# 5774-75 / kitchen sink•kitchen life ~ don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

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(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

OVER ON T.O.P. MICHAEL JOHNSTON HAS SETOUT TO DIVIDE HIS writing time-roughly equally-between his blog and an attempt to write a book. I wish him luck (seriously) but I am not sure that idea is going to work inasmuch as I believe that writing a book and writing for a blog are activities that each demand 100% dedication in order to be successful in either activity.

In any event, I mention the above cuz I have given thought over the years-instigated by the wife's sugestion to do so-to writing a book about photography. However, the unanswered question over that time has always been about the problem of selecting a specific photography topic to write about....topics such as how to..., art theory, history of the medium, my life experiences in making pictures, to name a few.

That written, one topic that has risen to top of the topics heap is the idea of The Top 10 Worst Pieces of Picture Making Advice. That's a likeable idea cuz one could have some fun with it. And, it is quite possible that a book on that topic has never before been written.

As an example, one such piece of bad advice that has recently been on my mind is the oft espoused adage, re: when starting out making pictures or looking for "inspiration", choose a referent that you care about and start making pictures thereof. To which I respond, "Hogwash", inasmuch as that advice is, for the purpose of making fine art, useless. Unless, of course, one desires to be little more than a documentarian. That is, making pictures wherein the pictured referent is the most important thing.

One problem with the aforementioned bad advice, iMo, is that-let me repeat, contrary to the purpose of making fine art-referent-biased pictures tend to lapse into cliche, referent or technique wise, and/or the application of art sauce in order to appeal the unwashed masses (fine art appreciation wise). Or, in other words, for the purpose of making fine art, the emphasis should not be on what you see, but rather on how you see it, aka: recognizing and utilizing one's own, unique vision.

Those 2 preceeding paragraphs written, I believe that I could expand them into a short, succinct essay, accompanied by picture examples which illustrate the point that most notablbe fine art picture makers have realized that they do not need to make pictures of what they care about in order to make visual art. Pictures that are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or thought provoking content.

The challenge for me is to determine if I could do that with 10-20 other pieces of a bad picture making advice.

#5767-70 / landscape (rist camp)•kitchen sink (rist)•kitchen life•civilized ku ~ back to my regular routine

our last evening at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

at Rist Camp ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

my kitchen ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

my driveway ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

BACK HOME AGAIN. SITTING AT MY DESKTOP WORK STATION for the first time in 7 week. Lots of image files from recent travels to copy / organize.

However, my biggest task is ongoing work-started at Rist Camp-on an entry in which my intent is to articulate, ultimately for my own satisfaction (and for anyone else who might care to read), why I make pictures and how I see the world (which is the foundation on which my vision is based). This exercise might read something like an artist statement but I think of it as a life of picture making statement.

Don't know when this exercise will be completed since I am taking my time cuz I want to get it right. In the meantime, I will keep on posting entries on a more regular timeline now that I am back home.

# 5758-61 / kitchen sink (rist)•landscape•rist camp ~ the king is dead, long live the king

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OVER THE PAST 2 DECADES, AS the analog photo world was being swallowed whole by the digital photo world, there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

The clatter, of course, was all of the caterwauling, re: the sky is falling and/or the end of photography as we knew it. To be certain, for some-think KODAK-the sky did indeed fall. However, for the picture makers in the crowd, well...the fact is, we just kept on making pictures.

Sure, sure, you might venture, but there was a change. Sure, sure, I would venture but adding, the more things change the more they remain the same. You know what I mean...for example, be it analog or digital, a "real" camera still has aperture, shutter speed, and focusing "mechanisms". Hell, even a cameraphone module can have the same via photo apps.

And, sure, sure, the sky fell for the analog photo lab industry but virtually every "serious" picture maker I know, print making is alive and well. And, much of that output ends up 0n gallery-or the like-walls. Hell, even the wonderful, "dumpy" little diner pictured in my last entry had 5 20x30 inch prints for sale on their walls.

So, all of that written, when I encounter / read crappola like the following-via VSL/Kirk Tuck...

Photography as I practiced it ten, twenty and thirty years ago is pretty much dead now. Frequent shows of prints in galleries, and print sales to individuals seem absolutely passé....Images are now a consumable and not a physical collectible, object.... [cuz, according to Kirk] it all gets crunched down onto a screen.

...I feel like I have to respond.

With all due respect to Mr. Tuck-anyone who has made a steady, good living in the commercial photo world deserves respect-I 100% disagree with his sentiments as quoted above inasmuch as I practiced photography (commercial and personal) starting 50 years ago and, from my perspective, the making of pictures has not changed one tiny bit. That is, unless one is concerned gear and technique. But even then, the one constant-the most important concept-has not changed at all...gear and technique never made a picture, it is the picture maker who makes a picture. As you know, hopefully, cameras do not make a good / great picture any more than a typewriter (or the modern equivalent thereof) makes a good / great novel.

All of that written, I also disagree with Kirk's notion that...

Cameras have superseded photography as "the" hobby. So we long time practitioners will find it hard to give up the pursuit of gear.

I understand that sentitmnet coming from Mr. Tuck inasmuch as I believe his picture is in the dictionary along the definition of "gearhead". However, gearheads have been part of the photo world seemingly since its inception, especially so in the "serious" amateur world. Most pro picture makers, myself included, found the gear which they needed to suit their picture making and they tended to stick with it throughout their entire careers. The exception being those whose careers spanned the analog to digital eras.

All of the mentioned specifics in this entry aside, I guess my ultimate bitch is with nostalgia that is based upon specious / false / "romanizied" rememberances of things past, aka: the good old days.

# 5739-43 / civilized ku•nocturnal•a kitchen sink•made from a chair ~ into every life a little rain must fall

rist camp sink ~ (embiggenable) •iPhone

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approaching rain ~ made while seated - (embiggenable) •iPhone

DON'T KNOW WHY IT COMES AS SUCH A SURPRISE that here in the Adirondacks in the month of September-where did the summer go?-the daytime temperature only climbs to about 70˚F from a nightime low of 40-50˚F. With a similar 7 day forecast, it appears that autumn color might be arriving on the scene sooner than "normal".

In any event, I continue on my quest to produce nocturnal pictures with the iPhone that, out of the camera, do not look at all like the actual nocturnal scene. On that quest, a few nights ago, I drove the 20 miles to the nearby tiny hamlet of Long Lake. The night sky was overcast with nary a hint of stars to be seen. For my photographic intent that was fine and there were enough man-made scenes to allow me to explore my nocturnal picture making explorations.

That written, I came away with a few pictures which, with subsequent processing, produced the nocturnal look and feel I was after. In a nut shell, that look and feel can best be described as a solitary / isolated illuminated area surrounded by a dark, murky-with subtle detail-area. All in an attempt to capture that mysterious, ill-at-ease, fear of the dark (more or less) that seems to be nearly universal to the human senses.

# 5917-18 / kichen sink•the new snapshot ~ pruning flowers

from my kitchen sink work ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

my desktop ~ (embiggenable)

I HAVE COMPLETED ORGANIZING-into a separate folder-MY RECENT-ish kitchen sink pictures (29 pictures). Together with another 16 pictures to be moved to that folder, my total number of pictures in the kitchen sink body of work is 45 pictures. The next challenge is to pick 20 pictures to print for a kitchen sink presentation folio.

An interesting thought occurred to me while I was organizing the kitchen sink pictures. The thought was that the work could easily be titled Playing in Jan Groover's Garden.

That thought was very late coming to mind inasmuch as I was made aware of Groover's Kitchen Still Life work in the early 1980s when I was advising-re: technical / hardware photography things-the author of the The New Color Photography book. Despite that fact, I never once over the intervening years consciously thought about / considered the idea that I was, as they say, standing on Groover's shoulders.

That written, Groover's work and my work could legitimately be considered to be variants of a flower species (sticking with the garden metaphor)in as much as our referents are very similar. However, our pictures are distinctly different. For one thing, mine are "found" still life pictures while hers are "made" / constructed pictures. For another thing, Groover's pictures are more "warmly romantic" whereas mine might be considered to be "cooly analytical".

In any event, the KITCHEN SINK gallery on my WORK page will be updated within the next week.

PS another possible canidate for the BAKER'S Dozen: GRANDKIDS submission:

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# 5914-16 / the new snapshot•kitchen sink/life ~ I've learned my lesson well

from quotidian (kitchen life) ~ (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

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

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

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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

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

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(embiggenable) • iPhone

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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.

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