lamp on radiator ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)
Autumnal color cacophony ~ AU Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)
marsh / Lake Champlain ~ Peru, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)
marsh tree / horse farm ~ Peru, NY / Clintonville, NY - in the Adirondack PARK (click to embiggen)
If I am ever asked to comment on why I think any of my pictures "work" (why a picture resonates with a viewer) in a visual or emotional / intellectual sense, I am inclined not to answer that question with words.
iMo, words and pictures are 2 distinctly different means of communication. Each "language" requires a different set of "tools" to understand what is being expressed. Even with the intelligent use of those "tools", words can be ambiguous and most photographs are intrinsically ambiguous. A picture's meaning - what the picture maker may be trying to express (if anything) beyond a picture's visual content - is subject(ive) to a viewer's personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. And that is precisely the way it should be.
None other than William Eggleston, when asked why his pictures "work", answered that he "has never been able to find the words" to answer that question. I suspect that feeling is shared by great number of picture makers because ...
As Paul Strand said when asked to define his pictures, "The answer is on the wall."
morning light ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
AM fog / East Branch Au Sable River ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
Simply stated, I am drawn to making pictures of mudane and ubiquitous details of life as found and seen as I move about the world around me. Many, if not most, of those details are not in and of themselves beautiful as commonly defined and understood in the classic definition of the word. However, I truly believe that I can make objects of beauty - photographic prints - through the employ of my ability to observe, record and present those referents which prick my eye and sensibilities. An ability which seems to me to be an innate / preternatural part of my being.
If you will, consider this picture making M.O. as an embrace of what is (as I see it). It is not a pursuit of perfection, neither in the characteristics of the referents I picture nor in my printed representation thereof. In my print making, I do strive for a certain level of "purity" of color for the purpose of presenting the pictured referent "as is" - inasmuch as the medium and its apparatus allow. In other words, to avoid amping up color in order to pretty things up.
At its most basic root level, I believe that picture making, Photographic Division, is all about the simple act of observation albeit with the open mind set of believing that everything can be fodder for a good picture.
Autumn leaves ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
I acquired my first camera and began making my first pictures while living in Japan (1967 thru 1968). That was somewhat ironic inasmuch as I was raised up in Rochester, NY where I could walk to the top of hill on the street on which I lived and see the KODAK corporate tower. Nevertheless, it was in Japan that I learned quite a bit about the medium of photography and its apparatus, aka: (not equipment) the complex structure within the vernacular of the photographic medium.
One of the features of Japanese culture and tradition which I came to embrace while in Japan was that of wabi-sabi. Although, I never encountered that phrase while in Japan but, that written, the idea of wabi-sabi - the beauty of imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness - was part of everyday life in Japan. And, for some reason, I took to that notion like a duck to water.
FYI, I appropriated the word ku (emptiness) for use in the title of my pictures in order to reflect my picture making M.O. That is, when out and about with my cameras (which is nearly every time I leave my house) I am rarely in pusuit of any specific picturing objective / referent. Rather, I keep my mind free of any specific idea(s) about that of which I hope to make pictures.
For me, that mental state of emptiness allows me to be free to make pictures of whatever in the quoidian world might prick my eye and sensibilities. And inveriably, my eye and sensibilities are pricked by those imperfect, impermanent and incomplete referents which make up the beautiful mundane constructs of everyday life.
Life's wabi-sabi-ness, if you will.
Post 2000, the smartphone camera has replaced the P&S camera (and its market) and photographs are displayed online and stored on some type of digital platform. Rarely do they ever take shape as a physical object. These photographs lack a tactile sense of physically and hence, to my eye and sensibilities, they can not attain the status of precious objects.
All of that written, I have been rethinking about downsizing my "standard" printing M.O. - that is, virtually every print I make is 24x24". This size looks good on the walls of my house but in today's gallery world that size is the bare minimum for display. A couple decades ago, the Art World, Photography Division, decided that, if photography were to be considered on the same plane as painting, size mattered - think Jeff Wall / Andreas Gursky whose prints are commonly 12-16' in length.
A recent example of my rethinking is the POD books I made of pictures made during our recent trip to Ireland and Scotland. In the past, POD books of our travels were 12x12" but this time around I decided to make the books 8x8". The purpose of this downsizing was to determine if the book and pictures would look more precious - more like a traditional photo album - in a smaller size.
FYI, the wife did not like the smaller size. I, on the other hand, liked the size of the books but, to my eye and sensibilities, the image size - 6x6" - was still too large to be considered to be precious. Consequently, it would seem that 2 reprints of the 3 book set are in order. One, the 12x12" format and the other in the 8x8" format with the image size reduced to approximately 3x3". In addition, I will be making a few test prints whereon the image size on 24x24" paper will be approximately 8x8".
I'll let you now how I feel about the results.
Autumn color ~ Cascades Lakes / Keene Valley, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
Updates added to WORK / Index page - Autumn Color / Urban, Autumn Color / Nature and Still Life / Found.
I must admit that I am somewhat entertained by watching the Republican Party reaping what it has been sowing for the past couple decades. That written, I am extremely entertained and overjoyed watching the Republican Party tear itself apart while trying to deal with its self-inflicted wounds.
All of which, iMo, has something to do with the Karma thing.
grasses ~ St. Huberts, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
autumn backyard ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARk
Going on the assumption (and it's a valid one) that every "enthusiast" camera is capable of producing very high-quality picture files, all a camera purchaser really needs to determine is whether a specific camera manufacturer has a line of lenses which are suitable for implementing a picture maker's vision.
There are other considerations to ponder, the most important of which - how a given camera feels in a user's hand. Unfortunately, with the dearth of locally owned and operated camera stores, the only method of determining that feel is to find a rental site which has the camera of one's choice availble for rental.
If someone were to tell me he/she was just starting out on the road to "getting serious" about his/her picture making and wanted to know what camera to acquire, my suggetion would be to find a decent used (or a refurb) low-end enthusiast camera which seems to be to his/her liking. Then start making pictures in the effort to discover, define and refine one's vision. That is, what it is one wants to illustrate and, ideally, illuminate with his/her practice of the picture making arts.
Ultimately, if one desires to get beyond the point where making a technically good photography is no longer enough - the point where Brooks Jensen writes "that real photography starts and most photographers quit", the only thing worth pursuing is discovering that which pricks your eye and sensibilities. And, most emphatically, not the quest for the perfect "camera".
woodpile with leaves ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
fallen leaves ~ Port Henry, NY - in the Adirondack PARK
That written, if making autumn pictures, those which conform to what one has been told is a good autumn picture, is what works for you, then by all means keeping doing so. That's not a bad thing but, iMo, it's just sorta like toeing the party line as opposed to breaking out of the box.
To my eye and sensibilities, the small, intimate and quotidian signs of autumn are what pricks my visual and emotional hot buttons. Which, I believe, stems from my general outlook on life which dictates that, although life has a number of "big" memorable moments, the overwhelming bulk of one's life is spent immersed in the "small" qoutidian personal and visual details of the world around us.