# 6084-94 / common places ~ 4 days in May

May 26, 2022

***returning from Vermont*** ~ (embiggenable)

“One might compare the art of photography to the act of pointing. It must be true that some of us point to more interesting facts, events, circumstances, and configurations than others. [...] The talented practitioner of the new discipline would perform with a special grace, sense of timing, narrative sweep, and wit, thus endowing the act not merely with intelligence, but with that quality of formal rigor that identifies a work of art, so that we would be uncertain, when remembering the adventure of the tour, how much our pleasure and sense of enlargement had come from the things pointed to and how much from a pattern created by the pointer.” ~ John Szarkowski

WHEN I AM OUT AND ABOUT / TRAVELING I MAKE A FAIR number of pictures. Most end up in hard-cover POD photo books which are made in response to specific travel ventures.

It is in those books that appear my pictures of tourist “hot spots”-people, places, and things which are “must sees”. While I attempt to make those pictures in a manner that differ from the typical touristy pictures-what Szarkowski labels as with a quality of formal rigor that identifies a work of art. However, ultimately those pictures are primarily about the pictured referent. Re: more interesting…configurations / a pattern created by the pointer, not so much.

That written, the travel photo books are, in fact, dominated by pictures in which the pictured referents are co-opted for their potential, to my eye and sensibilities, for making photographs which illustrate more interesting visual configurations. And, it is those pictures which are the reason I make photographs.

Fortunately for me, the wife gets my more-interesting-configuration picture making M.O. That’s fortunate cuz she really appreciates the total visual representation of our travels as illustrated in the books. That’s true even though she has no memory of having seen most of things that I see and picture.

#6069-71 / civiilzed ku • places ~ don't think about it

May 11, 2022

***Merchantville, NJ*** ~ (embiggenable)

“I spent some time pondering what I could add to the equipment mix to make…photography more interesting…” ~ written by a blithering idiot (picture making wise)

“I discovered that this camera was the technical means in photography of communicating what the world looks like in a state of heightened awareness. And it’s that awareness of really looking at the everyday world with clear and focused attention that I’m interested in. “ ~ Stephen Shore

It can be written, without a zot of doubt, that a picture maker who thinks that adding to his/her equipment mix will make photography more interesting, has less than a snowball’s chance in hell of seeing what the world looks like in a state of heightened awareness much less making a picture with clear and focused attention on the everyday world. Ditto the chances of finding and fostering a unique personal way of seeing, aka: a vision.

It has been said / written a zillions times that using the 1C/1L/1Y technique is the best way to find and foster a personal vision. People are probably sick to death of hearing it. However, truer words were never spoken / written inasmuch as, the more gear one totes around, the more crap there is to get in the way of seeing…

…iMo (and that of many others), there is nothing more liberating, picture making wise, than finding and using the 1 camera with the 1 lens which faithfully effortlessly records the manner in which one sees the world.

# 6061-65 / (urban) landscape ~ walking around in a fog

May 6, 2022

ASBURY PARK IS A NORTH JERSEY SEASIDE (ATLANTIC OCEAN) TOWN. It was once quite prosperous, then it slipped into decline and it is now attempting a comeback. Although, the comeback is almost strictly limited to ocean-side property which is being procured by 1%-ers who are-in addition to building architectural monstrosities-attempting to keep the public off of the public beaches.

Nevertheless, there was one delightful surprise (for me)…a massive / imposing structure built in 1928-30 - the Asbury Park Convention Hall which is connected to the the Paramount Theater by the Grand Arcade. The magnificent structure is on the National Historic Registry but, as are so many historic structures, large and small, of the American past, it is slowly declining into disrepair.

All that written, one Asbury Park legend lives on. That would be the “Boss”, aka Bruce Springsteen, who lived in Long Branch and where he wrote much of his early music. I stopped at and pictured the shotgun shack where the wrote the music for his landmark album, Born To Run.

# 6057-59 / triptych•civilized ku ~ black and white and red all over

April 28, 2022

“It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they originate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images.” ~ Minor White

BACK IN MY POLAROID (SX-70 / TIME ZERO FILM) SALAD DAYS I made quite a number of triptychs. There was just something about the connected but disjointed look that tickled my visual fancy.

I found the finished grouping visually interesting and somewhat intriguing as well as making more pronounced the idea that making pictures is an act of selection. Plus, it was a fun thing to make.

# 6044-45 / landscape (civilized ku)•around the house ~ to illustrate and illuminate

April 18, 2022

“What we hope for from the artist is help in discovering the significance of a place. In this sense we would choose in most respects for thirty minutes with Edward Hopper’s painting Sunday Morning to thirty minutes on the street that was his subject; with Hopper’s vision we see more. “ ~ Robert Adams

I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND IT ANNOYING WHEN I READ A COMMENT that, in one fashion or another, links photography to painting. Re: Robert Adams’ statement - don’t know why he, a photographer, would use a painter’s work to illustrate a point that could be made equally well by using a photographer’s work to make the same point. As an example….

What we hope for from the artist is help in discovering the significance of a place. In this sense we would choose in most respects for thirty minutes with Stephen Shore’s photograph Beverly Boulevard and LaBrea Avenue to thirty minutes on the street that was his subject; with Shore’s vision we see more. - Robert Adams

That written, the point of this entry is not to belabor Adams’ choice of an artist’s work to make his point. Rather my point in this entry is to comment on Adam’s’ point.

Throughout the course of my picture making life, increasingly so as I have aged, is an awareness of the fact that I am very frequently unable to “be fully in the moment” when making a picture. That is, to be more exact , that, when I encounter something that pricks my eye and sensibilities, my reaction is to make a picture as opposed to “being in the moment”, i.e. pausing to contemplate and appreciate that which caught my attention. In most cases, I make a picture and move on.

It is only when I have in hand the result of a picture making moment-a print-that I am able to more fully contemplate and appreciate what it was that pricked my eye and sensibilities in the picture making moment. And, it is worth noting that I can can contemplate and appreciate the depiction / representation-if not the actuality-of what I pictured for an extended period of time over an extended period of time (that is, time and time again).

In other words, I would choose in most respects for thirty minutes with one of my photographs to thirty minutes in the place where I viewed my subject; with the printed manifestation of my vision I see more.

I attribute my manner of delayed contemplation and appreciation to the fact that the medium of photography and its apparatus extract a precise moment in time-described and defined by a precise frame imposed by the picture maker-from the on-going flow of time. That moment is isolated, aka: “frozen”, on the 2D surface of a photographic print where it can contemplated and appreciated for as long as a viewer chooses to view it, without the “distraction” of the flow of time.

FYI, while my contemplation and appreciation of my pictures-and those made by others-are influenced by my appreciation of the form found in a picture, a visual experience, I also appreciate the potential derivation to be had of the feeling of being there. That is, the feeling of pleasure and surprise of discovering subtle beauty in the most simple and unlikely places and things.

# 6027-28 / civilized ku•the new snapshot ~ I meant nothing by it

April 11, 2022

“... I was aware that I was imposing an organization that came from me and from what I had learned: it was not really an outgrowth of the scene in front of me ... I asked myself if I could organize the information I wanted to include without relying on an overriding structural principle ... Could I structure the picture in such a way that communicated my experience of standing there, taking in the scene in front of me?” ~ Stephen Shore

WENT TO SARATOGA SPRINGS FOR DINNER WITH FAMILY. While there I tried to make a few pictures which communicated my experience of being there, taking in the scene in front of me without relying on an overriding structural principle.

# 6025-26 / civilized ku•the new snapshot ~ something to look at

April 10, 2022

“…it is the habit of approaching works of art in order to interpret them that sustains the fancy that there really is such a thing as the content of a work of art.” ~ Susan Sontag

# 5998-6002 / around the house•(civilized) landscape ~ going fishing

April 4, 2022

OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS I HAVE BEEN THINKING THAT I want to explore the possibility of a new way of picture making. Specifically, to create a new, themed body of work that is different from those bodies of work that have emerged from my discursively promiscuous manner of making pictures.

The big question, re: that desire, is, different in what way? Other than the fact that I would like to create pictures that represent something about the place where I live-in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, aka the Adirondack Park-is a new approach about subject matter? technique? a combination of subject matter and technique together? In any case, in thinking about this, I find that I keep bumping with into the walls of the box into which I have locked myself, picture making wise.

Re: the problem with subject matter - simply written, in my pursuit of making pictures, fine-art wise, I have rarely focused on specific referents. That written, my eye and sensibilities have been pricked by repetitive references-my kitchen sink as one example (of many)-but, not because I seek out those specific referents. Rather, what pricks my eye and sensibilities are sections of the real world which evidence potential as photographs which create interesting visual form.

Consequently, I have a problem with pursuing a specific referent cuz of my fear that placing my emphasis on chasing a specific referent will lead to the loss of my feel for seeing and picturing form.

Re: technique - I have no interest in making any kind of pictures other than straight pictures. I would rather poke my eyes out with a sharp stick than to add any thing to my pictures that I consider to be effects or cheap tricks. However, that written…the medium of photography and its apparatus does have a handful of native picture making mechanics with which I have always had an interest.

There is one mechanics in particular that I have tinkered with over the years-that of Depth-Of-Field, aka DOF. My “tinkering” has run the gamut of trying to achieve, in some cases, maximum DOF, or, in other cases, minimal DOF. It all depended-and still does-on what i was intending to achieve, picture making wise.

Virtually all of my discursive promiscuity pictures depend upon maximum DOF to elucidate the form I create. I want the lines, shapes, tones, colors, texture, et al in my pictures to be clearly delineated across the 2D plain of my pictures. However, it has come to my attention in experimenting with the iPhone full-frame format-using the Portrait Mode-that a bit of limited DOF can still accomplish my picture making intentions, form wise.

Literal referent wise, I have always liked limited DOF for its ability to lend a bit of “mystery” to a picture. And, I will readily admit, the contrarian in me wise, that I like it even more considering the current picture making obsession with sharpness and definition to the eye-searing max.

In any event, wherever all of this picture making casting about might end up, I think it will include a bit of limited DOF. And, thank you, thank you to the iPhone for giving me the capability of fine tuning the apparent DOF after the picture making fact.