Wistful Thinking

Today I looked at the work of André Kertész (in part to prepare for an upcoming post). Today I also am working on a submission for my stock agency. Today I'm in technical hell while reminded of the genius of the masters and how simplicity ruled. A sort of less is more approach as applied to process. With all the technological advances in photography comes the equal and sometimes more significant issue of frustration.

On top of that comes the issue of greater quantity since digital is more accessible, more forgiving, more prone to causing a willy nilly style of shooting. When in doubt, fire away! And bracket galore! You don't even have to know what you're doing! With all that mass and volume -- the ability to shoot thousands and thousands of images, no worry to the time developing nor the cost, the edits along with the photographers must be whittled down so that competition is sometimes based on the technical alone. This explains the phenomenon of tech geek turned photographer.

What I mean is that if you place two photographs side by side and they are identical, the one with greater resolution will win even if the image is supposed to be, say, underexposed or too contrasty. Reproduction rules even in the realm of photographs intended only for a gallery wall. With film, you could intentionally blow out your whites or block up your blacks.

I miss the darkroom and the endless hours of watching something grow before your eyes. More so, I miss the film -- how shooting it was more deliberate and even, more ceremonial. Revealing your final results was like unveiling a long awaited sculpture. Don't even get me started on the tactile enjoyment of film or that great sound of the film being wrapped around a reel -- how it was at once crisp and yet mellow. (I know, I'm romanticizing.)

As much as I love the immediacy of digital shooting, I miss the fact that quality was almost anything you wanted it to be. If you wanted grain or overexposure, no problem! If you wanted to shoot "low res" through a Coke bottle and a cardboard box or if you wanted to smear Vaseline all over your lens, it was allowed. No matter what you did, you could always chalk it up to art.

I'd like to just pick up my camera, grab a fleeting moment and know that it's going to be judged not on perfection but vision and interpretation of a scene or subject. It's as if all the requirements for technical prowess are stifling creativity. One of the very things we love about digital, the spontaneity, gets kicked in the bum and bogged down by rules and histograms and mega bytes. If you can't blow it up to the size of a billboard, be prepared to re-shoot or forget it.

But don't get me wrong. I do thoroughly appreciate digital -- I love the ease and instant gratification, even the reduced expense on materials. There are the added infinite pleasures of post-production as if Photoshop is the venue for some all-night party and it is, after all, the modern day darkroom. I don't know if I'm wistful or rebellious. I long for the elementary and I get ornery when I feel intimidated. Technical schmechnical. It's just so hard to colour within the lines.

Turtle Wax

Believe it or not, this photograph was taken at the London Zoo in 1946. (Photographer unknown.) Turtle Wax, Inc., was founded in 1946. Coincidence or did Turtle Wax, Inc., get it's name upon seeing this photograph?

shrouded in mystery

Let's start with one of my all time favorite paintings ...

The Lovers 2, by René Magritte

or The Lovers that preceded it

and then let's look at other shrouded figures ...

(and note that as I introduce them, each introduction means
that credit is being issued PRIOR to the visual, hence,
artist name is being viewed before the visual reference)

by Jan Saudek

Irving Penn

Richard Avedon

Deborah Turbeville

Steven Meisel

Sebastião Salgado's shot of refugees in Ethiopia (1984)

Associated Press photographer, Mohammad abu Ghosh's shot
of a woman in Amman, Jordan


Guy Bourdin

Albert Watson's interpretation of a Gianfranco Ferre Silk Scarf

Barbara Morgan's photographs of Martha Graham

and of Valerie Bettis

Erwin Blumenfeld

Margaret Bourke-White's photograph of Muslim men carrying a refuge

Norman Parkinson's take on fashion

Steven Meisel

Jean Gaumy's photograph of women in Tehran

Herb Ritts

Mary Ellen Mark

David Hamilton

Stephen Ciuccoli

Zoriah's depiction of war

Zoetnet's covering of nuptials

and of course, Annie Leibovitz's Christo.

Suggestiveness

I remember being a kid and learning about the risque television commercials that flashed the word "sex" in between frames. And I heard about the accompanying print ads with ice-cubes hiding "sex" in swirly blue letters in hopes that your parents would buy that brand of vodka. It was said that suggestion or suggestiveness was either subliminal and intentionally placed or all in your head.

Pablo Picasso by Robert Doisneau

Elliott Erwitt

Man Ray

Guy Bourdin

Richard Avedon

When I was in art school attempting fashion photography (since I was convinced I would be a fashion photographer, so much for convictions), I was told repeatedly, "but, you have to show the clothes".

I insisted that I had seen plenty of images where mood was evoked and very little of the actual garment was visible. Plus, I was much more concerned with the model as object (think: Helmut Newton) than I was in anyone actually wanting to wear the rags and strange choices I used for my fashion photographs. You could say I was "creative" in that being a student forces you to become very innovative with wardrobe and props.

It took me some time to become less defiant and to really understand what it meant to be a fashion photographer. Richard Avedon's fashion work epitomizes that statement I wanted to reject -- how really showing the garment is essential. And because his interpretations weren't always literal, that was his genius. How better to display what's for sale than to make it editorial, environmental, or a sculptural piece of fine art?

And before there was Photoshop, there was Jan Saudek ...

The manipulation of images began long before the advent of Photoshop and digital imaging. One of my favorite photographers,Jan Saudek, inspired me to try sepia toning, try hand-colouring, and to see beyond a literal image.

Like Saudek's single window in a basement apartment that provided a central focal point in many of his images, I, likewise found beauty in a deteriorated and patched plaster wall in my then kitchen. It, like Saudek's window, became a regular backdrop for my photographs. Had I not been prompted by Saudek's recurring use of "what is", decay, grit, and found items, I may never have been awakened to the textures of that wall and how one can turn the mundane into magic.