Nocturne #34, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Untitled Study (Nocturne) #23, 2008
I should try & come up with a more specific title for these photographs. Untitled Study (insert vague but descriptive word here) is my standard working title for pieces that haven't yet settled into a thematic group. The photos seem to be organizing themselves ~ they all have an abstract, painterly, landscape-like quality but I'm still not completely sure where I'm headed with them. The first photographs began as a casual little experiment; one of those what-would-happen-if-I-did-this sort of things. Surprisingly, a series rapidly emerged ~ one that I could actually exert a sort of loose, technical control over & in an odd way, was also (again in the loosest sense) conceptually cohesive. Of course having said that, I think it's also quite apparent that a lack of control & chance/accident are a big factor in how these photos turned out ~ in fact a crucial part of the process. It's easy to forget that sometimes a great deal can be learned by just letting go & allowing things to just happen; trusting that ones instincts & experience will tell you when the perfect moment has come to press the shutter release. I realize this sounds a bit like the luck of the draw or a coin toss & while that's not a the worst analogy one could use, there is still the implication that it's all a matter of luck. No, what I'm talking about has more to do with the conscious (learned), or unconscious (innate) ability to anticipate the probabilities & then work with that in mind.
On the other hand, maybe we should just think of these photographs as controlled accidents.
On the other hand, maybe we should just think of these photographs as controlled accidents.
(By the way, please feel free to comment. As you can tell from my rambling post, one can only work in a vacuum for so long…)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Crescent Moon (Secaucus, NJ), 2008
I'm beginning to feel obligated to document the lunar phases… I had wanted to catch La Luna when there was just the merest sliver of a waxing crescent, a surprisingly delicate, luminescent sickle that hints at the fullness to come… I've discovered that at twilight there is a very small window of opportunity when the moon looks her best against the still blue sky. Unfortunately, Thursday evening at that exact moment ~ I happened to be on a long stretch of elevated highway & had nowhere to pull over. The decisive moment passed & I had missed it. However, Friday evening, while standing in the parking lot of a liquor store in Secaucus, NJ…
I didn't.
(Admittedly, 24 hours later our inconstant moon had become a little thicker than I would have wanted ~ more croissant than sickle ~ but still very lovely & evocative.)
Friday, October 3, 2008
Untitled Study (Nocturne), 2008
It should be obvious to anyone familiar with contemporary photography that I'm wandering about in well traveled territory with the pictures posted at RMH ~ no terra incognita here. I do not consider myself a photographer, per se, since I lack the enormous amount of technical knowledge necessary to be truly articulate with a camera ~ in essence, I just take carefully considered snapshots. I am, by training & inclination, a painter but for the past few years there simply has not been the time to paint, or for that matter even draw properly. To be done well, serious painting requires an enormous amount of time & more importantly, focus. Since I have a relatively small amount of time to call my own these days, I've been using photography to keep my creative "muscles" from getting sluggish & flabby. These photos (& I don't just mean the ones in this post but all the photos I've posted over the past six months) are done with an antiquated "point & shoot" digital camera & to be honest, I actually consider them to be closer to a kind of automatic drawing. (No, I'm not going to go into a detailed explanation; use your imaginations…) My point here is simply this: since I have a very good eye, a distinct, personal point of view, an overabundance of intellectual curiosity (granted the emphasis should be on my curiosity rather than intellect…) & almost forty years of engagement with the visual arts, please keep in mind that I think very carefully about most of the pictures that are posted here. While not high art & often frivolous; they are not, for the most part, casual fluff…
Consider these diversions serious fun.
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