Mirrors & Windows

I am currently reading my annotated copy of Mirrors & Windows, American Photograph since 1960 by John Szarkowski. Which discusses aspects of photography in the 1950’s which influence if not set the stage for contemporary photography in the 1970’s (book published in 1978). In retrospect, my habit of making a bunch of notes both in pencil and ink on a first edition book may not be very laudable.

Subtlety assessment

As I continued to chew on this whole subtlety question (and thanks to Paul Butzi to working the question a little deeper), and specifically to how I am developing my photographs for my current series, I tried a little test.

What if I attended my monthly print review, placed five of my new triptychs of this series in front of the group, but only my trial proofs on 13 x 19″ photo paper and provided no additional information, would they get it?? The group has been meeting monthly for over 15 years, half are exhibiting in galleries, so I think that this is sophisticated audience.

Subtlety

I have found myself coming back to the Human/Nature exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and mostly to one image by Bart Michiel made in the present-day of the World War I battlefields near his home in Belgium.

The images have been described as very subtle by the art critic Alice Thorson. Michiel is quoted as he seeks out “happenstance traces and features on the land that refer metaphorically to combat“. In the case of one photo, the tractor tracks cut through a field that “evoke the tanks that rolled through the area during the battle of Verdun”. Yep, I agree, that is subtle.

Richard Kalvar on Photography

In photograph magazine (Sept/Oct 2007), in an article written by Mia Fineman, she has the following quote from Richard Kalvar (Magnum photographer); “I like to play with the relationship between reality and the appreance of reality, which is the photograph. But you have to play by the rules. If not, the tension is lost.”

Olympic inspiration

Watching the Olympics the past couple of days has inspired me to work on my “Business as Usual” series. I have been looking at and editing this body of work for the last four months, but I have been struggling with the thread that pulls it together. I think that I may have found that out, but I still have some further developmental work to do.

So now I have whittled it down to about 100 prints, which are lying on the floor. Also wrote the first draft of the introduction to help pull my thoughts together. Checking my conceptual innovation factor;- )

To futher help with getting some momentum, Alan Wu just sent my “Business as Usaul” chop (traditional characters; Zhou Chyang Ying Yeh) that we had developed together and he had made for me by my favorite stone carver in Shanghai (Pearl City, Third Floor, directly off the stairs). Thanks Alan! My secret ingredient for my Limited Edition folios;- )

Best regards, Doug

Quote of interest

By Lyle Rexer in the May/June 2008 issue of photograph magazine;

“As with identity, so with photography; apperance is a costumed pose, and what lies beneath it can only be implied, never fully revealed“.

Latent Memories

“Brie, France, 1968″ photograph copyright of Henri Cartier-Bresson

During a recent photographic image review on Stills, one landscape image brought up a reference to this photograph above by HCB. It is one of those images that is also similar to another photograph by Brett Weston, that I have always enjoyed. Something about that tree lined road that pulls me in. To be able to walk that road.

Which is probably why I was connecting so much with the tree lined roads in JiaShan and the region South of Shanghai. I know understand that this image was a latent image that I was carrying around and that when I saw the similar roads in China, I resonated like a tuning fork.

This visual/mental connection was enough to get me engaged, I began to look harder and see what it was about where I was standing that continued to connect with me. I went from the head (aha, I know this area from someplace before) to the heart, the emotional thing that was underlying & creating the connection that was now saying, “photograph me!”

Best regards, Doug

Random thoughts – again

I am still reading Joel Meyerowitz’s interview in Cape Light, interesting ideas about photography, seeing, experiencing, color versus black & white, etc. Maybe I will elaborate more, but the one question I have is, that what was written in 1977  relevent today? hmmm.

Julie O’Donnel in a recent article here, made a comment regarding about “a lack of conceptual innovation” as a judgement about her work. Wow, point on for me! Then I read about Meyerowitz’s take a risk, which is easier for an established photographer. I do worry sometimes, I wonder if ‘they’ will get it? And if not, will they judge the effort as being too shallow? Rejection! And so I come back to my (mcuh saner) thoughts that this work is about me ‘getting it’ and okay if others do to. Or not.

Which takes me to yesterday and the photo with this article. Yesterday was graduation day for my granddaughter from Pony School. It was fun, hot and I think I got bitten by something very small. I have a lot of photos of her riding and the such. Fun. Maybe help one of the instructors with getting some camera warrenty work to fix what she thinks is a lemon camera.

But at one point, while waiting during a crayon moment for the class, I started watching a rider in the jump arena. Now you have to know, this is probably my first experience in a horse area. There were some elements that I found interesting, so I shot a number of frames of the rider passing by, framed by the gate, but those photographs just did not connect with me. Then she reversed track and looped around and rode away from me. click. Something connected.

Something more interesting.

Best regards, Doug

And for trivia, this journal recently plowed pass the 30,000 view mark.

Joel Meyerowitz in Focus Magazine

© 2003-2006 Joel Meyerowitz Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.

First, Focus Magazine has continue to improve, which at one time, I thought was going to be a totally impossible feat. So listen to me closely while I eat a portion of fried crow.

Next, there is an interesting extended interview with Joel Meyerowitz, although I can not provide a link to an on-line article, I can give you a link to Joel’s website.

And to publicly admit, I was captivated by his book Cape Light in the mid 1970’s, enough so that even though I was an avid Black & White photographer, there was something about Joel’s large format (8×10) color photographs that really connected with me. I just had to wait until the softcover book came out in 1978 before I could afford to buy it.

I also realized that I had not pulled my copy out of my stacks for many years, thus besides reading the Focus article, I found myself gazing at my copy of Cape Light again. Nice. And I can now recognize some subtles in Joel’s use of composition that must affected me. His work has created a more lasting effect than I had realized.

Joel also has some interesting comments in the Focus article about his willingness to try new things and concepts and it is no big deal to fail (but he already has his major grants, awards and gallery representation!), how important it is to keep your old work in perspective as a building block to where you are today and I think he was one of those who were tagged with the “medative” use of the large format camera, along with Wynn Bullock, Minor White and Paul Copinegro.

Best regards, Doug

Richard Misrach

Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, LA, and Pace/ MacGill Gallery, NY

A brief article about Richard Misrach and some of his current landscape photographs made in Hawaii, was just published in Smithsonian (Augutst 08)

A couple of excepts: So even his picture of a lone couple on a beach can be vaguely unsettling: their isolation underscores their vulnerability, and the photographer’s long-range viewpoint is clearly that of someone watching….he scannned th negatives into a computer, and sometimes digitally removed people, heightening the feeling of isolation.

And Misrach states in the article, the new work is of a piece with his focus on people and the environment, but he says “its much more about our relationships to the bigger sublime picture of things”.

Interesting to find this article while I am working through my thoughts, feelings and landscape photographs that deal with realationships and staring to bring in a human element.

As well as my thinking about digitally altering my photographs to further emphasise a concept. So that gets to the question, am I a documentarian who is showing you what I have found and seen or not? I could see how Misrach’s photographs could be accepted as a form of recorded reality (documentary), but in fact they have been altered. Thus the patterns of people on the beach are a design element that he created to develop his concept and point that he was working on.

Interesting and makes you wonder about some of his earlier environmental work and how much and to what extent those photographs were altered?