# 6406 / the new snapshot ~ playing games

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“It rarely occurs to such a photographer” - (the lowly householder who desires only to have a camera around the house) “to take a picture of something, say a Venetian fountain, without a loved one standing directly in front of it and smiling into the lens…because of his very artlessness, and his very numbers, the nameless picture maker may in the end be the truest and most valuable recorder of our times. He never edits; he never editorializes; he just snaps away and sends the film off to be developed, all the while innocently freezing forever the plain people of his time in all their lumpishness, their humanity, and their universality.” ~ Jean Shepherd

BEEN AWAY FROM MY BLOG ENTRY MAKING station for a few days cuz I+wife were entertaining some out-of-town family and hanging around various Olympic venues-curling, speed-skating, ski jumping-watching the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games - 11 days, 2500 athletes from 600 universities and 50 countries competing in 12 winter sports.

We are, and will continue to be after our guests have left, planning to continue with watching the curling competition and the ice hockey semi and final rounds. Last evening we attending the men/woman’s ski jumping competition which was won by a Polish woman and Pakistani man respectively.

FYI, while all of the competitors are students, some are also World Cup / Olympic athletes so we are seeing some pretty damn good performances. Tickets for most events are $15US-$9US with the locals 40% discount. That’s a pretty good bang for the buck.

# 6396-6405 / discursive promiscuity ~ a time line

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SOME DEFINITIONS, RE: the philosophy of modern pictures…

re: modern - for the purposes of this book / project I am inclined to define “modern” as beginning c. 1970 and proceeding to the present. I base that designation upon the fact that it was around 1970 that, in the major and minor league Fine Art World (which is the focus of the book / project), picture makers began-in a dramatic and terra firma shaking turn of picture making conventions-to take seriously the making of color pictures. And, it was also around that time that the BW Pepper and Rock era was on the wain.

Another reason for that designation is that-again around the same time-major art institutions were beginning to take note of and exhibit what Sally Eauclaire dubbed as the new color photography. Think MOMA’s 1976 Photographs by William Eggleston exhibition as a prime example.

ASIDE There are, of course, exceptions to my “modern” picture time frame. Eliot Porter’s work, as presented in his 1962 book In Wilderness Is The Preservation Of The World, is an outstanding example-early on it opened my eyes and sensibilities-of color picture making that, in a very real sense, foreshadowed the 70’s color picture making revolution. In fact, I would not object if someone (that would be me) opined that Porter’ work was the bedrock upon which the 70’s color photography revolution was predicated. END OF ASIDE

c.1970 is, iMo, is also notable for the fact that the new color photography picture makers “discovered” that any thing in the real world could be a suitable referent for the making of a color picture. Ya know, say “hello” to kitchen utensils-Jan Grover-and a tricycle on a suburban street-William Eggleston. Quite truly, the world was, and still is, our oyster.

So, like it or leave it, c.1970 > the present is it.

# 6383-88 / common places /things ~ winter

WINTER IS NOT PRIME TIME PICTURE MAKING for my eye and sensibilities. That is most likely due to the fact that the white landscape does not normally possess the visual complexity that pricks my eye and sensibilities. However, when I am driving about the place, I do encounter some picture making opportunities; emphasis on driving about inasmuch as most of my winter pictures made over the past decade or so have been made from the roadside about 20-30 feet from my car.

That situation is somewhat ironic cuz, prior to moving to the Adirondacks 23 years ago, most of my winter pictures were made quite a distance from my car - at 5,000+ft. elevation, above treeline, many miles from my car, in 0ºF weather, in the dead of winter, deep and high in the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness Area. FYI, the Algonquin pictures below were made with my Pentax 110 SLR. I have the complete system - extra body, film winder and 4 lenses.

climbing Algonquin in a near whiteout blizzard ~ we eventually dropped back down below treeline to pitch camp and find shelter from the raging wind. c.1982 (embiggenable)

Algonquin at sunset ~ c.1982 (embiggenable)

Algonquin pre sunrise ~ c.1982 (embiggenable)

# 6380-82 / around the house • common things ~ what field are you playing on?

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A CONSIDERABLE PART OF PART OF the philosophy of modern pictures project is attempting to get an overview handle on what’s going on in the picture making world.

FYI, I have, for my purposes, divided that world into 2 categories; the snapshots and art worlds. However, to be more precise, the art world is split into 2 categories; decorative art and fine art. And, just to further define things, I have divided the fine art world into 2 sub-categories; the minor leagues and the major leagues.

In keeping with my previous post, wherein I wrote about my target audience, aka: me, of all of the above described picture making categories, the one I am most interesting in addressing in the PoMP project is the fine art / minor leagues category. That’s cuz that’s the category in which I toil, picture making wise. And, I believe that it is that category which holds a significant number of picture makers who are striving to make fine art but who will not make it to the major leagues.

So, in order to for my project to have value for that constituency, I believe that, having toiled in the minor leagues-with considerable success-for a significant part of my picture making life, passing on my experiences therein should be of interest to those working in the same picture making world.

All of that written, and returning to my opening remark, re: attempting to get an overview handle on what’s going on in the picture making world, I came across an item that might be of interest, what’s going on wise, to my blog followers. A collection of approximately 750 pictures which, by the slant of the site on which they are presented, are a fair representation of what’s going on in the minor leagues. And, FYI, if a picture catches your eye, there is usually a link to the picture maker’s site where more of their work can be viewed.

# 6374-76 / common places • common things ~ things that do work

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RE: The Philosophy of Modern Pictures PROJECT / BOOK: now that the Happy Holiday Daze faze is nearing its end, the PoMP project/book has shifted into high gear inasmuch as it is time to get down to basics, i.e. deciding who my target audience is, so that the writing can commence with that focus in mind….

….without a doubt, the primary target audience is me. That is to write that I am undertaking the PoMP project/book to organize and clarify-all in one place-my picture making thoughts and practices-along with a heaping sample of my pictures-in the hope that it may be of some value to my secondary target audience, i.e.: those picture makers who are wandering around in the photo-making wilderness searching for a way to free their picture making minds from the confines of conventional picture making “wisdom”.

That written, let me make one thing perfectly clear, I am not trying to set myself up as a “guru” / “expert” / “authority” or even a “teacher” about anything. My intent for my writing in the project/book is to create something that is interesting, for some, to read, just as my intent in making pictures is to create something that is interesting, for some, to look at.

There will be no “how to” about any thing in the book. Rather, it is my intent to write about some of the guideposts I bumped into-in many cases on accident, by means of traveling with an open mind-in my journey through the picture making wilderness. Guideposts that just may be of some interest and/or use for fellow travelers.

RE: THE PICTURES IN THIS ENTRY: these pictures-despite their disparate referents-are identical in one respect. If you can not recognize that similarity, consider this from Robert Adams from his book Why People Photograph ~ Teaching:

…if teaching photography means bringing students to find their own individual photographic visions, I think it is impossible (ed: fyi, so do I)…the scholar’s task is relatively analytic, whereas the artist’s is synthetic; academics enjoy disassembling things in order to understand how they work, whereas artists enjoy taking scattered pieces and assembling from them things that do work.

#6369-71 / common places • common things ~ confined to quarters pt.2

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ABOUT A WEEK AGO WHEN I WAS CONFINED to quarters, it was related to a extreme weather event. This time it’s cuz I am under the weather (to use a commonly expressed idiom). The “weather” in question this time around is Covid.

My symptoms are quite mild with extreme fatigue being the featured ailment. While this could not have happened at a more inopportune time, I should be out of isolation-my bedroom which, fortunately, is a suite with comfortable reading chairs, a tv, a full bathroom, an insulated porch, and some nice pictures on the walls-on Xmas Eve day.

That written, I do get out of the bedroom every now and then. I can do that cuz there is no else in the house other than the wife who came down with Covid a few days before I did (and then passed it on to me).

FYI, the wife and I both got Covid even though we are both up-to-date on vaccines. Obviously, the Covid keeps evolving but medical knowledge believes that our mild symptoms are due to the fact that we are up-to-date vaccine wise. Who knows? But, iMo, it’s better to try to be safe than to end up being sorry.