# 5780-82 / kitchen life•landscape (ku) ~ transmuting emperical data

(embiggenable) • iPhone

(embiggenable) • iPhone

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(embiggenable) • µ4/3

IN A RECENT ENTRY IN WHICH I EXPRESSED THE IDEA OF writing a book, re: The Top insert # here Examples of Bad Photography Sayings / Advice, I used the phrase "purpose of making fine art" multiple times in order to clarify that my comments / options were directed to those seeking to make fine-art. In response to that usage, Markus Spring left a comment:

....This "purpose of making fine art" is definitely the most complex and difficult problem to tackle and it is much easier to define what it is not than to find a recipe how to do it.

His point is well taken. That is, if I understand the point to be what is fine art? A question which is a part of a subset to the seemingly never-ending or sufficiently answered question, what is art? Answers to those related questions span the gamut from lucid to lunatic, expressed with an economy of words or, conversely, verbose ramblings. In any event, whatever one's preference, answer wise, it is important to my book writing (still a possibility) that I introduce (in a preface) to my audience my particular art biases and beliefs, which, by association, imply what it is that I consider to be art / fine-art.

The preface would state something based upon the following:

My photography is an attempt to clarify life by illuminating reality, employing explicit description / factuality-without resorting to contrivance or glib formula-in the pursuit of creating a relationship between form and content that induces significant emotional sensations. That is, for my eye and sensibilities, in the making of a photograph I coopt the subjective possibilities of objective things as a metamorphistic device in which the mysteries in the visible can transmute emperical data in such a way that the unconscious seems to reveal itself through the real.

As for a "recipe" for the making of fine-art, Photography Division, iMo, fine-art is defined by the pursuit of character, not caricature; form, rather than adventurous novelty, and, aiding and abetting the collision of the world, the self, and art in the making of photographs. Or, something like that.

# 5776-78 / landscape (ku)•still life (flora) ~ representative of autumn color

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(embiggenable) • Canon Powershot G3

(embiggenable) • Canon Powershot G3

CAN A PHOTOGRAPH BE CONSIDERED AS A METAPHOR? - the dictionary defines, in part, a metaphor as a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else. If so, consider this:

We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things — metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

# 5771-73 / landscape ~ a simple question, re: 11

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AUTUMN FOLIAGE/COLOR IS UPON US. NOT QUITE PEAK BUT GETTING CLOSE. Along with the arrival of the color is the arrival of the so-called leaf peepers who, every man, woman, and child amongst them is armed with picture making device of one kind or another.

The collective result of all of this picture making will inevitably be, not unlike quitarist Nigel Tufnel (This Is Spinal Tap) who turned it (his amp) up to 11, fall color pictures with the saturation turned up-via apps, effects, and processing-to "11". Cuz, as you know, nothing exceeds like excess (especially in America).

Why is it that the beauty of the natural world as it actually exists is never enough for the massses? And, concurrent picture making wise, can the masses ever get enough of the "grand and glorious" of the natural world?

#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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(embiggenable) iPhone

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(embiggenable) iPhone

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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.

# 5751-52 / landscape ~ thinking of Thomas Cole

Hudson River School homage ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Hudson River School homage ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

approaching rain ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

IT STANDS TO REASON THAT SINCE I AM at Rist Camp, within a 1/4 mile of the Hudson River-the mighty Hudson is 20 feet wide at this point-that I would make a Hudson River School like picture.

FYI, I detest the ubiquitous blazing sunset, cliche sunset picture. When confronted with a blazing sunset my standard SOP, if I am inclined to make a picture, is to turn 90-180 degrees away from the sunset and look for a more subtle expression of the event. Fortunately for me, Rist Camp is oriented to the north at about 90 degrees away fron the setting sun.

That orientation means I do not have to get out of my Adirondack chair (on the front porch) to make a Hudson River School like picture (when nature presents such a visage to my eye and sensibilities).

# 5744-50 / nocturnal • landscape • people ~ round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows

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BEEN OUT AND ABOUT DOING A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES. Hikes, night walks, evening dining cruise, tourist cabin searches, to name a few. Also revisited my favorite Adirondack glacial erratic-16 ft tall and fractured. And, I am making a surprising number of pictures.

All of that written, as I sit here making this blog entry, I continue to be rather flummoxed, re: trying to imagine a continuing direction / purpose for this blog.

The fact of the matter is, to be quite honest, I wonder about the viability of the entire photo blog milieu. It seems to me that the only photo blogs with "legs" are those which fester on gear or those that offer up a healthy dose of the cult of personality...2 topics which hold very little interest for me and certainly topics I do not wish to pursue on this blog.

One site that has been holding my interest is Cluadio Turri ~ immagini da un diario. It continues to hold my interest cuz: 1. I like the pictures, and, 2. it is all about pictures (no words). And, as I have repeatedly mentioned, for me, the medium and its apparatus is all about the pictures.

All of that written, I do enjoy reading (and writing) about the medium of photography and its apparatus (aka: apparatus = conventions and practices).

# 5737-38 ~ excelsior! - onward and downward

killer raccoon ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

view from the porch ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

IN A RECENT ENTRY I MENTIONED THE IDEA of bolting my butt to a chair here at Rist Camp. The idea seems especially attractive after the last 3 months of traveling the country from one ocean to the other including parts in between. Best I call tell, we have probably rack up over 6,000 miles. So, sitting in one place, feet up, seems like a damn good idea.

In any event, the pictures in this entry were made without my getting my butt out of a chair (no bolts employed in the making of these pictures). This activity has made me conscious of the fact that I have made many pictures without assuming the standing position. Which realization, in turn, has caused me to undertake the challenge of making a making pictures while sitting body of work-during my stay at Rist Camp-in response to a regional arts center's recent open call for work for a juried exhibition of regional artists' work.

FYI, the picture making will not be limited to sitting at just Rist Camp. I am certain I will sitting in a wide variety of places...in a canoe, on a beach, on a tour boat, somewhere during a wilderness hike, on a tee box on a golf course, and many other places too numerous to mention. That written, I will try to keep it "honest" inasmuch as I will make a picture after noticing something while sitting as opposed to noticing something and then sitting in order to make a picture of it.