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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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    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 October 1, 2015 - October 31, 2015

Friday
Oct302015

ku # 1358-64 ~ 1/5 sec • the big finish

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erratic ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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small stream riffle ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #9 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #10 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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stream side scrub ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #11 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #12 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

You may have noticed that in each of 4 1/5 sec. entries the first picture was something of an outlier. That is, they are not quite in keeping the predominate referential theme of detritus / scrub / tangle.

With the exception of the 40 MPH / Curve picture in the first entry, those outliers will not be included in the final edit. The 40 MPH / Curve picture is the exception because it will be used as the cover to the 1/5 sec. POD book in as much as that picture establishes the roadside aspect of the body of work.

In any event, I am diligently editing all of the 1/5 sec. down to a 20 picture body of work. I'll be posting the final edit next Monday.

FYI, I am somewhat intrigued with the concept of making more fraction-of-a-second bodies of work. Enough so that I will be deciding on another referent theme which I will pursue in a single picture making outing.
Friday
Oct302015

ku # 1357 (with a bit of civilized ku) ~ dancing (with my cameras) in the rain

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stable, mountains / rain ~ near Clintonville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Just a quick morning picture treat before the last installment of 1/5 sec. in my life memorialized (later this AM).

Thursday
Oct292015

ku # 1350-56 ~ installment # 3

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old stone abutment ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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birch cluster ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #7 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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stream side tangle #2 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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yellow birch leaves ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #8 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tree ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Quite obviously the medium of photography, its apparatus and its vernacular afford the picture maker with the means for the making of a wide range of artistic expression. However, as any long time follower of The Landscapist knows, I am a fervent and committed devotee of straight picture making, aka: the making of pictures which present an accurate and true - as much as the medium and its apparatus allow - representation of what is.

On that idea, John Szarkowski wrote:

The first thing that photographer learned was that photography dealt with the actual; he had not only to accept this fact, but to treasure it; unless he did, photography would defeat him. He learned that the world itself is an artist of incomparable inventiveness, and that to recognize its best works and moments, to anticipate them, to clarify them and make them permanent, requires intelligence both acute and supple.

But he learned also that the factuality of his pictures, no matter how convincing and unarguable, was a different thing that the reality itself .... [T]he subject and the picture were not the same thing, although they would afterwards seem so. It was the photographer's problem to see not simply the reality before him but the still invisible picture, and to make his choices in terms of the latter.

In so writing, it seems to me that Szarkowski has provided me with a hint to the resolution of my conundrum of being more attracted to the picture of referent than to the referent itself. To wit ....

.... it has been opined that a picture maker, in his/her act of selection, makes a picture which draws attention to the selected referent and in doing so elevates / memorializes that referent as an thing worthy of attention. In many cases, simply making visible that which, while looked at, is seldom looked into.

But of course, the referent which the picture maker has deemed worthy of attention / memorializing, the thing itself, is not the same thing as the picture made of it. The picture is, in fact, a thing in and of itself, in many cases worthy of attention and consideration based upon the merits of its visual appearance and presentation - I am referring, of course, to the thing in and of itself known as a print (if you're not making prints, what's the point?).

Consequently, I have come to the realization that the attention, interest, appreciation and admiration I give to my pictures is related to the object (the print) in and of itself and to the object / referent from which it derives. That is so inasmuch as the beauty I have extracted / memorialized from the reality of the object depicted is made manifest / realized in its representation. The referent and its representation are inexorably linked and both are worthy of attention, interest, appreciation and admiration. Although, each for reasons unique to the things themselves.
Thursday
Oct292015

ku # 1350 / triptych # / 26 / diptych # 176 / ~ a brief interlude

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Canadian corn stalks ~ on the road to Montreal , QC • click to embiggen
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dining & imbibing establishments ~ Lake Placid, NY / Old Montreal, QC • click to embiggen
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light around the house ~Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

While I'm working on my next 1/5 second entry (for later today), I am posting this entry of back logged pictures made over the past week.

The pictures in the triptych - dining & imbibing establishments - were made over a 24 hr. period last Wednesday / Thursday. L-R: our Anniversary dinner at Interlaken in Lake Placid / killing time in the bar at Auberge Du Vieux-Port, Old Montreal / dinner at Stash Cafe with my good friend from Philadelphia, Old Montreal.
Tuesday
Oct272015

civilized ku # 2994 / ku # 1344-49 ~ momentary patterns

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2 barns ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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bridge rust #1 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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bridge rust #2 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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water, leaves, grasses ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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stream side tangle #5 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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fungus on birch ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #6 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

In yesterday's entry I wrote referred to part of Teju Cole's definition of photography: the selection, out of the flow of time, of a moment to be preserved. A process about which John Szarkowski wrote that, "Immobilizing these thin slices of time has been a continuing source of fascination for the photographer."

Both of those words and ideas from differing authors speak directly and forcefully to me regarding my continuing source of fascination with picture making. However, Szarkowski went on the write about a concept with which I have been pondering / confronting regarding my picture making:

.... while pursuing this experiment he discovered something else: he discovered that there was a pleasure and a beauty in the fragmenting of time that had little to do what was happening. It had to do with with seeing the momentary patterns of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement.

I have been pondering / confronting because I been troubled / confounded by the fact that in my picture making I am much more attracted to my pictures of various referents than I am by the referents themselves ("what was happening").

That is to write that if, as I believe, beauty and pleasure can be found in the mundane, the trivial or what some might label as the banal aspect of everyday life, why is it that that I do not, upon seeing "the momentary patterns of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement", sit and ponder the reality of that which is right there in front of me?

Why is it that the picture I make of that reality holds my attention, interest, appreciation and admiration more than the thing itself? Or, so it seems.

To be certain, I live where I live by desire, intent and design. That fact is due to the fact that I truly and deeply love the place called the Adirondacks: an emotional trait instilled in me early in my childhood - as well as my love and appreciation of the nature world in general - as a result of the experience of summers spent in this place. So, it is fair to say that I picture this place because I appreciate and "admire" it. It is, by no stretch of the imagination, not merely a place which is a target rich environment for picture making.

As I continue to post more pictures from my 1/5 of a second experience, I will also continue to ponder and confront the relationship between my reality and the pictures I make of it.
Monday
Oct262015

ku # 1337-43 ~ 1/5 sec. in my life

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40 MPH/ Curve ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #1 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #2 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #3 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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roadside tangle #4 ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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leaves on ground ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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decaying stump ~ Black Brook, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

Over this weekend past I uncharacteristically went out and about with the sole intention of making pictures - as opposed to my normal M.O. of going out and about on some errand or another with my cameras and picturing whatever, if anything, that pricks my eye and sensibilities.

Also uncharacteristically I went out and about with the intention to make pictures of a specific nature (pun alert). My intent was to make pictures of fall detritus which is at peak season inasmuch as there will be nothing but bare trees in very short order. So off I went with a specific destination and intent in mind. Approximately 90 minutes and 40 pictures later - subsequently edited to 28 finals - I called it mission accomplished and headed home.

FYI, while picture making I followed Edward Weston's dictum that “Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.” Although in my particular case, I didn't venture more 10 yards from the car.

While editing / processing the picture, it came to me that, while I was out in field for approximately 90 minutes, the actual time spent making pictures was about 1/5 of a second. I arrived at that figure by adding together all of the various shutter speed settings used in making the 28 finals. The reason, as best I can determine, for that somewhat arcane idea / exercise most likely was instigated by something I had read in the last week or so ....

.... When asked by someone at a dinner party to define photography, Teju Cole (photography critic / NY Times Magazine) said:

Photography is inescapably a memorial art. It selects, out of the flow of time, a moment to be preserved, with the moments before and after falling away like sheer cliffs.

Consequently, I am organizing my final pictures into a new body of work with the title 1/5 of a second of my life memorialized.

FYI, over the next week I will be posting 5-6 pictures a day from my fall detritus picture making outing.
Thursday
Oct222015

diptych # 174-75 ~ end of the line

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highway retainer wall ~ Keene, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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Lake Champlain ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

I am approaching the end of the line, fall color picture wise. There are way more leaves on the ground than in the trees at this point so autumnal color is very much on the wane. However, the on-the-ground detritus of autumnal color is a thing that really pricks my eye and sensibilities. So, I'll be out and about looking for and picturing evidence of post autumnal color detritus and decay.
Wednesday
Oct212015

civilized ku # 2992-93 / ku # 1336 ~ cold beer / hot cider

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pig ~ Wadhams, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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bonfire ~ Wadhams, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
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approaching cloud bank ~ Wadhams, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen

This weekend past The Cinemascapist, the wife and I attended the Juniper Hill Farm Fall Frolic in Wadhams (in the Adirondack PARK). Although, the event could have been more accurately called the Juniper Hill Farm Winter Preview Frolic inasmuch as it was COLD, COLD, COLD. And, truth be written, there wasn't much frolicking going on. Most were huddled around a large bonfire in an effort to ward off the frigid cold which was exacerbated by a strong cold wind.

That written, the food was great and most certainly a good time was had by all. I resisted the temptation to pour the delicious hot cider down my pants for warmth. And needless to write, drinking cold - very cold - beer didn't seem like a good thing to do (so I didn't).

The wife and I left just before dark. The Cinemascapist stayed on long into the night - the party moved to an unheated barn which was at least a shelter from the wind - and slept that night in his car.