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| HT2761 - The Immersive Challenge |
We all have art we love and art that leaves us cold. In thinking about my own responses to artwork, I've come to the conclusion that the artwork I like the most are those pieces that create in me the largest immersive response by pulling me into the world that the artwork makes for us. This is, for example, where the novelist has so much to teach us visual artists. What if I were to propose that Tolkien and Ansel Adams are essentially facing the same creative challenge in different media? |
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| HT2762 - Understanding Fatigue and Exhaustion |
There are times when I try to go photographing in spite of feeling exhausted. It never works. This week is one of those times. I just can't bring myself to get excited about grabbing my camera and getting out there. Worse, I feel guilty about it. As I've thought about this in the torpor of my fatigue, I think I've had a flash of insight about this. |
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| HT2763 - Visual Syncopation |
Structure in a presentation of images can be both good and bad. Structure can provide form and consistency to a presentation. It can also become predictable, repetitious, and boring. This where visual syncopation can come to the rescue. |
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| HT2764 - Archive or Burden |
We spend our life amassing a pile of prints that form our archive. It can also be said that our archive is a burden that our heirs will be responsible for whether or not they want it. We can't take it with us, unless the software engineers figure out a solution to this pesky problem of mortality. Maybe we should be buried with all our art like ancient Egyptian kings, taking all our important possessions with us to the next world. |
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| HT2765 - Way to Go, God |
When does a scene/subject become worthy of making a photograph? After all, we don't just point our cameras at anything, but we pick and choose those scenes or subjects that we think are worthy of capture and processing. Why are those captures worthy? I've asked this question for years in workshops and conversations. The most common reason photographers give for making a photograph boils down to a variation of "Way to go, God!" I love a pretty picture as much as the next person, but certainly there are more reasons to produce a photograph than a pretty scene. |
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HT2766 - From Whence the Inspiration |
There are photographers who prefer not to view the work of other photographers. I understand the concept, but I can't help but wonder what they are missing? Do they also not listen to music, read novels or poetry? Watch films or talk with others? I've always thought of art as a Grand Conversation, a conversation that spans time and space. My art is a response to those from the past as well as those not yet born. One of my most fond photography memories was sitting next to Oliver Gagliani in his living room, listening in silence to Mahler's 4th symphony in its entirety. When the music ended, he pulled out a set of prints that that were inspired by Mahler's music |
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HT2767 - Performative Photography |
I don't think many people would think of photography as a performative art medium. Could it be? What would that look like? The closest thing I can imagine to a performative presentation of photographs would maybe be a slideshow. What about a presentation of images on a large screen TV that could possibly be accompanied by a narration of sorts. A poetry reading while showing images? Come to think of it, what happens when you share a stack of prints with a visitor? Silence? Conversation? A prepared narrative? Could you? Should you? |
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HT2768 - Clouds and No Clouds |
Looking through our archives at all our previous work can uncover some of the most interesting things we might never see otherwise. A while back I had a revelation about clouds. It seems that for unknown and unconscious reasons, when there are beautiful puffy clouds in the sky casting intermittent shadows and sunbeams on the land, I tend to photograph with wide-angle lenses. My grand landscapes almost always include clouds. I wasn't aware of that. Conversely, days that are primarily overcast without shadows I naturally tend to photograph details, close focus work, even macro photography. Am I missing something? Is this a valid strategy or a bad habit? |
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HT2769 - My Favorite Dead Fish Picture |
One of my favorite pictures from 50 years of photography was photographed in a rural village in Japan. Outside the fish market was a little stand that included 60 or 70 herring splayed out to dry. There's shiny bodies were fantastic and led to one of my all-time favorite photographs. I have it hanging in the trailer. I'm about to take it down. Lynn pointed out an obvious fact that I'd never seen in 30 years. IT'S A PICTURE OF DEAD FISH. It will always be a picture of dead fish, regardless of how beautiful the print is, how sensual the tones are, it simply can't be anything other than a picture of dead fish. |
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