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.
Responding to a call for submissions for an exhibition, Environmental Portraits, I submitted the above pictures. The pictures were culled from my picture library comprised of digital pictures made over the last 18+ years.
The call for submissions stated:
An environmental portrait is an image made in a place where the subject lives, works, rests, or plays. This setting adds tremendously to the story of who the subject is—their trade, their passion, their fears, or simply how and where their time is spent.It wasn't until a few days after the submission deadline had passed - as I was prepping the pictures for this blog entry - that I realized that my selection of pictures did not need to be limited to my existing picture library. In fact, if I had not experienced a brain fart, I would have remembered that I have a pretty extensive body of environmental portrait works which were created on assignment for magazines, advertising agencies and corporate clients. The examples of those pictures, as seen below, were created with the environment as an integral element to enhance a story, re: who the depicted person was.
We seek images in which an environment interacts with the subject to create a storied whole — images in which our interest is piqued and we are introduced to the unique world of the subject, enhancing our understanding of another being.
Even though people pictures have not been in conspicuous evidence on my blogs - although, on the increase with my the new snapshot work - environmental portraits were one of my commercial specialties. I enjoyed the work. Got to meet some interesting people.
baker ~ from A Day in the Life of Pittsburgh assignment
chef ~ from a restaurant-in a former church- review assignment
opera singer ~ from a Notables Spill the Beans about their favorite restaurant
Composer / Conductor ~ for magazine profile article
bar patrons ~ for magazine article about iconic Pittsburgh neighborhood bars
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.
While in North Jersey, during a search for a chocolate-covered vanilla-cream filled donut as well as a well above average hot dog, I came upon an antique shop that looked to be a well worn antique in and of itself. Add to that allure the fact that it was a warm sunny day so the owner - somewhat of a patenaed character himself - was lounging on an antique chaise sette out in front of the shop, all of which virtually demanded a stop and look see.
I was pleased as punch upon entering the shop inasmuch as it was even better than I thought it would be as indicated by the exterior. It was crammed with shelves (no antique furniture other than what was outside) that were in turn crammed - literally, every square inch - with stuff. Even though the shop was a small single room, I could have spent an entire day in the place and not seen everthing there was to see.
Fortunately, one of the things I did see was a floor standing jewerly cabinet with 10 drawers which, upon investigation, were filled with old snapshots. The wife immediately gave me a look which implied that my time to browse the collection was short so I quickly sorted through the top 2 drawers and selected 20 pictures which looked good - interesting referents and decent condition - to me.
The only remaining objective was to find out how much $$$ was required to leave the shop as a happy guy. Fortune smiled on me once again inasmuch as the cost was a mere $10.00USD.
RE: During my donut quest I had been waxing nearly poetic about Krispy Kreme donut shops because they are the only donut shops where I can be assured of finding chocolate-covered vanilla-cream-filled donuts. Unforunately, they seem to be few and far between. So it was Karma that, while my donut quest was unsuccessful, I was able to settle for a reasonable consolation prize in the form of a Krispy Kreme delivery truck bank - another item I found at the aforementioned antique shop.
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.
from the POV of my hotel bed ~ Binghamton, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone
pile o' coats ~ Binghamton, NY (embiggenable) • iPhone
Robert and I at hotel bar ~ Binghamton, NY (embiggenable) • µ4/3
Picture of Robert and I was made by my new picture making acquaintance using my Olympus camera. FYI, that's me on the left.
roadside tangle ~ in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenable) • µ4/3
wedding reception ~ (embiggenable) • µ4/3
In a recent email from a self-proclaimed "fellow photo-geezer", whose site I visit almost daily, the geezer wrote:
.... the majority of my ‘audience’ never spends more time on the images than to identify the subject matter. Sad, but true.
That observation is, arguably, "sad, but true". However, in a real sense, it is a phenomenon predicated upon the medium of photography's primary characteristic - its ability to render realistic representations of the real world - hence elevating the depicted referent, in the eyes of most viewers, as the raison d'etre for the making of a picture.
iMo, in the case of snapshots, the depicted referent is, in fact, both the reason for the making of a picture and for holding a viewer's interest in that picture. That notion, together with the fact that snapshots are the most commonly made type of pictures, accounts for the subject matter centered attitude of most viewers of pictures.
However, my "fellow photo-geezer" is not engaged in making snapshots. His picture making intentions are more concerned (or so it seems to me) with the making of pictures which exhibit an artistic sensibility. That is, iMo, pictures which are not dependent upon subject matter / the depicted referent for exhibiting artistic merit, but rather upon sensory properties - shape, line, value, color space, etc. - which are organized to create unity, balance, imbalance, movement, stasis, serenity, agitation, etc. All of which is implemented to evoke an emotional / sensory response in the eye and sensibilities of a viewer.
A response which can be, and most often is, totally independent of the depicted referent in a picture. A visual phenomenon which is capable of creating a beautiful picture even though a depicted referent is not a thing of conventional beauty.