the following narrative is from Cyndi who brought James to f8 as a guest today "James Chressanthis ASC, GSC traveled from his home in Topanga Canyon to be our guest at F8, He shared his life’s journey with the group which included a short film that he shot on a 16mm windup Bollex in Greece of his family working in the fields harvesting wheat. It was that experience that provided the epiphany for his pursuit of expanding his interests from being a still photographer into a budding young cinematographer. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn at the elbows of Hungarian cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond. The camera has been a passport for James and he brought numerous prints of his work from Mongolia, Russian, Greece etc. His photography collages are complex, full of symbolism and dotted with images of his family. At the end of the morning’s presentation, James showed a short film of Berlin that he shot on super 8 and then transferred to digital. He emphasized the importance for him to portray what ‘real life looks like’ in all of his work." His wife, Robin Becker, a visual artist www.robinbeckerartist.com was also in attendance. His links are below....cinema http://chressanthis.com/cinematography/ photography http://jameschressanthisascgsc.zenfolio.com James' presentation was rich in oral and visual content...below are samples of his photography
First set are B&W; second set are his assemblages and the last set below are collages
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You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Mark Twain ...a paraphrase for f8 Pasadena You can't depend on your camera when your imagination is out of focus "The Road to Modernism" Today Charles discussed the progression of photography from its roots through photographic modernism. He did it with a PowerPoint presentation that I cannot include with this blog post. His discussion centered on photographers who represent progressive movements in photographic art through the decades. Charles started with Pictorialism and the rebellion against it by Stieglitz and those contemporaries moving away from it. Charles then moved to the Cubists in painting and their influence on photogs such as Duinell, Davidhazy and Eckel. The next movement he discussed the Futurists in photography, pointing out Braggalia and the Gilbreths. Following was the Dadaists...including Duchaamp in painting and "readymades" and Man Ray in photography "ray-o-grams." Finally, the Precisionists represented by Strand, Coburn, Nagy, Ernst and Rodchenko. Other modernist photographers we saw example of included Kertesz, Hausmann, Sheeler, and Outerbridge. Needless to say, it was a "tour de force" by Charles and agreat overview of the progression to Modernism in our art. You had to be there!! Finally, the discussion drifted to "imagination" (or more precisely the failure of imagination) and the place of imagination in driving the movements and in our own photography...a lively and animated discussion to end the session.. A large question in the modern technology of imaging...what role does the camera play vs the work we do in post production...either in manipulation or printing? Charles has written a paragraph below on Failure of Imagination
“In 1967 during the Congressional investigation of the Apollo 1 fire astronaut Frank Borman explained the circumstances leading to the fire as “the failure of imagination”. To understand the failure of imagination one must first give ground work to imagination itself. Imagination is freedom of thought. It is exploration without guidelines. Stanford professor Elliot Eisner reminds us that life is not a scantron with only four choices and only one is definitely right (use a #2 pencil). Challenges have numerous possible solutions. Schools teach us obedience to rules which, ultimately, erodes freedom of thought, imagination. Imagination is linked to the willingness and confidence to listen to one’s inner thought and trustit. It is the ability to make your own judgments without direction or compliance to others. Freedom of thought takes flight in flexibility of thought and the willingness to embrace surprise as opportunity rather than bad news. Surprise on the assembly line floor is bad news. Surprise to the artist is spectacular news. The failure of imagination is discovery that your mind cannot take you anywhere. The freedom of imagination is the ability of go “where no man has gone before” without leaving your front porch.” |
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