civilized ku # 5110-16 (the new snapshot 220-226) ~ symbiotic

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

serenity garden ~ embiggenable • iPhone

Serenity Garden is a roadside embankment which has been landscaped by a group of community members. The park-like garden slopes down to a natural marsh.

In a very real sense, the garden and its placement along side of a natural environment is a wonderful symbol-don't think the community members thought of it as such-of the Adirondack Forest Preserve (aka, Park)... a place where man and the natural environment co-exist in a sustainable / symbiotic relationship.

FYI, for those who are not aware of it, the Adirondack Park-50% (and growing) of it is protected by the Forever Wild amendment to the NYS Constition-is larger than the state of Vermont and it's where I live. I LIVE IN A PARK!

the new snapshot # 219 / civilized ku # 5204 ~ smooth sailing

Heaven's Door ~ embiggenable • iPhone

Lake Champlain marina / looking at Vermont ~ embiggenable • iPhone

On my way to a charity/fundraiser event on Lake Chamlain I picked up a bottle of Bob Dylan's new just released Tennessee Straight Bourbon. After a couple days of sampling the distilled spirit I can write that Dylan and his distillers got it right.

Dylan didn't just put his name on the product. He was knee deep in its distilling and production - everything from the charring of the barrels to determining the tasting notes* and, I assume the design of the bottles inasmuch as one of Dylan's metal sculptures-a gate-is featured thereon.

There are 2 additional Dylan releases - a straight rye whiskey and a double barrel whiskey. I will be trying them.

*one reviewer's take ... On the nose, this is a classic, no-fuss bourbon, though with more oak-derived notes — think caramel, vanilla and wood char — than you’d expect from a seven-year-old. I also smelled sandalwood, leather and linseed oil. And there’s a creamy cola note that suggests a good bit of rye in the mash bill. (Mr. Dylan and his team say they use just 70 percent corn, leaving a lot of room for other grains to show their influence.) The palate opens with a soft cocoa and buttercream note, then sharpens toward black pepper and cigar tobacco. The finish is slightly bitter, with the sweet spiciness of an Atomic Fireball. My favorite of the bunch.

civilized ku # 5189 / the new snapshot # 218 ~ sight and vision

(embiggenable) • µ4/3

(embiggenable) • iPhone

I am working on an entry which deals with the idea of the duality of vision. It's a difficult entry to get right.

My intention for the entry is to define for you my vision-as I understand it-and how I "found" it. The hope being that, in the telling, the reader may gleen some insight which can be applied to his/her search for vision.

Stay tuned.

Civilized ku # 5186 / the new snapshot # 216-17 (diptych) ~ stop, look, listen

hotel mural ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

tailgating ~ Bellerica, MA. (embiggenable) • iPhone

To my EYE & SENSIBILITIES a good/great picture is one which, first and foremost, is visually interesting / engaging to view. If such a picture conveys a "meaning", personal or universal, for an individual viewer, so much the better. However, both qualities will be judged entirely by a viewer's subjective eye and sensibilities.

It is also my firm belief that the picture should do the "talking". While a simple Artist Statement is a never a bad idea, rambling statements composed of pyscho-self-analytical artspeak mumbo jumbo is never a good idea. iMo, they read like an instruction manual telling the reader what to think about when viewing the picture(s). Whereas, again iMo, I believe the best manner in which to approach the viewing of a picture is with a blank/open mind.

In other words, as the old railroad crossing signs suggested, when viewing a picture, the best approach is to STOP, LOOK, LISTEN.

ku # 1415 / civilized ku # 5181-82 (diptych) ~ criteria

ocean lightning / Honorable Mention selection ~ South Jersey Shore (embiggenable)  µ4/3

feet in situ ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

I am finally back in the saddle after a 10 day hiatus which included a 3 day getaway, a 4 day hospital stay and a couple days of trying to feel like myself again. During that time, I received this notification:

I am very pleased to tell you that one of your images was selected for exhibition in our Middlebury, Vermont gallery. Congratulations! … I’d like to extend special congratulations to Juror’s Award recipient Kathleen Fischer and to Director’s Award recipient Atsuko Morita ... Congratulations also to three Honorable Mentions: Mark Hobson, Marilyn Maddison, and Kate Wnek.

I must admit that there is a degree of satisfaction which accompanies the fact that one of my pictures was selected for the exhibition, WATER, from amongst the nearly 3,000 submissions. Of the 35 pictures selected, it is also nice that my picture was called out with an Honorable Mention.

That written, I have previously written about the fact that, whoever the jurist(s) might be, their selections will be very subjective. My honorable mention picture might not even have made the cut into the exhibition with a different jurist on the case. And, to be honest, my honorable mention picture was a last minute addition to my 5 submissions and I did not consider it to be the pick of the litter. Lesson to be learned: one person's criteria is not another person's criteria.

In and event, re: the topic of criteria, I have been trying to adjust my criteria regarding the making of my pictures. That is, does a referent demanded a snapshot aesthetic approach or is it a "serious" picture making opportunity? And, perhaps more important, should I even care?

The primary consideration, re: "serious" v. snapshot designation, is that of which picture making tool to use in the making of a picture. "Serious" picture making would seem to call for a "serious" tool (aka: a "real" camera) whereas a snapshot not so much - in other words, a phone camera module. FYI, an aside ... I will confess that I feel that I am making a mountain out of a mole hill inasmuch as both tools produce very good image quality.

However, it's not the image quality I am concerned with. Rather, it is the picture making M.O. that I bring to the table when making a "serious" picture v a snapshot. To be precise, my "serious" picture making M.O. is oriented less to the referent and more to the visual structure-form v. content-of the picture. Whereas, in the case of a snapshot, I am much more oriented to the content than the form.

In addition to those considerations, I bring a more formal approach to "serious" picture making wheras with snapshot making I am more "loose" about framing and other technique notions. See the individual pictures in the feet in situ diptych above as an example.

What it all comes down to regarding determining whether a picture making opportunity calls for a "serious" or "loose" M.O. is that the tool I have in my hand actually does influence my picture making state of mind. A "real" camera in hand pushes me to a formal picture making mental state whereas an iPhone in my hand pushes me to a very "loose" picture making state of mind.

the new snapshot # 215 / civilized ku # 5169-72 - a color riot

all pictures • iPhone

Mentioned in yesterday's entry was my quest for a well above average hot dog. That mission was successfully accomplished thanks to our host Rich who co-piloted us to CALLAHAN'S. The hot dogs (deep fried) were excellent - I had mine covered with chili.

The hot dog quest was instigated by a conversation about special hot dogs and eventually about the so-called "stands" which sold them. The original "stands" were wood construction eateries, most of which begin operating in the '50s. In my former home town of Rochester, NY there are a number of individually owned and operated number of "stands", some with satellite locations. And, FYI, these original stands sold hots, burgers, italian sausage, fries, rings, shakes, soda and the like.

a typical original hot dog stand ~ Rochester, NY

a typical original hot dog stand ~ Rochester, NY

All of that written, the only disappointment of the hot dog quest was that CALLAHAN's was not in an original-type structure (even though it started out in one). I, for one, prefer and like my hot dogs served and consumed in a funky patinaed '50s era stand which makes it a "genuine" experience.

CALLAHAN'S, on the other hand, has created an ersatz Disneyland-esque caricature of a hot dog stand. To my eye and sensibilities, it all seems to be rather "fake". Sorta like it's a tarted-up - there is nothing subtle about it - decor exercise meant to be entertaining rather than authentic.

Then again, given the fact that CALLAHAN'S is located in the land of wretched excess (nothing exceeds like excess) gigantic over-the-top ersatz McMansions, they have hit their target clientele smack-dab in the center of the bullseye.

the new snapshot # 214 / civilized ku # 5165-67 ~ eggs and rabbits

kids ~ Harrington Park, NJ (embiggenable) • iPhone

Easter baskets ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

napping dads ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

plastic egg ~ Harrington Park (embiggenable) • iPhone

Spent Easter weekend in North Jersey with the wife and inlaws + 8 neices / nephews.

The 2 kids dressed in their Easter outfits were not part of the group. I noticed them hunting eggs in a yard across the street from our Easter festivities household. They were visiting relatives. Just had to make a picture of them.

around the house # 6-8 ~ pictures everywhere

It should surprise no one who follows this blog or knows me that I, with my belief in print making as the only manner in which to fully appreciate a photograph, have pictures hanging on the walls of my house. However, it did surprise me to realize that there are 56 of my pictures (all framed) on the walls. If pressed before I made the count (just today), I would have speculated that there are 20-25 hanging photographs.

Moving on ... on today's entry on LENSCRATH, there is work that shares my fascination with dirty / patina-ed kitchen utensils and food given over to decay, albeit pictured in a different manner than my similar referent pictures. The work by Joan Fitzsimmons is accompanied by an artspeak-ish (not the worst I have ever read) statement, which is to be expected from a B.F.A + M.F.A. picture maker ...

In my work, I’ve asked questions about human relationships, the nature of home, my relationship to nature, and the significance of the quotidian. The ordinary act of living is endlessly complex and uncertain .... ~ Joan Fitzsimmons

Fitzsimmons goes on to tell about her manner of working and her "relationship" (my word) to her referents and concludes with informing us that she "now note[s] that my materials and imagery and manner of collecting them, suggest/are traditional female work, so I am, once again, ready to place it within a feminist context."

Fitzsimmons' pictures are OK. Some work in creating a moderate visual interest. Others not so much. In either case, as far as making pictures of cutlery is concerned, Fitzsimmons' work pales in comparison to that of Jan Groover.

Groover's work has been described as "predominantly empirical, visual, and sensual - images rife with mystery, movement, and intrigue. There's a good read, No More Lazy Still-Life Photography, Please about Groover HERE I especially like the part about when Groover stopped making what she had been doing during her early career. She complained that ...

... she didn't know what to do, and her husband literally said, "Go photograph the kitchen sink." He managed to shut her up, but she took him quite literally, and started photographing just the shit that was in the sink.

Unlike Fitzsimmons and other contemporary picture makers for whom Concept is everything (hence all the artspeak which, ironically, is rarely about art and more about personal self-psychoanalytic crapola), According to Groover, the meaning of the objects is of no importance; only the shape, texture, and form that falls into a particular space is important. And was Groover's Formalist attention to shuch thing which instigated John Szarkwski to say...

.... her pictures were good to think about because they were first good to look at.
iMo, that's something that could not be said about Fitzsimmons' pictures.