Cyndi started today's meeting with a number of pictures...B&W with an emphasis on one specific picture showing "whiteness"...several in the set are shown below: Next up visually was Paul who showed a long ago constructed picture of darts. Sorry, don't remember the technique he used to get the completed picture. Scott brought in two framed pictures of his wife, Flora....one of which is below: The rest of the meeting, in large part, was taken up by a discussion of the ethics of photographing the homeless. It was a challenging topic and even though I took some notes and searched the internet for additional info...and there was plenty...I could not summarize the info . I thought this might be a good full meeting topic sometime in the future.
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Robert Welkie "American Anthroposcene" Anthropocene Epoch (definition) Earth's geologic epochs—time periods defined by evidence in rock layers—typically last more than three million years. We're barely 11,500 years into the current epoch, the Holocene. But we've already entered a new one—the Anthropocene, or "new man," epoch. This epoch takes into account the impact of man on the environment. Our guest today, Robert Welkie" has focused his camera on scenes relating to our newest epoch in a set of photographs he entitles "American Anthroposcene"...the juxtaposition of man made structures with our environment. Robert discussed his aesthetic approach to his photography as well as his journey in photography to get to this time in his career. He showed pictures from many of his eclectic visual projects including his pictures of clouds. He brought in large prints from his cloud series. First several pictures from the Cloud Series (both color and B&W) Below is a quote from Robert about his clouds "My clouds are not about music. My clouds are about clouds. The time for metaphor has passed. There was a time when beauty was poetic in the way it rhymed with what happened. My work is urgent. The clouds are beautiful because they are clouds." (Robert Welkie) The next few pictures are from his American Anthroposcene Series... The final picture was a thoughtful gift to all f8'ers of one of his American Anthroposcenic images entitled "Water Table"...the juxtaposition of a table and moving water I thought I would include his narrative with this picture
"Water Table is a part of my series “American Anthropocene” The image was made during a rainstorm. In Logan Canyon, in northern Utah. The site is a picnic table next to the Logan River. The pictures in American Anthropocene juxtapose images of man made objects with images of nature. The Water Table. for me is exciting because of the layers and the way they move. The image layers time in space. The motion of the river is frozen in time. The wood grain of the picnic table echos the motion of the river and is itself expression of a frozen moment in time reaching back to to the sawmill it came from. The concrete too is a moment set in time, the day the concrete was poured. The texture of the finished cement too, implies motion, though it is the most anchored plane of the image. The twig and flowers on the surface of the table bring the image to the present moment. Or at least the moment of exposure. The three separate planes all seem to be moving. There is a patch of some sort in the concrete that that at times joins the table as some sort of extension. It comes and goes. What that does is set up a spiral. It takes the eye back from the flow to start over again." (Robert Welkie) Here is link to his website Robert Welkie Website “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” Ansel Adams Chris lead the meeting today and showed pictures from the Santa Fe trip, Joshua Tree and Yosemite. The pictures were both digital and analog...color and B&W. As always, Chris displayed his nature aesthetic with the images and his ability to put himself in harms way to get the shot..first a picture from Santa Fe... While he did show pictures at Joshua Tree...none to post this time...but his pictures required climbing. The next set were from Yosemite...see below Chris show many more pictures at the meeting including one of his late cat...not shown here.
Finally, Howard talked about the recent exhibit of László Moholy-Nagy at LACMA. Howard managed to snap a surreal picture of one of Nagy's sculpture. See below... Before we talked about photography...we honored our own Carel Struycken and his continuing rise to stardom in his most current role in "Twin Peaks." Today Carel was in Las Vegas on a PR tour. We had two presentations today...Jim Staub "Protest" and Bill Wishner "The Gardeners" Jim's pictures were shot during the LA protest marches. Many of his pictures focuses on the "placard" the protesters carried but he made it clear it was about the message and the people who marched. It was noted that the strength of his shots were the compositions including both elements. We discussed the presence of a photographer in protests and how they (and Jim) are accepted by those being photographed. The B&W asthetic added to the presentation. See some example from "Protest" below: The second presentation by Bill entitled "The Gardeners" was shot in Sunset Gardens in Sonoma CA. The garden was created to highlight Sunset Magazine's outdoor cooking and gardening efforts. Many of their articles have been shot at this venue. "As I strolled around the garden, tucked away, was a stone wall. The wall was constructed by Mexican workers and on the wall were visual tributes to those workers and all Mexicans who migrated to our country looking for opportunity. It also visually pointed out some of hazards these workers face in coming to the US." See some examples of "The Gardeners" below: In a different view of protest...in the NYT (July 8, 2017) about a Sicilian photographer Letizia Battaglia who photographed the Mafia killings in Sicily. Her work is in the vain of Wegee but with a political viewpoint. Here is the link to the article...well worth reading Letizia Battaglia "Archive of Blood" Mark noted a new book about photographer Gaspard-Felix Tourachon also known as "Nadar" a pioneer of portrait photography, balloonist (and yes, he took pictures from balloons), cartoonist and bohemian. Bill noted the new book by Teju Cole "Blind Spot"...a series of vignettes coupled with his photography...that actually or metaphorically relates to his writing. Teju Cole is one of the premier writers on photography. Warning: occasionally his politics get in the way of his photography narrative. Worth reading
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