# 5737-38 ~ excelsior! - onward and downward

August 28, 2021

killer raccoon ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone — ***killer raccoon*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

view from the porch ~ (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.

# 5875-78 / landscape•civilized ku ~ onward and up-rightward

July 9, 2021

AFTER 20 YEARS OF MAKING SQUARE PICTURES-my "serious" work-I find it a bit flummoxing to be tinkering around with the rectangular format.

During the tinkering-playing with horizontal and vertical format full frame picture making-several thoughts have come to mind. Setting aside the square format signature identity thing-the more I think about that, the more it fades into the background-a thought I never really considered before has risen to the fore. I.E., the predominance of pictures made with the horizontal format / aspect (especially landscape pictures). FYI, I have no numeric stats to back up that thought but, it does feel right.

Hardware wise, that idea does make sense inasmuch as, throughout the history of photography, an overwhelming number of cameras have had viewing apparatus that is oriented to the horizontal format / aspect. Especially so in the modern era. The major exception, camera wise, being the (predominantly) medium format square format cameras.

Picture making wise, there are exceptions to the horizontal aspect /format procivility. Most notable is the portrait genre wherein most portraits are made in the vertical format aspect (group portraits excepted). Also, in my commercial photography life, I would guess that 90% of the pictures I made were in the vertical format aspect. That's cuz most of my pictures were made for the printed page-magazines, annual reports, etc. And to my previous point, hardware wise, Making vertical format / aspect pictures required turning the come on its "side" (its "natural" orientation?), or in the case of a view camera, rotating the back.

All of the above aside (and back to the signature identity thing), in the Fine Art Photography World, format / aspect matters inasmuch as most Fine Art picture makers rarely mix formats / apsect in a given body of work. That is to write that the format / aspect they work with is an integral ingredient of their vision / the manner in which thet see. That proclivity (amongst many other "rules") is as sacroscant in the Fine Art World as the one-camera, one-lens MO. Like it or not, good thing or not, the Fine Art World demands, if a practioner wishes to be taken seriously, a consistent artistic vision, technique and concept wise, in a given body of work.

That written, the Fine Art World is OK with an artist creating a new body of work that differs from that of a previous body of work. So, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, I am considering my full frame pictures to be a new body of work. And, to be rigorously consistent, I am leaning toward the veritical retangular format / aspect for all of the work.

5810-15 / civilized ku•ku ~ ya gotta do what ya gotta do

June 8, 2021

SITTING IN A WINDOW SEAT ON AN AIRPLANE seems to make mandatory the making of a picture out of the window. In all honesty, I will admit to not being immune to this dictate.

Although, in defense of my ability to get at least a little bit outside the box, I have, every once in a while, made a series of pictures of a flying experience which ceates a little essay. In this case the story goes like this:

1. Albuquerque, New Mexico - airport* ambiance
2. kill time having breakfast / Bloody Mary
3. notice cloud through plane window
4-6. sequence - approach to Chicago's O'Hare airport

To be certain, while I have not reinvented the wheel, picture making wise, I do believe that the triptych makes a rather nice / visually interesting print. A significant part of that interest is the plane in the sky above Chicago - you can see it if you are viewing the image on a large enough screen. FYI, the middle picture was made over Lake Michigan.

*the Albuquerque place where you get on airplane is not an airport. According to all of the signs, to include highway exit signs, it is the Sunport.

# 5808-09 / landscape•ku•fauna ~ f8 and be there

June 5, 2021

I AM CERTAIN THAT IT HAS BEEN SAID that the iPhone is not suited for making wildlife pictures. To which I write, "HA!" Just have the cojones-or, perhaps, the lack of common sense-to get out of the car walk, slow and quiet, up to the subject like you own the place. Easy, peasy.

Pictured in this entry are; 1. Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. That picture was made in close proximity to their place of residence, the 2. Rio Grande River Gorge (just a ways outside of Toas, New Mexico). At this location, the gorge is 800 ft deep.

The sheep, which were driven nearly to extinction in New Mexico, were reintroduced to a 50 mile(?) section of the Rio Grande gorge a few decades ago (?). There is now an established herd of approximately 350-400 animals. Yesterday, apparently a few of the herd emerged from the gorge for a late afternoon snack and I was just in the right place at the right time.

5787-5792 / flora•people•civilized ku ~ what did you do this past weekend?

May 24, 2021

OVER 46 HOURS THIS WEEKEND PAST THE WIFE and I drove 700 miles (round trip) to Rochester, NY to go the Lilac Festival in Highland Park* and to catch up with a few friends and family.

At the Lilac Festival I made a picture of the wife at spot where there was sign which stated that it was a perfect spot take a picture. I also enjoyed a refreshing $8.00 lemonade drink while the wife had a $6.00 Creamsicle smoothie.

FYI, I grew up immediately adjacent-about a 3 minute walk-to Highland Park, a beautiful setting, covering 150 acres (61 ha), of hills and valleys created from glacial deposits. Spent a lot of time in the park, skateboarding down the paved walkways, ice skating in winter, disappearing into the woods (overlooking the city) with my girl friend to watch the submarine races and variety of other activities.

On Sunday, during our return-to-home trip, we had a delightful late morning breakfast at the "famous" Keyes' Pancake House-a long time favorite of mine-in Old Forge in the south central region of the Adirondacks. We both had pancakes. Arriving home at 3PM, we spent a relaxing afternoon on the porch with the cat while imbibing a few drams liquid refreshment.

Kinda felt like old times, aka: pre-Covid, thanks to the vacines and a (majority) pandemic mandate abiding population in our state.

*Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to seem like a natural occurrence of trees, shrubs and flowers, Highland Park, a city park, is actually a completely planned—and planted—arboretum or “tree garden.” In addition to over 1200 lilac shrubs, the park boasts a Japanese Maple collection, 35 varieties of sweet-smelling magnolias, a barberry collection, a rock garden with dwarf evergreens, 700 varieties of rhododendron, azaleas, mountain laurel and andromeda, horse chestnuts, spring bulbs and wildflowers and a large number of trees. The park’s pansy bed features 10,000 plants, designed into an oval floral “carpet” with a new pattern each year.

#5771-77 / landscape (ku)•kitchen sink/life•gas stations (civilized ku)•people ~ on discursive promiscuity (36 hours)

May 17, 2021

IN THIS ENTRY ARE MOST, BUT not all, of my picture making activity over the last 36 hours. Discursive Promiscuity wise, I did not set out to picture any particular thing / referent during that time frame. In fact, I did not "set out" at all. The activity was instigated soley-as I moved about my world-by whenever and whatever pricked my eye and sensibilities. And, as mentioned in my last entry, during post picture making processing-some on the iPhone, some on the desktop-I was able to sort the pictures into appropriate body of work folders to include, kitchen sink / kitchen life / landscape (ku) / people / gas stations (civilized ku) and a relatively new body of work, narrow DOF.

FYI, promiscuity wise, in addition to my separate body of work folders, I also save all of my pictures, regardless of theme, into 1 of 2 other folders: a) every µ4/3 picture of have ever made, or b) every iPhone picture I have ever made. In total there are approximately 12,200 processed pictures in those 2 folders.

FYI # 2: for the iPhone users or iPhone as a respectalbe picture making device curious followers out there, on the last entry a link to an article, Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Sophistication Simplification, on the Magnum website was left by Geoff Morgan. It's an interesting read. From the article's intro:

Gueorgui Pinkhassov’s new book, Sophistication Simplification, takes the photographer’s Instagram work as a point of departure, in “an attempt to return images from the virtual world into the usual, material one.” On the occasion of its release, the Magnum photographer reflects on his practice, the role of the iPhone and the changing of cultural mores prompted by the digital revolution, changes in the media and the role of photography. The collection of “small sketches made on the run—the fruits of a fleeting moment” is available to purchase through his publisher.

# 5740-41 / landscape•people ~Rockwell Kent-ish

April 26, 2021

WHILE DRIVING-TOP DOWN IN THE ABARTH-THIS PAST SATURDAY-I drove around a bend over a knoll and was confronted with a Rockwell Kent painting, Adirondack scene wise, apparition.

Rockwell Kent was a prominent 20th century painter, print maker, illustrator who spent most of his adult life on his farm (with studio), Asgaard*, 3 miles up the road from my home in Au Sable Forks (pop.541), NY in the Adirondack Mountains / Forest Preserve. FYI, that's his farm with barn in the above hay bale painting.

*named after a location associated with gods. It is depicted in a multitude of Old Norse sagas and mythological texts.

When I moved to the Adirondacks, 21 years ago, Kent had died 30 years prior. His farm was still in operation (new owners) and is where we still get most of our beef, poultry, pork and aclaimed-around-the-world goat cheese. We are friends with the owners of the farm so on occasion I am able to go up to the farm and hang out in Kent's empty stand-alone studio.

In any event, every once in a while I do come across a Kent-like looking landscape. I never have pictured one. However, the mountain landscape pictured here was so much like that found in many a Kent Adirondack painting that, I swear, the Abarth came to stop on its own and seemed to indicate that it was not going anywhere until I made a picture.

While thinking about making this entry, I recalled that I had made a picture, in the exact same location (and I do mean exact!) where Rockwell Kent had made a painting-in Co Donegal, Ireland near the location of the so-called "Ghost" fishing town, aka: Port. At the time I made the picture, I was not aware of Kent's very well known painting, "Annie McGinley" (presented in this entry). It was not until I returned from Ireland that I discovered the painting while researching Kent's time painting in Ireland.

Upon viewing the painting (online), I will admit to having a freaky spine-tingling moment as I realized, not only had I trod in Kent's near-exact footprints, but I had also made a picture with a similar motif ... a lone woman in a dramatic location. In my case, my wife. In Kent's case, most likely his Irish Lassie inamorata inasmuch as he was a well known seeker of many women's "affection".

PS I was very lucky to come across a very nice signed, first edition copy of Kent's 1940 book, This Is My Own. An interesting illustrated telling of his life and times in Au Sable Forks.

# 5637-42 / ku•landscape•natural world ~ some of these pictures are just like the others

February 12, 2021

IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT EVERYTHING THAT CAN be pictured has been pictured. While that idea is not exactly true, it is close enough to be considered to be generally true. Case in point ....

In my last entry, wherein I wrote that I was rumaging around in my picture library looking for pictures for my next entry, this entry is the "next" entry to which I was referring. I was looking for pictures like the ones seen in this entry in response to my discovery of an announcement of an exhibit / book / limited edition folio of new pictures, NATURAL ORDER, from Edward Burtynsky

I admit that, when I viewed Burtynsky's NATURAL ORDER pictures, my first thought was that he had hacked into my picture library and "borrowed" some of my pictures for his project. A project which he undertook during the recent pandemic and which I have been pursuing for the last 20 years.

My second thought was that being a well known, "big name" picture maker sure makes it easy to get an exhibition along with all the attendant add-ons. I have yet to have an exhibit of my thickets & tangles work which could be due to the fact that, to date, I have not submited a porfolio of that work to any galleries...a prime example of you never get what you don't ask for.

All of that written, re: everything that can be pictured has been pictured - if a crow were to fly due west from where I live (and make pctures), in about 200 miles the crow would fly directly over the location where Burtynsky made his NATURAL ORDER pictures. So, given the nesrly identical flora-zones, it really is no surprise that our pictures are so similar-not exactly the same, but similar. Similar enough that Burtynsky could slip a few my pictures into his exhibit-and I could do likewise with a few of his pictures into my body of work-and no one would be the wiser.

As similar as our pictres might be, here's where I part ways with Burtynsky...in his Artist Statement, Burtynsky writes that his pictures are "from a place in [his] mind that aspires to wrest order out of chaos and to act as a salve in these uncertain times." He also asserts that "these images are an affirmation of ... the natural order in all things."

Unlike Burtynsky, I am not striving to wrest order out of chaos. Rather, my pictures are an attempt to illustrate and revel in-for its own sake-the visual beauty and energy to be found / seen in the disorderly / chaotic / seemingly serendipitous entanglements of selective parts of the natural world. And, my pictures are not intended to be a "salve" but rather, at least at first glance, a visual irritant.

That written, I do believe it is quite possible to be drawn into a protractive, quiet contemplation of the complex field of visual energy to be seen in both of our pictures. However, where that comtemplation might lead to is up to the viewer.