civilized ku # 5221-23 (kitchen life) ~ how a thing looks like photographed

July 2, 2018

I came across the quote below and it got me a thinkin' ....

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance.” ~ Aristotle.

.... At one time on both of my 2 previous blog incarnations, I wrote extensively regarding photography from the standpoint of the medium and its apparatus - read the word apparatus to mean 1."a complex structure within an organization or system." Do NOT read it to mean 2."the technical equipment or machinery needed for a particular activity or purpose."

In those writings I addressed ideas such as truth and meaning to be had/found in pictures. iMo, I came down on the side that held that a picture has the ability to be a very accurate / true representation of the real world albeit "just" a moment in time from a singular POV (literal and figurative). And fyi, some commenters got all angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin like, re: "true" and "real" world .... a rabbit hole down which I really did not want to venture.

Re; meaning(s) to had in a picture - my position on that idea is that all pictures have meaning(s). However, while a picture maker can attempt to imbue a picture with a specific (or general) meaning(s), it is up to a viewer of a picture to divine what meaning(s) a picture might have, a meaning(s) which is totally dependent upon the mind set / belief system / experiences that a viewer brings to the table, picture viewing wise. In a very real sense a picture is a kind of rorschach test.

So, all of that written, here's my thinkin' re: Mr. Aristole's opinion .... iMo, "the aim of art", art which is meant to be seen as opposed to being heard, read, or felt (in the physcical sense), aka: the visual arts, is to visually represent the outward appearance of something, or, perhaps more accurately, some thing or another. The result of which is to create a physical object which can be seen / viewed.

In the case of photography, that object is a print and that object is a thing, in and of itself, which has its own outward appearance independent of what it depicts. The print's outward appearance, in the best examples thereof, is what incites / influences, in the viewer's mind, the meaning(s) to be had in a picture.

That written, I am by no means certain, that the viewer's perceived meaning(s) devined from a picture can represent / reveal the "inner significance" of anything (or any thing), aka: a depicted referent. I mean, as an example, does a rock have an inner significance? How about a visually interesting Stephen Shore street scene or William Eggleston light bulb on a ceiling? What is their inner significance?

If there is an inner significance to be gleaned from a photographic print (an object with its own outward appearance), I would suggest that it is the inner significance of the picture maker him/herself ....

.... what was it that incited Shore to picture that street? What did he want me to see? Did he intend to imbue the scene with some hidden (or obvious) inner significance / meaning?

My suspicion is that Shore's-and many other picture making greats-motivation for making such a picture was so he could see what the thing looked like photographed, or, as Garry Winogrand opined .....

Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.

Then again, Shore said ....

It seems to me that a good photographer is a combination of two things: one is interesting perceptions and the other is an understanding of how the world is translated by a camera into a photograph.

Aristotle was pretty smart guy, but I think he got it wrong (think interpration = finding inner significanace) ....

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world — in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings. Susan Sontag

civilized ku # 5221-23 ~ Bada bing, bada boom

June 30, 2018

The more I make pictures with my iPhone 7+ camera module, the more I like it. And the more I use Snapseed to process the pictures on the iPhone the more I like it.

The 3 pictures presented in this entry were each made and processed in a grand total of 10 minutes (max, maybe less). The entire picture making process is uncannily quick and easy. It is so quick and easy that I feel like I am "cheating".

That written, I do feel that I have attained, as was my intention, a picture making M.O. which harkens back to Kodak's early advertising theme, "You push the button, we do the rest." While it's true that I am "do(ing) the rest", it all seems so effortless and fast that it seems very much like my SX-70 Polaroid days. Bada bing, bada boom / slam, bam, thank you ma'am.

FYI, I made these pictures using the HDR setting and the Portrait mode (for the narrow DOF look). Using Snapseed I added perimeter soft focus, vignette, grain, selective burn / dodge / saturation, curves for individual color channel adjustments and, finally, a border. All the while sipping a bourbon.

civilized ku # 5220 ~ I'll need a cooler full of beer (Beau's Lug Tread lagered ale)

June 29, 2018

this morning ~ embiggenable • µ4/3 — **this morning** ~ embiggenable • µ4/3

Today marks the start of a blisteringly hot week. That written, I and the wife are spending the 4th-7th of July on the West Coast in San Diago.

The upside of the trip is the fact that I rented a Fiat 124 Spider convertible-from a private individual-to tool around in out there. I'll probably have to get one of those hats with an mini umbrella attached in order to keep my brain from frying.

Also, I'll probably make some pictures.

still life problem / conundrum ~ selecting

June 28, 2018

sweepings with chipmunk ~ embiggenable • µ4/3 — **sweepings with chipmunk** ~ embiggenable • µ4/3

As mentioned in my last entry, it's time to select some pictures, min. 5 / max 7, for submission to the Still Life: Elevating the Mundane juried exhibition. After a brief look at my picture library, only through the latest additions (6 months), I came up with the 24 pictures in the above ganged grouping + 3 decay pictures. I also created a picture, sweepings with chipmunk, specifically for submission to this exhibition = 29 submission possibilities.

Making submission choices is always difficult and somewhat of a guessing game - will my choices appeal to the juror (as opposed to me)? I have my favorites but I am not certain any of them would be a good choice for this exhibition theme. Taking into account the fact that what I considered to be very strong submissions to some exhibition themes that garnered no selections and the fact that one through-in / after-thought submission was selected and given and Honorable Mention, making choices sorta comes down to like throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks.

At this point in the selecting game, the only thing I know for certain is the chipmunk + 1 of the decay pictures are in.

environmental portraits ~ and the "winners" are ...

June 28, 2018

µ4/3 / iPhone ~ embiggenable — **µ4/3 / iPhone** ~ embiggenable

2 of my pictures were selected for the online gallery Environment Portrait exhibition. Which was somewhat unexpected inasmuch as I didn't think that my submissions were especially strong. Nevertheless, the juror, Elizabeth Avedon (step daughter of Richard Avedon) thought they were good enough to be selected from amongst the 2,000+ submissions.

Up next: selecting pictures for submission to the juried Still Life: Elevating the Mundane exhibition.

vintage snapshots ~ what a "find"!

June 27, 2018

While I haven't whole heartedly committed myself to the acquisition of vintage snapshots, I have been keeping an eye out for likely sources of such things. Usually that means antique or "curiosity" shops.

While I have not fully come to grips with my attraction to snapshots, I am aware enough to know that, when searching through bins and boxes of vintage snapshots, what pricks my eye and sensibilities are pictures which could be described as representative of the human condition. That is to write, pictures of ordinary people doing ordinary things and expressing a wide range of attitudes / emotions in the process.

My 2 most recent finds, pictured above, are especially loaded with humanity in evidence. The 2 halloween pictures, masked and unmasked, are without a doubt the highlite of my nascent vintage snapshot collection. The pictures are very nearly a century old - mostly likely c.1920, as indicated by the WWI doughboy costume (front row, 4th from right). iMo, individually, each picture is something of a jem. Together, they are awesome. Re: the women with the goofy shades - it just made me laugh when I saw, so I had to have it.

Re: I had to have it - imagine my surprise when I found these 2 jems that, in fact, I already had them. After 20+ years of languishing in a box in my attic in my mother's early-life photo album, I "discovered" them a few weeks ago ... which means that they are even more special than if I had discovered them in a box in a curiosity shop.

Upon their discovery, the halloween pictures were a bit of a mystery. The first thought I had was that the pictures were of one of my mother's classes (she was a school teacher). However, when the doughboy character caught my eye, which indicated the c.1920 dating, it was obvious that my mother had to be in the picture even though I was unable to identify her, until ....

... I revisited the album in search of a picture of my mother at the approximate age of the kids in the picture. It was then that I found a studio portrait of her with a nearly identical expression and facial features as the kid in the back row, 2nd from the right. Without a doubt, that kid is my mother. FYI, I don't believe my mother is in the goofy shades picture. My thought is that she made the picture in as much the album is replete with pictures of her and her friends having lots of fun.

What a "find", indeed.

FYI ~ adirondack snapshot project

June 26, 2018

Work on my Adirondack Snapshots project is at approximately the halfway point. To date I have completed 6 volumes (33 pictures in each) with accompanying 6x6 prints.

Last week I attended a small gathering at an arts organization at which Summer season planned events were introduced. Just for the hell of it I brought one of my Adirondack Snapshot volumes with the accompanying prints to the event. The intent was to show it to a few people in order to get some feedback. As it turned out, the interest and comments were overwhelmingly postive. In fact, it not be an exaggeration to write that most were absolutely mesmerized the pictures, the presentation and the concept.

Consequently, there will soon be an exhibition-a work-in-progress event-in the organization's gallery. Date to be determined.

civilized ku # 5117-19 ~ the living is easy

June 22, 2018

Summer has arrived.