# 5988 / civilized ku ~ a spring in my step

March 24, 2022

YOU KNOW IT’S A SURE SIGN THAT Spring has sprung when the Italian Rocket Sled comes out to play. That and the fact that the trees are starting to bud.

# 5987 / reflections on art (book) ~ it is exactly what it was

March 23, 2022

AFTER 8 YEARS I HAVE FINALLY GOT AROUND TO remaking the photo book, refections on art ~ the eye traffics in feelings. The photo book which was actually stolen. A happening that I consider to be of the highest compliment.

As I felt it necessary to mention in the book, I will write again here that the pictures in the book are straight out of the camera. They are not double exposures or composites.

FYI, I believe it is worth a mention, re: Mike Johnston’s OL/OC/OY notion, that I am not a such a picture making practitioner. I am (in my personal picturing), in fact, a OL/OC/IP - that is one lens / one camera / in perpetuity.

To clarify: in the making of pictures meant to be art / fine art, I have always, through a number of picturing “periods”, used one lens / one camera for a considerable length of time. In the beginning (c.1980) I used an 8x10 view camera and a Ektar (Kodak) 10in. lens for about 3-4 years. Later (c.2000, after a 20 year fine art hiatus), I used an Olympus µ4/3 camera (one iteration or another) with a 20mm lens on one camera and a 17mm lens on another-the 2 lenses were very similar in angle of view. Eventually, about 3 years ago, my “one” camera became the iPhone (one iteration or another) and using the “normal”, aka: semi-wide lens. During the 20 year hiatus I did use one lens / one camera to make a ton of personal snapshots ( and a some Fine Art pictures). That camera and lens combination was-I actually had 5 and still do-the Polaroid SX-70.

I mention this because I truly believe that one lens / one camera is the only way to find one’s vision and move on to making Fine* Art.

* for what it’s worth, in a series of books (mystery books by a single author) I am reading, a re-occurring character defines FINE as, Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical.

# 5986 / kitchen sink (book) ~ look, really look, and you shall see

March 22, 2022

YET ANOTHER PHOTO BOOK, the kitchen sink ~ a rich life of its own, HEADED TO THE PRINTING PRESS. And I must admit that when I began the edit to narrow the pictures down to the top 20, I was a bit intimidated inasmuch as there were over 160 pictures in the kitchen sink folder.

However, after viewing all 160 of the pictures as a group in Adobe Bridge, I was able to surprising easily cull out 50 pictures in my first cut. Then I opened those pictures and arranged them in neat rows on my monitor where, once again viewing them all together, it was rather easy to identify the 20 (actually 22) finalists.

All of that decided, I came to the artist statement challenge, about which Thomas Rink had a few thoughts (thank you Thomas):

…I think these pictures do not need an essay at all to go with them - they speak well for themselves. Absolutely no need to rationalize (or justify) why you made them! There is a high risk that an essay will appear contrived, which would rather take away from the series instead of adding to it….

I tend to agree with Rink’s idea to the extent that I have been considering (for a couple years) of simply using a quote from Paul Strand as a stand-in artist statement:

“Every artist I suppose has a sense of what they think has been the importance of their work. But to ask them to define it is not really a fair question. My real answer would be, the answer is on the wall.”

So, you can read my adaptation of Strand’s position, re: the artist statement, above. Although, in the case of a photo book, I may amend it to read, the answer is on the pages of the book

# 5985 / scrub•landscape (book) ~ as few words as possible

March 18, 2022

***covers*** / *scrub, weeds, and tangles* ~ (embiggenable)

***scrub, weeds, and tangles statement*** ~ (embiggenable)

***spreads*** / *scrub, weeds, and tangles* ~ (embiggenable)

HERE IS ANOTHER OF THE 3 RECENTLY MADE PHOTO BOOKS , scrub, weeds,and tangles ~ seen but seldom looked at, mentioned in my last entry.

One of the challenges (for me) in the making of a photo book is creating the artist statement inasmuch as I would like to communicate to a viewer the idea of what caused me to make the pictures in a book but not to tell a viewer what or how to think about the pictures. And, at all costs, to avoid the use of artspeak.

However, in writing an artist statement one must realize that you are writing for 2 different audiences, 1.) the general viewing public, and-if one desires to garner gallery / art institution exhibition-2.) the gallery director / art institution curator. A balance must be attained, artist statement wise, for the 2 audiences in order to, 1.) avoid causing the general public viewers to think that you are a know-it-all, snooty artist, yet, on the other hand, 2.) cause the director / curator to think that you are not just a rube with a camera.

FYI, the scrub, weeds,and tangles ~ seen but seldom looked at photo book contains 16 pictures (not including my visual joke on the back cover).

# 5984 / around the house (book) ~ a certain form of place

March 17, 2022

OVER THE WEEK PAST I HAVE MADE 3 PHOTO BOOKS. I AM working on a third book with 2 more to follow. Each book will also be accompanied by an 8 print folio. All of this activity is in prep for a major full-on assault on gallery / art institution directors / curators.

One of the things that happened in the creation of the around the house book, which has happened prior, is one day after hitting the order button for the book on the POD site, I made the picture seen on the top of this entry. A picture I most definitely would have included in the book. Needless to write, it will be included in the around the house folio.

BTW, this body of work is yet another body of work that was not planned from the get-go. It is an assembled-after-the-fact, oh-look-what-I-found lurking in my photo library. The amazing thing (to me) about the work is that it is my first body of work that is made using the iPhone full-frame format. A fortuitous picture making happenstance if ever there was one.

FYI, the around the house book contain 20 pictures.

# 5981-83 / the new snapshot ~ here and gone again

March 15, 2022

***heading home from a cider run*** ~ (embiggenable)

THIS SATURDAY PAST WE HAD A SNOWFALL WHICH COVERED the then snow-free landscape. Later the same day we had a dramatically color-saturated sunset. An event that does not normally follow a snowstorm.

In any event, Spring was here for a week, then it was gone. Now, 3 days later, the snow is mostly gone and Spring is back again. Our cat is very happy.

# 5978-80 / still life (kitchen sink • kitchen life • decay & disgust) ~ what's in a name?

March 8, 2022

(embiggenable) - a *straight* photograph of a segment of the real world.

IT HAS BEEN A WHILE-A COUPLE YEARS?-SINCE I HAVE MADE a decay & disgust picture. I attribute that situation to the fact that the wife has been exceedingly diligent in making sure there is a deficit of decaying referents for my picture making fodder. However, since she is over 2,000 miles distant, suffice it to write that when the cat’s away the mice will play. In any event, I have a few thoughts about the picture label still life.

The decay & disgust and kitchen sink pictures were made 2 hours apart. Judging from my experience in the photo world, both pictures would be considered to be still life pictures. That is so even though the making of those 2 pictures could not be more different. To wit, call me a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist cuz, iMo, the decay & disgust picture is the only of the 2 that is worthy to be called a still life picture and that is due to the fact of the difference in their making.

I’m guessing that 40-50% of my commercial picture making was comprised of still life photography. That is, pictures that were made with total control, much like a painter, over the creation of the image. Starting with a blank canvas-some sort of background-and, piece by piece, add elements to create a pleasing arrangement and then add lighting to taste. There were times when this process happened over a couple of days-involving a couple people-cuz props had be acquired, a set constructed and lighting tests run.

While the decay & disgust picture was put together in a hour or so, every item in the picture was chosen and arranged by me. Even the lighting was chosen by me inasmuch as all of my decay & disgust pictures are made in the same setting on cloudy days.

On the other hand, the kitchen sink picture-like all of my kitchen sink pictures-is a found picture. I had no hand in selecting the pictured items nor in their arrangement (really, I never touch a thing in the sink prior to picturing it. Really. Honest Injun.) And the lighting is the light that was falling on the scene at the time that I noticed the arrangement.

Consequently, I do not consider the kitchen sink to be a still life picture. To my way of thinking, it is, more accurately, a straight photograph of a segment of the real world.

# 5975-77 / picture windows • landscape (civilized ku) ~ setting a few things straight

March 5, 2022

***on the campus of SUNY Plattsburgh*** ~ (embiggenable)

***I had the green light to make a picture*** ~ (embiggenable)

***why don’t we do it in the road***? ~ (embiggenable)

THIS ENTRY FALLS UNDER THE HEADING OF dispelling misconceptions.

item 1 - In light of quite a number of recent entries which featured pictures under the heading of around the house (to include kitchen life / sink), some might assume, incorrectly, that I don’t get out and around much. While I do get out and around quite frequently for a wide variety of reasons, there is something about the cold (and dreariness) of winter that works against my out-of-the-house picture making.

Be that as it may, yesterday I ventured north to see a photography exhibit, North by Nuuk: Greenland after Rockwell Kent, at the Burke Gallery on the campus of SUNY Plattsbugh State College. It was also a meet-the-artist event. The work was sorta decorative art documentary / photo journalistic in style, which is not to write that it was not very high quality. FYI, more on the artist later.

In any event, after a few errands I headed home and along the way my eye and sensibilities were pricked by a couple scenes, so I made a couple pictures. One was made from the driver’s seat of my car, for the other picture I got my lazy ass out of the car. Proof positive that I do, in fact, get out and about.

item 2 - I have been writing, some might think nattering, quite a bit about the notion of fine art. As a result, some might also think that I am thinking very highly of myself and my pictures, or, that I am setting myself up as an oracle or arbitrator on things fine art, photography wise. To be perfectly clear, if anyone is holding those notions, let me write here and now that you are wrong.

Simply put, I am merely offering my opinions on the subject, the intent of which is to stir up some thoughts and opinions on the subject from readers of this blog.

That written, I have some experience, re: my thoughts on the subject of fine art photography. For a period of time I was a contributing writer / critic, re: fine art photography, for the national fine art magazine, The New Art Examiner (long gone). Specifically, they assigned me to review various photography exhibitions (solo exhibitions) around the North East. I enjoyed doing so until it became excruciatingly obvious (to me) that people were taking my opinions way too seriously. As in, what I wrote could seriously effect, pro or con, a photographer’s career.

When I came to that realization, that was the end of that endeavor. I had absolutely no intention or desire to assume the mantle of the maker or the breaker of anyone’s career. After all, it was just my opinion. I was not speaking / writing ex cathedra.

And, FYI, whether of not my pictures are fine art pictures is not for me to judge. I’ll leave that decision up to gallery directors and the like.