Architecture is the canvas for my art Bill Wishner Today we celebrated "architectural photography" and Steve's new position "Urban Design Director for the Central District of Detroit Planning and Development Department"...the sum of which means he is leaving us...but he will return periodically to Pasadena and f8. Steve was kind enough to be our photography critic and commentator for the works we showed this morning. Virtually all who attended, camped into our Jones space contributed with either pictures, comments or both. As usual, despite writing like mad getting your thoughts on paper, I'm sure I failed to capture every comment...you really had to be there to fully enjoy f8 Pasadena today. Above are some examples of the pictures at the meeting...there were more on flash drives and Scott brought in several framed architectural pictures...and there were some I just don't have at the time this blog was published.
Here are some comments...in no particular order: John...my iPhone pictures (not published) reflect contrasts in architectural styles...old vs new. Jim....influenced by Walker Evans...and architectural anachornisms Howard...drawn to the abstract of architecture Charley...drawn to pictorial power of steel and glass; artistic composition; molecular architecture Rene...finding architecture on the internet and books Carel...movement in architectural photography shows procession, space and access Angelo...because I like it...arches provide compositional elements that mirror experience Bill...classic architecture keeps cropping up in new architectural forms eg pyramids and the I.M. Pei pyramid at the Louvre...old and new stand together and compliment one another Steve... new forms have only recently been possible with use of CAD; we're drawn to the old via it;s history but new architecture has no such history. religious architecture highlighted the power and authority of the church use of humans in architectural photography gives us scale and proportion influence of the client in architecture; influence of society...eg Russian architecture in Cuba the use of white space in architectural photography use of 3D as a promotional tool both in design and appreciation of architecture form follows function in architecture there was so much more to our discussion on saturday and everybody contributed cogent content to the discussion...thank you Steve for your intellectual leadership and come back to Pasadena soon.
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“The privacy and dignity of our citizens are being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen - a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a person's life.” ―William O. Douglas “There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.” ―Antonin Scalia Today, our discussion was far ranging and started with our thoughts about the Apple privacy issue...the general feeling was privacy was paramount and Apple should not provide code. Note the comments from two Supreme Court judges starting this blog post. We next discussed the passing of Harper Lee and her literary impact on our society with her seminal work"To Kill a Mockingbird"...also noted was the passing of Umberto Eco another literary giant of our generation. We looked at a lot of visuals today...the first of which was a shot by Howard on the recent f8 field trip to Devil's Punch Bowl (above) and several shots by John shot at the Airplane Museum on the same trip (below). No one seemed taken with the flora and fauna on the trip. Joe Loudermilk showed a few of his recent B&W shots...I can't remember exactly where they were shot Next Bill showed several shots from variants of his Art of the City Wall series entitled "Urban Totems" This prompted a short discussion on the exact definition of "totem." Below is a definition and explanation of sorts. to·tem pole / noun 1. a pole on which totems are hung or on which the images of totems are carved. 2. NORTH AMERICAN.... a hierarchy."the social totem pole" Totem poles are not religious objects, but they do communicate important aspects of native culture. Given the complexity and symbolic meanings of totem pole carvings, their placement and importance lies in the observer's knowledge and connection to the meanings of the figures. Below is one example of these "totems" shot in New York Lastly, Rene showed several pictures he did his graphic magic on....the original was taken by Richard during filming at the Green Hotel here in Pasadena. Look closely to see all the changes Rene made. Finally, Chris brought in some old Sothby's Auction Catalogs. It was a busy morning at Jones...thanks to all who contributed to a great morning
“Just put on the lens and go.” Miroslav Tichy Today we met at the Coffee House Gallery on Lake in Altadena...arranged by Steve Lewis. A bit tight for the 14 or so f8'ers who attended the meeting. No leader today so our discussions and visuals were "free range" and interesting as always. Mark brought in an interesting "show and tell" item for the iPhone. A case and several lenses from a company called "Moment"...the link to their website is below http://momentlens.co Mark also reminded us of the Sally Mann autobiography out earlier this year... "Hold Still"...highly recommended by those of us who have read it. Finally he mentioned a course from MOMA entitled "Seeing Through Photographs" the link is below https://www.coursera.org/learn/photography We all talked about our rights as photographers when shooting out in the streets...we have the right unless we trespass on private property...period. Finally, Bill showed 4 pictures from a new series he is developing as an off-shoot of his Art of the Wall series. The new series is called "In/On the Window"...two of the pictures are shown above.
Reminder...looking for presenters at PasadenaPhotographyArts Open Show / Pasadena- East LA. Deadline is 3-1-16...call Bill for details or visit the website: http://www.openshow.org |
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