Today's meeting was an open session...lots of photography and discussion Charley showed some street photography images...two images of his set are below Joe showed some images he shot at the Huntington Library's exhibit on light bulbs...after discussion we renamed the images as a Rorschach test..judge for yourself The last image from this series is side by side with an image Bill did of the light bulbs several years ago...Bill's image was in color and done as a watercolor rendition Next to show was John who had set of nudes he did several years ago and his collages done on his iphone..unfortunately don't have the nudes at the time I posted this blog post Kevin brought in several framed pieces from hie always growing railroad series...one of which is below This image is from a mailcar...Keving described how this car was used while traveling the rails Steve show an abstract and discussed the accidental way he captued the image....side by side with the non-abstract of the same scene...they may not show well on blog site Lastly...remember the new exhibit at The Perfect Exposure Gallery in Alhambra...see below
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“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” Irving Penn Each week I usually start the meeting with some comment about our current president and his administration although I generally make no mention of our discussion in these blog pages. But today there were many comments abut this picture and its many levels of meaning to us as Americans Enough said. Thank you Cyndi for bringing this image to f8. John Holmes continues to amaze us in f8 and today was no exception...the images below were produced at PCC as part of a class John was taking. John describes the process below "This technique uses liquid silver emulsion which can be applied to a variety of surfaces. I chose water color paper because I like the texture of it. I soak the paper in hot water for an hour or so then let it dry for a couple of days. Once the paper has dried I apply a layer of Knox unflavored gelatin to the surface of the paper. These last two steps ensure that the emulsion resides on the papers surface and not absorbed into the paper. The silver emulsion can now be applied to the papers surface under a safe light and then used as any other photographic paper." Scott showed a few of his Blaine WA sunsets... Bill went to the Getty and saw Gordon Parks exhibit "Flavio" and another exhibit "Series." The Gordon Parks series was controversial with Brazil taking exception to be singled out as having slums. In fact, Brazil sent a photographer to US to photograph slums in our country as well...thos images are represented in the exhibit. We also mentioned the photographer Pedro Guerrero who famously photographed for Frank Lloyd Wright as well as Calder and Louise Nevelson. Great documentary on his career on Amazon Prime Finally, Bill showed several images from Street Photography Magazine October Issue...below is one image from the best of street photography for the month
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." Steve Jobs Today we had the pleasure of having Charles Edwards (an f8'er) and his wife, Zofia talk about their recent work as part of a group show in the Arts District they both participated in a few weeks ago. While we know about Charles' photography, we never quite understood the artistic talents of his wife Zofia.. Below are images from the group show. Charles discussed the making of the set of images using a rice paper to print then applying a copper leaf application to the image...to get the unique look to these images. Zofia discussed the creative process surrounding the pieces she made and showed. These pieces represented social, and political ideas in both the materials used and the creative outcomes. Just one example is below from her work. Check out Zofia's website and her extensive artistic career and bio: https://www.zofiah.com Cyndi has her images up at Jones...they will be there until January 1st We talked about a photographer from the UK and has agoraphobia (fear of crowds) and cannot go outside her home to use her camera...instead she trolls the internet, specifically uses Google Earth / Street View to gather pictures she now calls her own and sells them...with Google's approval it seems. Instagram @streetview.portraits From her website "Agoraphobia & anxiety limit my ability to travel, so I’ve found another way to see the world. I found a surprising and unique refuge in the creative possibilities of Google Street View. I began clicking through Google Maps to navigate to faraway countries like Mongolia, Senegal, and Chile. I found remote towns and dusty landscapes, vibrant architectural gems, and anonymous people, all frozen in time. I was intrigued by the strange and expansive parallel universe of Street View, and took screen shots to capture and preserve its hidden, magical realms." Lastly, Bill mentioned Ara Gular, called the "Eye of Istanbul"...Gular is an award winning photographer who was also a Magnum Photographer. A documentary entitled The Eye of Istanbul is well worth watching...it is available on Amazon Prime and other places on the internet. Personally I think Gular was a master of street photography and environmental portraiture. He died in 2018.
“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” Matt Hardy Today was truly an open session with contributions from most of the folks who attended... So lets start with Chris...our analog photographer and printer who show some great digital prints on a new paper he is experimenting with...the image is entitled "New Century" see below Cyndi brought some images from the South Pasadena Car Show and also told us about the Nethercutt Collection of cars in Sylmar...below is link to site and one or two of her images from South Pas. https://www.nethercuttcollection.org The Nethercutt Collection is a multi-storied museum located in Sylmar, California, USA. Its centerpiece is its automobile collection, which has led Autoweek to call the Nethercutt Collection one of America's five greatest automobile museums. John brought in two books that contained "autochrome" images...below is the link to the Wikipedia discussion of what autochrome is...good luck in deciphering the actual process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochrome_Lumière The next images and narratives are about the photographers and books...the first about Heinrich Kuhn the second Jacques Lartique “German scientist and photographer Heinrich Kühn (1866-1944) was one of the central figures in the establishment of international art photography at the turn of the twentieth century. Having studied botany and medicine, Kühn made his first photograph in the late 1870s, dedicating himself solely to the medium within a decade. He achieved this dedication through the support of American photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and others” “Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), celebrated photographer, and one of the greatest practitioners the medium has ever known, discovered the Riviera with his first camera in the company of his wealthy family when he was just eleven years old. For the rest of his life Lartigue was a regular visitor to the Cote d'Azur, taking many of his finest pictures in Nice, Cannes, Cap d'Ail, Antibes, Menton, and Monaco.” Jim brought in the current issue of Westways Magazine published by AAA...and their annual travel photography awards...we all agreed that the images were less than stellar but fit in nicely with consumer photography genre. Steve brought in several images taken at a local railyard Rene brought in a series he did 10-15 years ago on film entitled "The Various Lives of a Campbell Soup Can"...the series was 15 or so images but only two are below Bill brought in several articles including the magazine section from the New York Times that continues to support photojournalism...kudos to them. He also noted the imagery of Harry Chalfant a New York photographer who documented graffiti on the subway cars...now all but gone from these classic cars Bill also noted the exhibit at the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York of Hiroshi Sugimoto that must be the height of appropriation...Sugimoto photographed art in museums and now has an exhibit...below is an example from Marcel Duchamp's readymades...urinal Lastly in today's session, Bill noted the newest work and publication of Jessica Lange...actress and long standing photographer. Her newest work "Highway 61" just published....remember she lived with and was mentored by Robert Frank. Below the link is an image from the book.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/arts/design/jessica-lange-photography.html?searchResultPosition=1 |
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