Here's the first:
Here's the second:
Your thoughts are welcome.
Monday, December 11, 2006
2 New Pix
I scanned and printed two new photos that may prove the start of a series. They take everyday domestic objects and look at them in an altered way. The first two make use of my macro lens and I suspect most of the later ones will do the same because of the way closeup views adjust, hide, or confuse the context in interesting ways.
Here's the first:
Here's the second:
Your thoughts are welcome.
Here's the first:
Here's the second:
Your thoughts are welcome.
Friday, December 1, 2006
The Other Side of Things
I'm in a little bit of stasis now on the professional front; there's one major project ongoing and I'm waiting to hear about another feature documentary project. Along the way I'll be seeking out other opportunities to fill in my available time. So it's a good time to say a few words about what will be the photography side of this new blog.
Over time I intend to post photographs on my company website (there's a link on this page but the site isn't yet online). Less often I'll post a photo if it's relevant to my blog posts. As my photo work evolves I hope to offer pictures for sale, even though only time will reveal if there's a market for my still work. As I do so there will be the occasional posting about what I intend as a very intentional process to create a body of purely creative work in still photography.
Making documentary films is a very collaborative process. For a few especially successful documentarians it is perhaps a bit less so, but on balance there are a lot of significant contributors to a filmed non-fiction story. I find that I have a creative urge that just isn't completely satisfied by the production of documentaries. This is the primary reason I've become serious about still photography. I want the focused satisfaction of handling a created artifact and knowing that it is the product of my own vision and skill. Maybe in part it's a validation thing. I can't claim to know for sure. But whatever its cause, I know that I want to devote a significant portion of my personal energy to photography. I guess it's "fine art" photography, but beyond doing it I don't care much what it's called.
I have never owned a digital camera. 30 years ago I briefly owned a 1957 vintage Leica M3, and one of my deepest regrets is that I sold this camera to secure funds for an activity I never followed through. The sharpness of the images and the way the camera melted into my hands and eye was an absolute wonder. For many years I had fantasies of again owning a Leica. Although this fantasy isn't completely gone, I now have a wonderful stand-in for that Leica: a Nikon F3 from about 1980. It's an old camera of my father's and since he gifted it to me about a year ago I've been carrying it with me most of the time and taking a lot of pictures. I have the camera and a good range of lenses and accessories, and I love the pictures it takes. You can see one of them near the top of this page.
Although I have traditional darkroom equipment it sits gathering dust in the basement of a cousin's house, and I've taken to finishing my pictures digitally. I use a Nikon 35mm scanner and print on an HP photo printer. It's not the most capable among photo printers, but it will do until such time that I can justify buying a more carefully chosen printer. I have made some good prints with it, but there are some images that so far I don't have the skill to print well. There's much I still have to learn about manipulating photos digitally for printing. As long as my skills keep growing I'll be content.
Rather than just taking an endless stream of unrelated pictures, I'm working toward spending some of my time with a thematic approach, even while I remain open to the spontaneity of carrying my camera and using it on the spur of the moment. There are two areas in which I want to develop groups of images.
The first is to take nature pictures, mostly in macro mode (magnifying things shot very close up with a specially designed lens). But rather than going after the simply beautiful I want to document nature in other guises: after the beauty has faded or details that evoke the harder aspects of the natural world. I'm not looking for the ugly, but things that are evocative and maybe even philosophical in tone.
The second is, in a way, a domestic version of this idea: to take macro pictures that give a sideways look at things that we often think of as familiar. Some may be of my young son's toys seen so close up that they hover between looking like what they are but also slightly fooling the eye into thinking they're much bigger or more "real" than they are. For example I took a closeup of one of son's toy cars that's so tight that less than the whole car fills the frame. Until you look at it carefully you might think it's a full size car...but then you notice it's sitting on something that doesn't quite compute: one has to think to decode the reed-like fibers of the carpet below the little car. So it's about exploring the mundane through extreme amplification and muddling the context in which the objects appear. We'll see if I can pull this off while making pictures that also work as pictures.
So I think you see what I'm getting at. As I post more about my photography I'll be updating you about my progress. I'll let you see the occasional picture and direct you to my photo site so you'll also be able to judge for yourself whether or not I'm succeeding - assuming you care enough to look in the first place!
Over time I intend to post photographs on my company website (there's a link on this page but the site isn't yet online). Less often I'll post a photo if it's relevant to my blog posts. As my photo work evolves I hope to offer pictures for sale, even though only time will reveal if there's a market for my still work. As I do so there will be the occasional posting about what I intend as a very intentional process to create a body of purely creative work in still photography.
Making documentary films is a very collaborative process. For a few especially successful documentarians it is perhaps a bit less so, but on balance there are a lot of significant contributors to a filmed non-fiction story. I find that I have a creative urge that just isn't completely satisfied by the production of documentaries. This is the primary reason I've become serious about still photography. I want the focused satisfaction of handling a created artifact and knowing that it is the product of my own vision and skill. Maybe in part it's a validation thing. I can't claim to know for sure. But whatever its cause, I know that I want to devote a significant portion of my personal energy to photography. I guess it's "fine art" photography, but beyond doing it I don't care much what it's called.
I have never owned a digital camera. 30 years ago I briefly owned a 1957 vintage Leica M3, and one of my deepest regrets is that I sold this camera to secure funds for an activity I never followed through. The sharpness of the images and the way the camera melted into my hands and eye was an absolute wonder. For many years I had fantasies of again owning a Leica. Although this fantasy isn't completely gone, I now have a wonderful stand-in for that Leica: a Nikon F3 from about 1980. It's an old camera of my father's and since he gifted it to me about a year ago I've been carrying it with me most of the time and taking a lot of pictures. I have the camera and a good range of lenses and accessories, and I love the pictures it takes. You can see one of them near the top of this page.
Although I have traditional darkroom equipment it sits gathering dust in the basement of a cousin's house, and I've taken to finishing my pictures digitally. I use a Nikon 35mm scanner and print on an HP photo printer. It's not the most capable among photo printers, but it will do until such time that I can justify buying a more carefully chosen printer. I have made some good prints with it, but there are some images that so far I don't have the skill to print well. There's much I still have to learn about manipulating photos digitally for printing. As long as my skills keep growing I'll be content.
Rather than just taking an endless stream of unrelated pictures, I'm working toward spending some of my time with a thematic approach, even while I remain open to the spontaneity of carrying my camera and using it on the spur of the moment. There are two areas in which I want to develop groups of images.
The first is to take nature pictures, mostly in macro mode (magnifying things shot very close up with a specially designed lens). But rather than going after the simply beautiful I want to document nature in other guises: after the beauty has faded or details that evoke the harder aspects of the natural world. I'm not looking for the ugly, but things that are evocative and maybe even philosophical in tone.
The second is, in a way, a domestic version of this idea: to take macro pictures that give a sideways look at things that we often think of as familiar. Some may be of my young son's toys seen so close up that they hover between looking like what they are but also slightly fooling the eye into thinking they're much bigger or more "real" than they are. For example I took a closeup of one of son's toy cars that's so tight that less than the whole car fills the frame. Until you look at it carefully you might think it's a full size car...but then you notice it's sitting on something that doesn't quite compute: one has to think to decode the reed-like fibers of the carpet below the little car. So it's about exploring the mundane through extreme amplification and muddling the context in which the objects appear. We'll see if I can pull this off while making pictures that also work as pictures.
So I think you see what I'm getting at. As I post more about my photography I'll be updating you about my progress. I'll let you see the occasional picture and direct you to my photo site so you'll also be able to judge for yourself whether or not I'm succeeding - assuming you care enough to look in the first place!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
One From the Road
I'm writing late tonight from Princeton, NJ, where I had "dinner and an movie" with a small group of Princetonians. I didn't know before today that Princeton University consists of a small group of "colleges" that provide students with a sense of a smaller school within the larger Princeton collective. It's somewhat modeled after the college structure at British universities.
I was invited to talk and share stories about Paper Clips at Forbes College of Princeton University. I was invited by Patrick Caddeau who is the Forbes College Director of Studies. He also happens to be a scholar of Japanese film and literature in general and The Tale of Genji in particular. I will soon complete his new book that examines the work of a 19th Century Japanese scholar who wrote a uniquely interesting analysis of the Genji. In fact I initially contacted him regarding my Genji film and then when he found out about Paper Clips he invited me to make a presentation here. We had a stimulating conversation about Genji before the dinner meeting and screening of my film. It was a small but appreciative gathering, and now I sit collecting my thoughts at the Holiday Inn where they've put me up for the night.
I was invited to talk and share stories about Paper Clips at Forbes College of Princeton University. I was invited by Patrick Caddeau who is the Forbes College Director of Studies. He also happens to be a scholar of Japanese film and literature in general and The Tale of Genji in particular. I will soon complete his new book that examines the work of a 19th Century Japanese scholar who wrote a uniquely interesting analysis of the Genji. In fact I initially contacted him regarding my Genji film and then when he found out about Paper Clips he invited me to make a presentation here. We had a stimulating conversation about Genji before the dinner meeting and screening of my film. It was a small but appreciative gathering, and now I sit collecting my thoughts at the Holiday Inn where they've put me up for the night.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
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