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Author Topic: Butt is it art?  (Read 3437 times)

michswiss

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Butt is it art?
« on: July 17, 2012, 10:10:20 pm »

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2012, 11:12:45 pm »

Absoluttely! Couldn't be butter, er, I mean: better!
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popnfresh

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2012, 11:16:57 am »

It might be, butt I'm not going to anal-yse it.
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RSL

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2012, 01:21:36 pm »

In the long run an artist is judged strictly on the basis of the work he or she is willing to expose to the world.

Sometimes, in the short run, what's held up to the world as art is judged on politics. I was once told during a debate that were I to take into consideration Andres Serrano's personal background and intent I'd be able better to understand and really appreciate his then famous "Piss Christ." Serrano did "Piss Christ" fairly early in the shock art movement, and both he and it instantly were famous, though perhaps not much appreciated. But fame and whatever residual emotions surrounded them at the time faded quickly, and nowadays neither Serrano nor "Piss Christ" is much remembered in the sane part of the art world -- only in "elephant dung on the Virgin" art circles.

In the long run personal backgrounds and intents fade from human memory along with understanding of the milieu and the politics in which particular artists lived. In the long run a work of art has to stand on its own feet, because in the long run no other feet exist.

So it pays to be very careful about what you show the world. Doesn't matter whether you're a painter, a poet, a musical composer, or a photographer, you'll produce crap, mediocre stuff, fair stuff, pretty good stuff, good stuff, quite good stuff, really good stuff, and the very, very, very rare work upon which you'd be willing to hang your reputation. The only way you can know the difference is to study what's gone before in your own genre and in related genres. Once you've educated your eye to the point where you can distinguish between crap and astonishingly good you then have to decide where on the scale you're going to set your cull point. One always makes mistakes, especially on short-term judgment. In the long run it's the average that counts, but a real blooper means a lot of extra work to get the average back up.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2012, 02:11:26 pm »

Absoluttely! Couldn't be butter...

And... here we go! The strange world of word associations. In a nanosecond, my mind goes from a dog in a gallery to Marlon Brando in Paris. No wonder, since both words share the same root. ;)

RawheaD

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2012, 02:47:17 pm »

Oh no.... not another one of these assinine threads...

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2012, 05:23:01 pm »

And... here we go! The strange world of word associations. In a nanosecond, my mind goes from a dog in a gallery to Marlon Brando in Paris. No wonder, since both words share the same root. ;)
We can always count on Jennifer's photos to lead the mind into unexpected directions.
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michswiss

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2012, 09:15:49 pm »

Russ, in the best spirit of Elliot Erwitt, I think everyone should at least one shot of a Pugg's bum in their portfolio*.  ;D

I came across this image again while working through editing stuff for my new website.  It's from 2009.  And while not a masterpiece by any stretch, I'm not embarrassed by it either. 

* To reassure you, this one didn't make the website.  But I think it's ok on occasion to have a little fun taking and sharing pictures.

Rob C

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2012, 03:54:28 am »

Oh no.... not another one of these assinine threads...


Asinine? Not a mention of a donkey thus far!

But now we're deep in it.

Rob C

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2012, 03:57:52 am »

Russ, in the best spirit of Elliot Erwitt, I think everyone should at least one shot of a Pugg's bum in their portfolio*.  ;D

I came across this image again while working through editing stuff for my new website.  It's from 2009.  And while not a masterpiece by any stretch, I'm not embarrassed by it either. 

* To reassure you, this one didn't make the website.  But I think it's ok on occasion to have a little fun taking and sharing pictures.



The real problem, though, is the kind of gallery space that allows dogs in it in the first place.

That's the issue with big insurance policies: you tempt Fate.

Rob C

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2012, 04:30:04 am »

In the long run an artist is judged strictly on the basis of the work he or she is willing to expose to the world.

So it pays to be very careful about what you show the world. Doesn't matter whether you're a painter, a poet, a musical composer, or a photographer, you'll produce crap, mediocre stuff, fair stuff, pretty good stuff, good stuff, quite good stuff, really good stuff, and the very, very, very rare work upon which you'd be willing to hang your reputation. The only way you can know the difference is to study what's gone before in your own genre and in related genres. Once you've educated your eye to the point where you can distinguish between crap and astonishingly good you then have to decide where on the scale you're going to set your cull point. One always makes mistakes, especially on short-term judgment. In the long run it's the average that counts, but a real blooper means a lot of extra work to get the average back up.




This all good advice and true, but its validity also depends on where you find yourself chronologically.

At my own stage in life, as with, for example, Bailey and his non-photographic artworks, it becomes something done for personal pleasure and nothing to do with posterity or anything so serious and/or pretentious and/or deluded.

I spend most of my photographic time now with a cellphone. I own three other reasonably useful cameras but they require the bother of care, and make wandering off to shop or just to eat that more awkward and complicated: do you take the damned things with you when you need to visit the can or do you risk leaving them on the table with your shades and cap?

Work years passed, I no longer give a damn about whether what I’m doing appeals to or impresses other people; I do give a damn, though, about being credited with stuff that’s not mine, as happened a couple of days ago when some rubbish appeared on a series of e-mails advertising a musical soirée and I was cited as snapper!

In essence, unless you depend on photography for your bread and butter, then I advise treating it as fun. You might never be an ‘artist’ even in your dreams - most of us never could be. But, if you enjoy the process of making photographs, then that’s reward enough. Forget illusions of grandeur, of galleries and fame: if such is on your personal spec. sheet, then it’ll come along in due course with or without your interference in the process: all you need do is make truly great images or, better and quicker, find a godfather with clout where it matters.

Rob C

popnfresh

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #11 on: July 19, 2012, 06:22:42 am »

Somehow I think Jennifer's credibility as a photographer will survive the posting of a picture of a dog's butt on the User Critiques forum of Luminous Landscape.

Of course, I could be totally wrong. The director of the George Eastman House could be thinking at this very moment "Gee, I was just about to give Jennifer a call about mounting a major retrospective of her work, when I saw that dog butt photo on Luminous Landscape, so I had to reconsider."

Butt I doubt it.
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stamper

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2012, 08:59:38 am »

Oh no.... not another one of these assinine threads...

Isn't that something Picasso drank?

michswiss

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2012, 11:09:15 am »

There are a ton of images out there associated with my internet nickname.  A lot at the top of a search are mine, but most are a result of associations in forums or other internet magical stuff so this one will probably just blend in.

Russ, reading and rereading your post.  I think you assume that I have or could reach an exceptional level as a photographer or artist.  I really have a hard time accepting those accolades.  Thanks though. I've spent the last month editing, reprocessing and culling, amounting to creating a "portfolio".  It's a mineshaft.  It's an infinite mineshaft that's based on my or others expectations.  I hate it.

I've studied the old and current guys a lot and I've decided I have to go with what defines my aesthetic.  They are awesome.  And what defines them in my view is that they said "fuck it" and just worked.  I'm going to look forward.  I really don't care where I fit.

If I have a future or potential in taking pictures worth remembering, I have to just keep taking my own stuff.  Even if it's about sharing one of a dog's...

    
« Last Edit: July 19, 2012, 11:12:22 am by michswiss »
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Rob C

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2012, 11:31:04 am »

Isn't that something Picasso drank?


That's why there's the saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder - of the current barmaid. I'm not suggesting the current maid's a tart or even a bun, mind you, but drink enough asspiss and you'll believe anything your eyes tell you, which we clever camera people know is always dangerous in a PS world. Like Suzi Quatro said about a friend: he's never gone to bed with an ugly woman, but he's sure woken up with a few!

Rob C

RSL

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2012, 11:36:42 am »

Jennifer, I'd be the last to object to a funny picture. Elliott Erwitt is my favorite street photographer because of his unmatched sense of humor, but Elliott's also unmatched, or at least unbeaten in his ability to choose what to dump and what to show. My problem with the picture is that it isn't much of a picture. You're too good a photographer for that picture. Richard (ex moderator) is the only photographer on "Documentary" who's street work even approaches the quality of yours, though because of his credentials BD's dreary snapshots elicit a lot more raves.

Yes. You have to keep taking your own stuff. In the long run we all have to keep taking our own stuff. It's soul-destroying to take somebody else's stuff, which is why I gave up pro work in the sixties. Yes, I think you could reach a level in photography head and shoulders above most of your contemporaries. But when you decide what to show, keep up the kind of standard you set with "On a Bus."
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RSL

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #16 on: July 19, 2012, 11:48:43 am »


This all good advice and true, but its validity also depends on where you find yourself chronologically.

At my own stage in life, as with, for example, Bailey and his non-photographic artworks, it becomes something done for personal pleasure and nothing to do with posterity or anything so serious and/or pretentious and/or deluded.

I spend most of my photographic time now with a cellphone. I own three other reasonably useful cameras but they require the bother of care, and make wandering off to shop or just to eat that more awkward and complicated: do you take the damned things with you when you need to visit the can or do you risk leaving them on the table with your shades and cap?

Work years passed, I no longer give a damn about whether what I’m doing appeals to or impresses other people; I do give a damn, though, about being credited with stuff that’s not mine, as happened a couple of days ago when some rubbish appeared on a series of e-mails advertising a musical soirée and I was cited as snapper!

Rob, I'm even more "chronologically advanced" than you are, and, like you, I do it for fun (photography that is). The fact that you shoot with a cellphone shouldn't make any difference. As HCB said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." And you can look perfectly well with a cellphone in your hand. I couldn't care less about being a famous photographer. I do enter the occasional contest, and I do have prints in a local gallery, but none of that is going to bring fame, or enough income to cover my photographic expenses (which are considerably more than they need to be).

But way short of fame and fortune, what I'd like is for people who look back at my work to say: "He could see."
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Rob C

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2012, 11:54:48 am »

Rob, I'm even more "chronologically advanced" than you are, and, like you, I do it for fun (photography that is). The fact that you shoot with a cellphone shouldn't make any difference. As HCB said, "Photographing is nothing. Looking is everything." And you can look perfectly well with a cellphone in your hand. I couldn't care less about being a famous photographer. I do enter the occasional contest, and I do have prints in a local gallery, but none of that is going to bring fame, or enough income to cover my photographic expenses (which are considerably more than they need to be).

But way short of fame and fortune, what I'd like is for people who look back at my work to say: "He could see."


That gave me a suppressed giggle: as I might have glaucoma brewing away, I decided a light giggle was the best defence against a possible wail of anguish at past tense thought!

;-)

Rob C

popnfresh

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2012, 12:18:13 pm »

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

- Bill Cosby
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RSL

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Re: Butt is it art?
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2012, 12:43:48 pm »

I've studied the old and current guys a lot and I've decided I have to go with what defines my aesthetic.  They are awesome.  And what defines them in my view is that they said "fuck it" and just worked.  I'm going to look forward.  I really don't care where I fit.

If I have a future or potential in taking pictures worth remembering, I have to just keep taking my own stuff.  Even if it's about sharing one of a dog's...  

Looking back at this post I can see that I need to elaborate a little on what I said about studying what's gone before. Studying what's gone before doesn't mean you're going to copy or even emulate it. Fact is, you can't. But you can learn from it.

One thing you can learn from what's gone before is the mechanics of composition and presentation. Look at Picasso's early work -- say his blue period. Long before Picasso took up cubism he'd become a master draftsman, and the work he put in to become a master draftsman was what, later on, let him draw, with three strokes of his pencil, a bull that was alive on the paper. Did Pablo say "fuck it" and just work? Well, he certainly worked, and he certainly worked according to his own esthetic definition. But his final esthetic was a long-time-a-comin'. He worked his butt off (in between sessions with his mistresses), and it would be interesting to know how much work he threw away and never showed to anyone.

But more importantly, and especially with photography, you can learn from the masters what elements of human experience reach out to you and to others. If I want a good laugh I look at examples of "abstract" photography in B&W or LensWork. We now have roughly 180 years of photography behind us, and what's survived isn't abstract. Photography is about what's outside, not what's inside. Which is not to say that how you handle what's outside isn't controlled by what's inside. And how you handle what's outside when you "take your own stuff" tells anyone with eyes to see a lot about what's inside.
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