“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” Ansel Adams Editors Note: Maybe it's not a bad idea to have each contributor aim to produce 12 pictures this coming year...to be reviewed in an Open Show format later in 2015. Our first discussion this morning was about the sculpture at Jones entitled "Boy 5A." Bill & Kathy talked about the mission of Five Acres which is briefly safety and permanency for children. Five Acres is a 125 year old program located in Altadena and serves more than 5000 families in the greater Los Angeles area. The residential program for children ages 6 to 14 also includes a non-public school. Kathy serves on several committees and Bill serves on the Board of Directors. For more information, click on website link below: http://www.5acres.org We then saw some work by three of our contributors... Rene show his clever and whimsical photos of "Toy Trains" Jim showed his recent takes on "Water" Charley showed some "Polaroid Transfer Prints" An example of each is below The remainder of our last meeting of the year was taken up with discussion of what
we might explore in 2015...our 8th year as f8 Pasadena Salon Those ideas are incorporated in a new page on our blog entitled "New Ideas" under the "About" section Each idea has a champion that will lead the meeting(s) on the subject Dates will be determined by the champion More ideas are welcome...of course Speaking about welcomes...please welcome our newest f8 contributor Paul DuPont Paul has contributed to many sessions this past year and we look forward to his many "colorful" comments in 2015 A final word about a current f8 Pasadena challenge... We are experiencing a severe "noise challenge" at our meetings. The noise is from the new exercise & weight lifting facility next store to Jones. There is nothing we can do about it. In the meantime, I don't think we can have guests come and talk. We discussed other location options and Bill is exploring one other spot at Jones that might work and be quieter...stay tuned. Thanks to all our contributors and guests that continue to make f8 Pasadena Salon the success it is and will continue to be 2015 and beyond. ...and, of course, to the Jones' / Jones Coffee who provide our "location services" ...space & the best coffee in Pasadena
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“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.” Man Ray Today's meeting covered a lot of both visual and organizational ground...and the discussion was good on both counts. First, the visual side. Paul showed pictures taken by a Chinese photographer (or a group of photographers) revealing some of natures oddities...each was curious and pretty but didn't lend itself to much aesthetic discussion. Below is an example: Steve presented pictures he took on a recent business assignment. It was a series of 8 pictures looking at Metro Line infrastructure...as usual from his "architectural eye"...and with his usual visual panache. There were several rendered in B&W which most felt were less favorably rendered than the color. The discussion centered around the composition of the images. Below is an example of his work. Finally, Howard showed real-live "prints"...B&W of a local Rose Parade float construction with his new Lumix camera. These prints generated both compositional and printing comments...Bill was anxious to print one image on fiber/matte paper. Always good to see prints at our meeting. Chris commented...and I'm paraphrasing and partially quoting some famous photographer..."is photography real without the print itself." Whether you believe this to be true or not...below is an example of Howard's images. We talked briefly about the importance of both narrative and storytelling in the work we do ourselves and see posted or in galleries/museums. We looked at several series of pictures from Lens Culture's awards for story telling 2014. The sets of pictures ran 8-20 shots and one of the two sets failed to capture our storytelling imagination...the second told the story of soldiers (some just children soldiers) and the state of conflict in Africa. This example was from the "Photojournalism" award group. These were more provocative for sure...sample below: Bill had some final kudo comments about his recent working with Paul Dupont, our resident color expert, on some technical issues surrounding color management. It was a valuable lesson in better understanding how the color gamut of monitor, printer and paper all come together (or not) to produce the right print. If you are interested in having the best and correct print...work with Paul. He will profile your monitor (mine was judged to be failing at 4 years old), create a better ICC profile for the paper you use the most and provide valuable insight on the color process. The second part of the meeting discussion centered on defining the schedule for 2015
Nobody seemed to want specific week assignments for contributors in the group. This made sense in light of travel / absence schedules we all face. Leaving lots of open weeks seemed to be the better option going forward into the new year. Also, most felt that viewing films and/or internet talks was not an appropriate use of our time on Saturday mornings ....we could watch these on our own. Field trips was still high on the list of wants. Chris said he would organize several trips including one to Joshua Tree. Field trips to local shows seemed good choices including Arts & Crafts Museum for the "Focus Iran" show: maybe to the Larry Sultan show at LACMA...although Howard panned the show. Howard is working on the curator at the Norton Simon to get us a "behind the scenes" tour prior to an upcoming photography exhibit Bill will work with Eric Joseph at Free Style in Hollywood re: a seminar on "paper" at the store some Saturday morning...stay tuned. Overall, the schedule should remain largely "OPEN" which means each of the f8 contributors shouldering work in on those weeks...and be prepared to discuss their offering. We will explore additional options hopefully from those who could not attend today. Our guest today was Debe Arlook. Debe is primarily a conceptual photographer but her range of creation extends well beyond just that genre. Her artist statement can be found on our meeting schedule page and will stay posted until next week for those who have not previously read it. Today, she presented examples and talked about four series from her portfolio. The first was her “Domestic Landscape Photography” (our f8 name). In this series she combined her landscape photography with narrative she heard casually on the streets of LA. The combination of non-sequiturs (the truth of the visual image and the truth of the narrative) seemingly no relationship one to the other) allows the viewer to create for themselves the fictional stories that might in some way relate picture and words. No need for Debe to describe or explain otherwise. The second series “Skyline”…showed her take on a slice of the urban visual environment, the wires above us, we ordinarily would not pay attention to without her cameras focus. Debe described the shots leading up to her final conceptual pictures. These pictures bordered on abstract and pointed to the spatial symmetry of these urban wires in a Debe unique artistic expression. The third series…briefly shown were “Flowers”…a B&W series, again with Debe’s eye for creating a fresh view on a usual subject for photographers. Her last series…”Trailer Park” was shot with her iPhone. A series characterized by its purposely darkly toned images. Most images had some irony related to the trailer living environment.
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