life ~ I've learned my lesson well

August 12, 2021

from quotidian (kitchen life) ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — from ***quotidian*** (***kitchen life***) ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

from kitchen sink ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — from ***kitchen sink*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

BACK HOME AFTER MY WEEK IN MAINE. Barely settled back in and I'm packing for my week-starting this Sunday-at the South Jersey Shore. The 2 places on the Atlantic Ocean could not be more different - the Maine shore is rocky and cool, the Jersey shore is sandy and hot / humid (and my burden to bear). Then, at the end of the Jersey week, it's straight to Rist Camp for 6 weeks-with a stop at home to pick up the cat. The end of the Rist Camp sojourn will complete the San Diego, CA. / Santa Fe, NM / Pittsburgh, PA / Damariscotte, MN / Stone Harbor, NJ / Newcomb, NY ramble.

I am hoping that my stay at Rist Camp-on an isolated, hill-top overlooking the mountains and a lake-will provide me with some much needed quiet / restful time for contemplation, re: my relationship with photography / picture making. Specically, addressing both my relationship with this blog and the notion of aggressively seeking gallery representation for one or more of my bodies of work.

In the cause of seeking gallery representation, I am purchasing a new printer for use in creating folios of exhibition quality prints of several of my bodies of work. First up being my kitchen sink and quotidian work, starting with updates to those galleries on my WORK page. FYI, I am first concentrating on those bodies of work cuz I believe them to be my strongest and most cohesive bodies of work and bodies of work for which I can pursue the making of pictures on a regular basis.

Re: this blog - it will most likely sputter along as it has been during the recent past. That is, without a specific intent or direction. However, my desire is to keep the focus on the medium and it apparatus (aka: practices and conventions) as opposed to gear obsession-ala VSL-or a journal of the trials and tribulations of my personal life-ala TOP-cuz, (paraphrasing Ricky Nelson) if that were all there was to write, I rather drive a truck..

PS After my recent selection for Mike Johnston's Baker's Dozen: In the Museum, I am prepping a few picture candidates for a possible submission to Baker's Dozen: Grandkids:

from the new snapshot ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — from ***the new snapshot*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

#5891-96 / civilized ku ~ one extreme to another

July 21, 2021

TOOK A FERRY ACROSS THE LAKE YESTERDAY to tend to some auto maintenance in Burlington, Vermont-cuz that is the closest auto dealer / service facility that can work on the Abarth.

I expected the service would take the whole day so my good friend and I spent the day killing time in an assortment of ways. The AM was taken up with automobile things, dropping off the Abarth, getting a rental car, going to another auto dealer to start the auto buying process for our daughter, visiting another dealership, out of idle curiousity (re: an electric vehicle), lunch, and then spent the afternoon walking the downtown Burlington pedestrian shopping district - a closed (permanently) 5 block street, Church Street, converted into an outdoor mall.

The street is chock-a-block with bars, restaurants, retail stores and, as yesterday afternoon was sunny and warm, lots of people. I purchased some new cookware for the wife. My friend and I gave "into beer pressure" and had a pint of Guinness in a Irish Pub-themed establishment. However, we did not sample the whiskey with ice croutons soup.

The highlight of the day-no pictures thereof-was the return trip home. As we traversed the lake-Lake Champlain-on the ferry, we watched the western sky transition from medium-light gray to an ominous dark gray. Disembarking from the ferry, we drove 18 miles on the interstate to the exit for my town whereupon it started to rain. The tempo of the rain slowly increased until we were about 7-8 miles from my house where the landscape turned near-nightime dark and the rain turned into a driving deluge of gust-driven sheets of rain-huge raindrops-which limited visibility to 20-30 feet and leaving pools of standing water on the road. Add to that, dramatic bolts of lighting and booming thunder, it was an 8-10 minute of a pure adrenaline rush.

About 1/3 of a mile from my home we emerged from the maelstrom into sunny skies and a very gentle rainfall. As we pulled into my driveway, the wife was sitting on the front porch-where she had ridden out the storm-grinning like a Cheshire cat.

# 5888-90 / civilized ku ~ epiphanic visual interdependencies

July 19, 2021

IN MULTIPLE ENTRIES OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE MENTIONED my involvement in the landmark book, the new color photography*, by Sally Eauclaire (Abbeville Press,1981). Sally Eauclaire was an art critic and "neighbor" who lived down the hall from me in the warehouse I had converted into artist's living / studio lofts.

In the late 70s Eauclaire turned her writing attention to the then emergent genre of Fine Art color photography. She undertook the project of writing an overview of the movement having had no previous experience in critiquing / writing about things photographic. That was not a problem inasmuch as she intended to write about the art of photography, not about the techniques of making photos. Nevertheless, she wanted to learn about how specific pictures-selected from those featured in the book-were made. So, that's where I stepped in as her how-the-pictures-were-made consultant (I am credited in the book).

For me, the experience-over the course of 2 years-was an epiphany. During that time, as I perused portfolios from photographers-many of whom are now considered to be the star-studded founding fathers (and mothers) of "modern", Fine Art color photogaphy-it was an eye-opening experience. In addition to the fact that color photography was now being taken "seriously", it also gave witness to the idea that anything, any referent, was now fair game for the making of pictures thereof. As Eauclaire wrote, picture makers were now free to make color pictures of things other than "prodigious crags, rippling sands, or flaming sunsets."

All of that written, here is a excerpt form the book wherein she is writing about Stephen Shore's work and in which she also pretty accurately describes my approach to / intended goals, re: making pictures....

Shore's goal, like that of Evans, appears to be a "reticent, understated, impersonal art." Viewer's immune to his subtle, sensuous visual intelligence often descibe his work as "dry" and "detached" because they only see lucidly described facts....Shore does not use cliched pictorial packages to carry readymade meanings. In one sense, his subject matter is what it appears to be-a scrupulous inventory of visual facts. But Shore maneuvers his facts to reveal epiphanic visual interdependencies. Pictorial priorities supersede a devotion to what might constitute the subject's truth. He is engaged not with any place's knowable identity but with its visual mystique, its potential for being turned into a picture.

Is there a better description of the medium and its apparatus' ability to, when paired with a picture maker's "visual intelligence", transcend its descriptive facility by providing the playground and tools to see beyond the obvious?

*288 pages, 47 photographers (to include, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Jan Groover, Joel Meyerowitz, Eve Sonneman, David Hockney, William Christenberry, Mitch Epstein, Roger Merton, Michael Bishop), and well over 150 photographs.

# 5884-87 / around the house•kitchen sink ~ symmetry

July 16, 2021

summer time and living is easy ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***summer time and living is easy*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

THERE ARE TIMES WHEN I CAN SIT IN FRONT OF my desktop monitor and stare for quite a significant length of time. That tends to happen when the monitor screen looks as it does today-as seen in the picture below.

Part of the reason of why I stare at the screen is cuz, after a short period-a few days-during which I have made a significant number of pictures-I am contemplating which picture (or pictures) to use in a blog entry. That written, I have come to realize that I am also using the monitor screen as a contact sheet of sorts. That is, as I stare at the screen a picture-or a part of a picture-will catch my attention. I click on it, enlarge it and then stare at it. If it hits me in the eye like a big pizza pie, I make a mental note of it and send it back into the pack.

While this exercise helps me pick pictures for blog use, it also has an interesting (to me) side effect. When purusing my "big" contact sheet-my library (currently 12,861 pictures) of finished pictures-it is remarkable how many of the pictures I have made mental notes of emerge from the pack once again.

There is, quite obviously, no science involved in this exercise. However, what it does indicate to me is that, inasmuch as my picture making is driven by a visceral reaction to what I see, when I am looking at my "contact" sheet-either a jumbled collection on my monitor or in my library-I respond to pictures which cause me to have a visceral reaction to what I see in the finished picture. In both cases-the making of pictures and the viewing thereof-since there is little or no thinking involved,it seems to be a fine example of the adage, "Stupid is as stupid does."

a section of what’s on my monitor screen ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***a section of what’s on my monitor screen*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

# 5882-83 / civilized ku ~ a square squared

July 14, 2021

(embiggenable) • iPhone + Argoflex Seventy five — (embiggenable) • iPhone + Argoflex *Seventy five*

YESTERDAY, AS I EMBARKED UPON THE FIRST DAY OF MY 75TH YEAR ON THE PLANET, I was thinking back to the time when I thought I would create a series of pictures made of the view looking through the viewfinder of TLR. For one reason or another that never happened.

In any event, I still have the TLR I acquired for the proposed series so I got it out and made a picture of the view looking through the viewfinder. I think of the result as a view of the view through a viewfinder.

That written, this little exercise has not re-ignited a desire to make a series of such pictures. However, it has given rise to the idea of making some pictures-it uses still-available 620 film) with the ARGFLEX Seventy five TLR camera. Maybe that will happen. Maybe it won't.

My ambivalence on the subject comes from the fact that I have never fully embraced the activity of making pictures with a "toy" camera. That's inspite of the fact that I really like the look of such pictures. While the ARGOFLEX is not a true toy camera-or a crappy camera as they are affectionately called-(think Holga, Lomo and the like), it has all of the limitations of one; a single, undefined shutter speed (+ bulb setting), a single undefined aperature, no focusing capability, and lens quality that is as good as anyone's guess.

One might consider those "qualities" as a hindrance to good picture making. Nevertheless, for true crappy camera afficionados those are the features that contribute to the making of a good crappy camera picture.

# 5879-81 / civilized ku•kitchen sink•around the house ~ inside and out / a sense of discovery

July 12, 2021

I AM NATURALLY WARY / SKEPTICAL OF HYPERBOLE AND EXAGERATION, re: overstated claims and/or declaration. So, when I came across an NY Times article titled, Who Needs The Grand Canyon? with the subhead, How to find a sense of awe and discover a miraculous world right outside your door, my hyperbole warning buzzer started to sing.

That written, you can imagine my surprise when, after a few moments of thought, I realized that the title and subhead could easily be the title and subhead for most of my work. 'Cept I would have to inset the words "and inside" before "your door".

The article in question was basically a plug for getting to know your neighborhood. That is, from your home, a short walk or a short drive+a walk at your destination-what the Times calls a microadventure-might just open one up to an undiscovered / experienced sense of "awe". Or, at the very least, a pleasant surprise. Coincidentally, that advice pretty well sums up how I make, location wise, most of my pictures...this entry's pictures, a case in point.

Re: concept / intention wise, I could write that, when I am out-and-about or alternatively, in-and-about, my visual apparatus is atuned to challenge of seeing the "awesome" / "miraculous" in the guotidian world around me. ASIDE> However, I feel that those two words / discriptors are a bit of an overreach. END OF ASIDE Rarely, do I seek out the grand and glorious cuz, if you can not make a grand and glorious picture of the actual (conventional) so called grand and glorious, you might try mastering the art of simultaneously walking and chewing gum.

PS I am taking to the vertical rectangle aspect ratio like the proverbial duck to water. That written, I have not abandoned the square.

# 5875-78 / landscape•civilized ku ~ onward and up-rightward

July 9, 2021

AFTER 20 YEARS OF MAKING SQUARE PICTURES-my "serious" work-I find it a bit flummoxing to be tinkering around with the rectangular format.

During the tinkering-playing with horizontal and vertical format full frame picture making-several thoughts have come to mind. Setting aside the square format signature identity thing-the more I think about that, the more it fades into the background-a thought I never really considered before has risen to the fore. I.E., the predominance of pictures made with the horizontal format / aspect (especially landscape pictures). FYI, I have no numeric stats to back up that thought but, it does feel right.

Hardware wise, that idea does make sense inasmuch as, throughout the history of photography, an overwhelming number of cameras have had viewing apparatus that is oriented to the horizontal format / aspect. Especially so in the modern era. The major exception, camera wise, being the (predominantly) medium format square format cameras.

Picture making wise, there are exceptions to the horizontal aspect /format procivility. Most notable is the portrait genre wherein most portraits are made in the vertical format aspect (group portraits excepted). Also, in my commercial photography life, I would guess that 90% of the pictures I made were in the vertical format aspect. That's cuz most of my pictures were made for the printed page-magazines, annual reports, etc. And to my previous point, hardware wise, Making vertical format / aspect pictures required turning the come on its "side" (its "natural" orientation?), or in the case of a view camera, rotating the back.

All of the above aside (and back to the signature identity thing), in the Fine Art Photography World, format / aspect matters inasmuch as most Fine Art picture makers rarely mix formats / apsect in a given body of work. That is to write that the format / aspect they work with is an integral ingredient of their vision / the manner in which thet see. That proclivity (amongst many other "rules") is as sacroscant in the Fine Art World as the one-camera, one-lens MO. Like it or not, good thing or not, the Fine Art World demands, if a practioner wishes to be taken seriously, a consistent artistic vision, technique and concept wise, in a given body of work.

That written, the Fine Art World is OK with an artist creating a new body of work that differs from that of a previous body of work. So, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, I am considering my full frame pictures to be a new body of work. And, to be rigorously consistent, I am leaning toward the veritical retangular format / aspect for all of the work.

# 5872-74 / around the house ~ I get horizontal

July 8, 2021

the cat don’t care who wins the cup ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***the cat don’t care who wins the cup*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

ORIENTING MY IPHONE TO THE HORIZONTAL INCLINATION was not all that difficult to accomplish. In fact it made activating the shutter easier inasmuch as one of the volume buttons-which can be used as a shutter release-falls conveniently to my index finger (mimicing my "real" camera).

Now the question arises, inasmuch as the square format has been an integal part of my picture making identity, does making rectangular pictures compromise that identity?

I have no doubt about my ability to "arrange" the visual elements-line, shape, form, tone, color, space, et all-within an imposed rectangular frame in a pleasing manner. So that part of the change in format does not concern me. It the signature identity thing that makes me wonder about the change.

Maybe I just have to think about it as a new body of work cuz I do not believe that it will change the way I see. And, of course, it is not as if I am going to abandon the square format.