montreal, CA. • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 120 ~ it ain't what you eat, it's the way how you chew it

Reflected light • click to embiggenOn yesterday's entry, Mark Meyer parried my basic premise (and most of my past stuff as well) with the idea of "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics" who managed to "get it (art & beauty) right" and that most of my critical approach is based on the idea that "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics" got it wrong.

Well, I must admit that Mark is part right. When it comes to the medium of photography, I do think that "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics" have got it wrong.

Why? Let's start with this (sorry Mark, another quote):

Let us first say what photography is not. A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality ... ~ Bernice Abbott

It always amuses me (when it doesn't annoy me) that so many practitioners of the act of picture making seem to think that photography is basically painting done with a machine. Their aesthetics come straight from the school of "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics". They faithfully mimics both their ideas and ideals.

[CAVEAT let me once again be clear on this point - if your muse is predisposed to head in the direction of "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics", have at it. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Be the best that you can be. My thoughts on the matter should not give you one single moment's pause].

However, my ideas about the possibilities of medium of photography go far beyond that of pursuing /picturing "ideals". The single paradigm-changing (art-wise) characteristic of the medium of photography is its intrinsic and inimitable relationship with the real. Not idealized forms, but rather, the real.

Language (and photography is a visual language) is said to be composed of 2 inseparable parts, words and the manner in which words are used to communicate ideas, AKA, Content (words) and Form (the way the words are used).

The visual language of photography is no different. It utilizes Content (the subject of the camera's gaze) and Form (the manner in which the content is pictured and presented) in order to communicate ideas and meanings.

It goes without saying that in either case - the spoken/written word and visual language - how you "say it" goes a long way in determining / influencing how the idea(s) and meaning(s) you wish to express are received and understood. So, Content must be mated to the appropriate Form in order to effectively communicate the author's intent.

That is why so many current (and a fair number of previous) practitioners of the act of making pictures (photography-wise) who are interested in pursuing the possibilities of the medium with respect to the real, utilize distinctly different types of Form from those "neoclassicists looking back to Aristotle's Poetics" utilize.

Many current practitioners believe that a "new" type of Content - the real - demands a "new" type of Form in order to communicate their ideas and meanings.

So, IMO, it's not so much that the ancient Greeks got it "wrong" as it is that they simply weren't photographers.

Let me close with this:

... The assumption that (Ansel) Adams and his kind are the only "real" photographers usually indicates an aversion to the dissonant and playful spirit of modern art ... - John Rosenthal

civilized ku # 119 ~ public square

Soaring monument and monumental edifice • Montreal, CA • click to embiggen