ku) • people ~ this and that

November 29, 2021

THE MORE YOU LOOK, THE MORE YOU SEE. The more you see, the more you make pictures. The more pictures you make, the more you wonder what the hell you are going to do with all of them.

I have yet to come up with an answer / solution to that dilemma.

# 5851-52 / landscape (new topographics) ~ one of these things is not like the other thing

November 27, 2021

OVER PAST MONTH OR SO I HAVE BEEN MAKING A FAIR NUMBER of full-frame pictures. In most cases, doing so after making a square-frame picture of the small referent / scene.

What I have learned from this procedure is that , while I still see square, picture making vision wise, I only see full-frame wise when I switch from square crop to full-frame crop on the viewing screen of the iPhone. That is to write, I do not see the world full-frame, picture making wise, “naturally” / intuitively. Nevertheless, I do feel that once I impose the full-frame rectangle on my viewing screen, I have no trouble “arranging” the visual elements on the 2D visual plane within my imposed frame into a satisfactory visual form.

The interesting result of this crop-of-the-real-world switcheroo is that the full-frame picture-even though it is based upon / around the square instigating prick to my eye and sensibilities-presents (in print), a remarkably different look and feel from the square version thereof. That is not to write that one is better or worse than the other. They are just different.

So, considering the preceeding, were I to set out to make a full-frame body of work, I would set my on-screen crop to full-frame and, after being incited to make a picture by a prick to my eye and sensibilities, I would then only view the instigating referent through the full-frame crop on the iPhone screen.

However, I am intrigued by the idea of making a photographs about photography body of work which is comprised of full-frame + square frame pictures of the same referent. The intent being to have an exhibition with one wall displaying square prints opposing another wall displaying the full-frame prints.

# 5848-50 / landscape (ku) • kitchen life ~ forever and ever, amen

November 24, 2021

I HEARD AN INTERESTING PHRASE LAST EVENING ON A PBS SHOW-”staring into the distance of the present”-which had nothing to do with photography or art but I thought it kinda said something about my pictures. Especially if it is paired with a quote from George Tice:

It takes the passage of time before an image of a commonplace subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.

Over the past few years in particular I have willfully avoided, while making pictures, thinking about anything but responding to the moment. I do not think about “the eternal” or any other notion, re: why I am making the picture. My intent at the moment of making a picture is simply to be successful in capturing that which pricked my eye and sensibilities.

My idea of success is measured upon the viewing of the finished print and whether or not it instigates the same prick I experienced upon the viewing of the actual scene / referent. With those pictures that achieve that result, I know that they will repeatedly do so every time I view them, a quality which makes them and the depicted referent somewhat “eternal”.

5844-47 / people • places ~ Irish Eyes Are Smiliing

November 22, 2021

***the Golden Dome*** ***+ fall color*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***Touchdown Jesus*** ***+ me***~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***Notre Dame (Blue and Gold) about to score a touchdown*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

***train snacks in our roomette*** ~ (embiggenable) • iPhone

AFTER A 48 HOUR, 1750 MILE (280 by CAR / 1470 by TRAIN) TRIP with my grandson Hugo, I ‘m back home and anticipating Thanksgiving Day 3 days hence. The purpose of the trip was to attend the Notre Dame v Georgia Tech football game which Notre Dame-The Fighting Irish-won by the score of 55-0. Obviously, the game provided no drama but every play seemed like a highlight reel play.

Hugo made a picture of me standing in front of Touchdown Jesus-which faces and can be seen from the upper reaches of the stadium-and , unlike most others who were having their picture made in the same place, I got through it without raising my arms in imitation of Touchdown Jesus.

# 5840-43 / landscape ~ they didn't get the memo

November 19, 2021

A FEW YEARS SHY OF 50 YEARS AGO-4 YEARS TO BE EXACT-a memo was issued to picture makers that things had changed:

“A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signal[s] a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas [have given] way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance.”

Quite obviously, the bulk of “serious” picture makers never got the memo. Aided by the addition of Photoshop (and the like) to their kit, they are pounding out romanticized, over color saturated, HDR, art sauce slathered, natural world caricatures by the garbage truck load. And the general picture viewing public sees these picture as the bee’s knees, re: the depiction of the beauty of nature. To which I would opine that every pot has a lid.

On the other hand, for few years shy of 50 years (4 to be exact) , those picture makers-myself included-who got the memo have been pounding out unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance-the so-called New Topographcs- by the pickup truck load. The Fine Art World (and me) has tended to think that’s just fine.

All of which leaves me wondering, will there be a new memo coming down the shute?

FYI, I am off on a short getaway-Fri-Sun-to attend the Notre Dame v Georgia Tech football game in South Bend, Indiana. I am getting away by train-sleeping car roomette-to and fro. Looking forward to visiting the outstanding Notre Dame Museum of Art. My traveling companion is my teenage grandson Hugo. The trip itself is a long-desired re-enactment of my train trips (as a kid) to South Bend with my father to see ND games and visit the Studebaker Museum-my dad was a Studebaker Man.

# 5838-39 / landscapes (ku) • civilized ku ~ simple is as simple does

November 17, 2021

f8 AND BE THERE. WHICH IS A QUIPPY WAY OF SAYING, if you have your picture making device handy, no matter where you might find yourself (aka: “there”) you are ready to strike when the iron is hot. It ain’t rocket science and, iMo, it sure as hell ain’t hard (aka: difficult).

Consider Robert Adams’ idea about art:

'“if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.” – Robert Adams…

iMo, if you want to make a picture look simple (aka: “easily made”), keep it simple.

# 5835-37 / landscape (ku) • around the house ~ making invisible pictures

November 16, 2021

RECEIVED MY POD BOOK FROM SHUTTERFLY. As is always the case inamuch as I always spec their 6 color printing option, the print quality is excellent. Shutterfly is highly recommended.

Writing of books, I have approximately 50 photo books of pictures made by other picture makers-monographs, exhibition catalogs, and the like. iMo, photo books are the second best manner for the viewing of photographs, second only to prints on a gallery wall. On the same level as photo books, but rarely encountered is a portfolio of original prints.

What all of these viewing experiences have in common is that each manner of presentation / viewing: a) places an actual thing in front of the viewer, b) encourages the viewer to focus all of their attention on the thing in front of them, and, c) in most viewing cases, the viewing environment is generally conducive to quiet contemplation.

Considering the above, I am forever at a loss for words with the idea of, why does anyone make images but fails to print them in some fashion?

# 5831-34 / landscape (ku) ~ being forever in the moment,

November 12, 2021

I’VE HEARD IT SAID, READ IT WRITTEN A ZILLION TIMES, “ Be in the moment.” The directive is most often expressed when the person to whom it is uttered has allowed their attention to drift away from what is happening around him/her at any given moment in time. The “what is happening”-sights, sounds, activities, persons, et al-at any specific moment in time has been determined, by the admonitioner, to be worthy / demanding of undivided attention by one and all. And…

…iMo, one of the unique characteristics of the medium of photography and its apparatus is its ability to record, present and preserve select and discrete moments in time. Every picture (aka: photograph) ever made is an invitation for a viewer to see and vicariously experience, in his/her imagination, the “what was happening” in a past, fleeting moment in time. To wit, a picture issues an invitation to “be in the moment”. That is, to be vicariously in the preserved moment as presented in the picture and actively in the moment of viewing the picture.

Consider this from John Swarkowski:

“…immobilizing this thin slice of time has been a source of continuing fascination for the photographer. And while pursuing this experiment he discovered something else: he discovered that there was a pleasure and beauty in this fragmenting of time that had little to do with what was happening. It had to do rather with seeing the momentary patterning of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement.”

Re: “the momentary patterning of lines and shapes” - as I have previously written, I tend to see segments of the world as lines and shapes-as suggested by physical objects, light / shadow, color, et al-which are perceived from only a very specific POV. While the perceived lines and shapes are not concealed within the flow of their movement, how I perceive them is most definitely dependent upon my (and my picture making device) lack of movement - that is movement away from my very specific POV.

Consequently, I am unable, unless I remain nearly absolutely motionless, to “be in the moment”, re: the perceived relationship of lines and shapes-which for me, in most cases is “what is happening”-for any length of time. The pleasure of seeing is very short lived.

However, in some ways, a significant part of why I make pictures is cuz I can preserve and extend indefinitely that short lived pleasure of seeing, aka: being in the moment. And, in the best of cases, my pictures can present to viewers thereof a tangible and palatable perception of the “being in the moment” (and what it entailed) of a picture’s making.