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Author Topic: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?  (Read 3721 times)

Andy Ilachinski

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How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« on: January 14, 2013, 11:43:25 am »

Hello everyone. I have been patiently content to sit back and quiet revel in the wonderul, thoughtful comments and insights this forum as a whole contains; but feel compelled to finally posting a few words after reading todays wonderful essay. By way of introduction, I have been a photographer for 35+ years (longer than my "day" job activities as physicist by far ;-), have appeared in Lenswork a few times, B&W magazine (US and UK versions), ... and am in the group of photographers that care profoundly more about the "image" than the nuts and bolts that create it.

Which leads me to my first post here, prompted by the great essay on color landscapes, and where it may/may-not be headed. I would like to stir the pot a bit with - and open for discussion using - a new (and ongoing) series I call "synesthetic landscapes" (a few links below), which are decidedly in the class of "abstract color  landscapes," though with a bit of a twist on the "landscape" part. Synesthesia refers to "crossed senses", as in "tasting" what one sees, and is a very effect, now well documented with MRI scans. I had a visual-color form when I was young, seeing numbers and letters in different hues. More recently, I've started playing with using "color abstractions" to evoke a synesthetic experience of "landscape." So it seemed quite apropos given todays wonderful essay.

Rather than "explain" in words what my new series looks like, for those of you inetrested here a few links. Comments, musings, questions all welcome of course.

Latest series:

1: http://www.sudden-stillness.com/Portfolio/SynthWarm/index.html

2. http://www.sudden-stillness.com/Portfolio/SynthCool/index.html

Story behind the series:

http://tao-of-digital-photography.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-else-thing-is.html

3. A blurb book with a few images:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3220052

Regards,
Andy Ilachinski

Patricia Sheley

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2013, 12:10:18 pm »

Love the Carl Gustav Carus quote, and found your images there the most satisfying. Minor White oozed this understanding in his work and has always been an inspiration for me. Synesthaesia is a wonderful companion for many photographers...George de Wolfe discusses this a bit...I think there may even be an audio interview at Lenswork...

I wondered what introspective searches the Eric Meola essay might trigger...we were already part way there with "les jaunes" of late...
« Last Edit: January 14, 2013, 12:13:03 pm by Patricia Sheley »
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SunnyUK

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2013, 12:09:37 pm »

Very, very interesting pictures, and I was most surprised to come to the end of the article and realise what I had been looking at.
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2013, 12:41:43 pm »

Welcome Andy!

I remember seeing your B&W abstract work in Lenswork (air bubbles trapped in glass?) and it brought me to tears. Glad we'll benefit from your wisdom and art here as well.

Walt Roycraft

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2013, 01:56:39 pm »

Welcome Andy!

I remember seeing your B&W abstract work in Lenswork (air bubbles trapped in glass?) and it brought me to tears. Glad we'll benefit from your wisdom and art here as well.

+10
Andy, thanks for not sitting back anymore!
I am really inspired by your work and plan on spending some time taking it all in. Thanks for the links.
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Andy Ilachinski

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2013, 03:22:27 pm »

You have a great memory Slobodan! I hope the "tears" were not accompanied with you slapping your forehead in disbelief, thinking:"My Goodness, *this* is what lenswork is publishing these days?"  :-)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2013, 03:48:58 pm »

You have a great memory Slobodan! I hope the "tears" were not accompanied with you slapping your forehead in disbelief, thinking:"My Goodness, *this* is what lenswork is publishing these days?"  :-)

Hehe... No, it really made me happy there are people who can find beauty and harmony in the most mundane objects.

Also, you are not quite new on this forum, I referenced once one of your articles in this thread (reply #4, on eight stages in developing your own style):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=67020.msg529645#msg529645

ndevlin

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2013, 10:48:02 pm »

Welcome Andy!

These are exceptionally beautiful images created with an exceptionally insightful and creative eye. We're privileged to have an artist of your calibre and thoughtfulness in the community.

Thank you for sharing.

- Nick.
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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2013, 01:55:32 am »

Welcome to the list, Andy!  Been reading your blog for a lot of years now, and have shared a few of the posts here.

Mike.
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Andy Ilachinski

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2013, 12:25:17 pm »

Welcome Andy!

These are exceptionally beautiful images created with an exceptionally insightful and creative eye. We're privileged to have an artist of your calibre and thoughtfulness in the community.

Thank you for sharing.

- Nick.

Well, I'm not sure about the "exceptionally insightful" or artistry (except for my own mind's eye, which tends to transform the most mundane item into Jungian / Bohmmain universal "dramas" inbued with cosmic meaning), but I am passionate about photography, to be sure. Delighted to join the group. There is grat collective wisdom to be found in these forums (much more so than just about any otehr out there that I've run across).

RawheaD

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2013, 01:55:17 pm »

I admit when I first saw the images I said to myself "Oh another Chris Friel knock-off?" (knowing, of course, that his work isn't necessarily 100% original, either---none of our's ever are), but upon closer inspection and reading the blog entry I humbly stand corrected and pleasantly awed.  Thanks for the contribution and I'll be following your work from now on :)

Andy Ilachinski

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Re: How about Synesthetic Landscapes?
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2013, 02:51:14 pm »

I admit when I first saw the images I said to myself "Oh another Chris Friel knock-off?" (knowing, of course, that his work isn't necessarily 100% original, either---none of our's ever are), but upon closer inspection and reading the blog entry I humbly stand corrected and pleasantly awed.  Thanks for the contribution and I'll be following your work from now on :)

Thanks for the kind words. In truth, and as should surely be part of the discussion here (particularly in the context of Meola's color essay) is that many of us have "forgotten" that many of the B&W masters were early explorers of profoundly creative color experiments, but that - for whatever reason, the vagaries of time - have long been forgotten. Case in point: I've recently blogged about a "discovery" of mine (that coincided with my own humble efforts along these lines; i.e., from B&W, which is what I primarily do and how I see the world, to color) that one of my spiritual mentors - the late great Wynn Bullock - had down extraordinary things with color abstraction back when I was just getting used to diapers (~1960+/-a few years):

http://tao-of-digital-photography.blogspot.com/2012/01/wynn-bullock-color-abstractions.html

In Bullock's case, essentially no one in his generation even *knew* he was experimenting, except for family members and the lucky few who attended local presentations. It is through the loving care of his eldest daughter (Barbara Bullock-Wilson) that his amazing work is finally seeing the "light of day" so to speak.

It is, as others have observed and is so true, virtually impossible to stumble upon a path that hasn't seen at least a few brave souls venture upon (though about whose ventures not everyone will know).
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