Deadpan

[JMRead]

Hello All,

 

Apologies if you already know about this.

 

I would love to get to grips with this genre begun by Stephen Shore in the 1960's http://imagesfound.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/stephen-shore.html Initially I saw only clutter but then ..... I realised that the guy was a genius at composition and juxtaposition with all sorts of lines acting as pointers and with nice stoppers in the background. Now I find the images really beautiful and the genre something that only a camera can do and no other art form could copy the in your face immediacy of it.

 

On the top left of the page you'll see 'Click here' this takes to the start of this huge archive. I have found some pics by UK photographers but can't find them at the moment but can summon to mind one image probably made in Yorkshire, if I do I'll post a link.

 

Cheers - Jem

[FUJI]

I took a good look at many of his works......as you say, at first glance they don't look much, but look deeper and fir longer and his compositional style shines through.......good lead ins, carefully worked out viewpoints, and diverging oerspectives.

I have a couple of riders though.......

......A series like it would be difficult to do in the UK.......only in the Fens and the flatlands of Norfolk?

Further down, the pics of food, fridges, cats bums and commodes are thought provoking, and sometimes amusing.........to do something similar, but not exactly the same might be a good photographic excersise?

The other thing I have learned since taking up this......Making Pictures......lark, is to be inspired by, but not to copy others.

I didn't realise this, util I posted my version of a well known.......MAN RAY......study........An apple with a steel screw were the stalk should be.

FUJI

[JMRead]

Hello Fuji,

 

They are interesting aren't they and I agree we don't have the infrastructure for a lot of Shore clones.

 

I would have to disagree with you over copying though, to start a something off by copying is a way into it like no other. I would cite David Hockney and Tracey Emin as strong advocates of the practice. In my own case of the digital montages I looked and looked at the work of Catherine McIntyre to find her techniques, I could not copy exactly because my source material is entirely different to hers.

 

And this is the point that DH and TE bring in, once you have copied successfully you've learned a technique, you've added into that your own and entirely different experience and from that point onwards you start to fly solo.

 

Cheers - Jem

[Korky]

Mmmmmmmmm.......... This is an interesting one. I suspect I won't make any friends here, but it doesn't matter, the two that I have only come round when they want summat. Here goes.....

 

Remember back in the old days when we used to get prints done at Supasnaps? Remember the ones that didn't quite work out? The lovely people at Supasnaps used to put a little sticker on the print and it'd tell you what you might have done wrong in the hope that their advice would improve your photography. Remember? Course you do.

 

Well, I suspect Stephen Shore's prints qualified for far more stickers than those of the average Joe with a Box Brownie and no photographic ability whatsoever.

 

With a couple of notable exceptions, Shore's images are awful. No, let me qualify that, they're bloody awful and I marvel at the sheer audacity of a man attempting to offer these up as art. Ninety seven percent of these photographs don't have a single redeeming feature and I can't help but think that we may have a case of the Emperor's new clothes here.

 

I'm sorry Jem & Fooj, I really do love art in its many forms, but these are no more than a p*ss-take and just don't qualify.

 

I always reckon that if there's a can of worms lying around, you can always rely on some bugger at TIPF to open it and then leave the lid off.

 

Korky

[JMRead]

Hello Korky,

 

My reaction was exactly the same as yours, but over the years I changed my mind. One thing you have said is that they are Shore's photographs and they do not emulate the photography of anyone else.

 

Or do they, hmmmm, dig a bit deeper into Ansel Adams and you will find images other than Big Sur, some the works of Andre Kertesz and Alfred Steiglitz would act as pointers to Shore's. Perhaps just perhaps he read the words of Rembrandt van Rijn, "There is more beauty to found in your own village than can be appreciated in a lifetime".

 

Please do keep the link to Levi's site and have a look occasionally, you never know you might find something that will start you off on another photographic journey. It's all just so interesting this image making caper. I adore peoples reaction to images every comment says something that will at some point influence my own image making.

 

Cheers - Jim

[NannyFerret]

I'm sorry too, as I just want to play with my own photography and enjoy it.
I enjoy looking at peoples shots on here and occasionally some on line, but I'm definitely not hooked on any professional photographers work because I have heard that they have made a name for themselves.

I have a book by John Hedcoe and enjoy that because he shows and explains things in very simple ways.

[JMRead]

Hello Nanny,

 

You are quite right about professionals they do have to make a name to make a living, many though do make images for their souls, David Bailey being one of them

 

May I say something briefly about Alfred Steiglitz he founded the Photo Secession and a magazine called Camera Work in the early part of the 20th century. All photographers today owe their pictorialism to the secesssionists they took the concept that photography was not just a  medium for making records but could also be used to make art. Alfie put his hand in his pocket many times to keep the magazine going insisting that the images be produced by expensive lithography.

 

One of the secessionist photographers I like a lot is Annie W Brigman, she was born in Hawii in 1869,married a sea captain who took her to San Francisco, there she became part of the artistic community and took up photography. One of her images that appeared in Camera Work is called, 'The soul of the blasted pine'. A beautiful self portrait that is one of photography's iconic images and the forerunner of the worldwide selfie genre we see today.

 

Here's a link to  the image: http://www.photogravure.com/collection/searchResults.php?page=1&view=medium&file=CameraWork_25_01 look at the way she stretches the position of her left hand the angle of her head,  she really does become the soul of that pine. Try the pose for yourself against a chair feel what she felt its wonderful feeling joining with her across the years.

As you can see it moves me :-)

 

Cheers - Jim

[Heather]

i know nothing about art, i only know what i like or dont like 

These to be honest just look like a load of average holiday snaps to me ... sorry i dont see anything unusual or exciting about them at all 

[fuzzyedges]

Thanks Jim for adding a new name to my folder of "Trying to be artists by breaking all rules of conventional art by trying to make everyday things exceptional without being artistic  "

Yes there are some thought provoking images in the link but are they thought provoking because they impart a feeling or is it becuse you recognise a personal feeling from the subject ?

Oh and by the way hockney and emin are in the folder as well

Mindst you their ways may be so subtle I just dont see what they are doing

[Leon]

err..... hmmm......call me uneducated but in my opinion there's nothing worth looking at there,sorry peeps

[FUJI]

This is my style......

.....FUJI

[FUJI]

err..... hmmm......call me uneducated but in my opinion there's nothing worth looking at there,sorry peeps

I think that is .....EXCACTLY....what the photographer intends Leon.......he records very mundane every day places and items, that aren't usually seen in albums, galleries or exhibitions .........

......things that are normally passed by or ignored.........he isn't quite as bad as the photographer who made his name and fortune, by re photographing famous advertisements such as the.....Marlboro Cowboy......his prints are with a fortune.

FUJI

[fuzzyedges]

Your trade marks missing Fuji

No milky lone tree in that one

[Guest]

not much of any interest in those, he may have spent a long time photographing the banal images which when they were taken would have been very interesting as most people wouldn't have had cameras and certainly not colour ones but these days they just look like poor holiday snaps from years gone by. He also seems to have left the world of commercial photography to be director of photography at a college since 1982.   

[ChrisLumix]

Can't say I found much to impress in that lot, to be honest. I wouldn't go as far as Korky, but I suspect if I was to submit a portfolio of my own locale in that vein, I'd be chased out of town by the Chamber of Commerce.

[Korky]

An interesting debate this one - thanks, Jem for chucking a dollop of controversy into the mix. I've enjoyed this thread muchly.

 

Just for the record, I'm a great Hockney fan (a trip to see his work at Salts Mill in Saltaire near Bradford is well worth the effort) and I can even see a point to Tracy Emin's work, but........

 

Try as I might, the work of Stephen Shore I just don't 'get'. And in that situation, the best thing to do is move on and find summat else.

 

Korky

[Guest]

hey if we all liked the same things it would get very boring very quickly

[NannyFerret]

I think I have been more interested in the old slides that Fuji has been copying and documenting. That is more up my street.

They told more of a story of real life in the past and considering the camera's that were used then, they are excellent.

Now, they were wonderful pics. Have you seen them Jem? Some of them are on here and well worth a look as the thread was posted before you joined.
Fuji may repost the thread if you'd like to have a look.

[JMRead]

Hello Tina,

 

I haven't seen the images you mention but I would love to :-)

 

Cheers - Jim

[FUJI]

Here's one of the Jem.

You should be able to trawl back through my posts to find the others.......all taken over 100 years ago......all on half plate glass negatives, now stored properly after a very long session digitalising over 100 of them.

FUJI

[annie]

ah..those slide of Fuji's kept us all hanging on for the next lot..

[JMRead]

Hello Fuji and Hello Annie,

 

It's a nice pic looks as though it may have been made in Eire. It reminds me of this made by Paul Strand one of Alfies secessionists.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

[NannyFerret]

Did you finish your project of copying the whole lot, Fuji and will you have them published?

[FUJI]

Did you finish your project of copying the whole lot, Fuji and will you have them published?

I did complete the digitalising of all the Glass Negatives, now they are all archive wrapped in acid free paper, inside special storage boxes.

Now, I need to learn how to re--photograph over 200 Glass Lantern Slides, all taken during the same period, with one box shot during e very early 1960s.

Re photographing glass positives requires a completely different method, I'm still working on it, and must admit that the task daunts me...........I have to shot through the slide I think?

FUJI

[NannyFerret]

I did complete the digitalising of all the Glass Negatives, now they are all archive wrapped in acid free paper, inside special storage boxes.

Now, I need to learn how to re--photograph over 200 Glass Lantern Slides, all taken during the same period, with one box shot during e very early 1960s.

Re photographing glass positives requires a completely different method, I'm still working on it, and must admit that the task daunts me...........I have to shot through the slide I think?

FUJI

What about putting them on a light box and shooting them or scanning them in?