The Tracks

[David Eckels]

But! At great personal risk, I'd like to share my thoughts about this, but not trying to pontificate. Photography is a medium (maybe a currency?) like everything else we use to try and connect with one another. Words, paintings, sculpture, theater, science, etc (some of these are mixed media no?) are forms of expression and organization that we use to communicate subjective and necessarily approximate realities. We say we have heard that song before about unrequited love and tragedy (Tristan and Isolde, Hero and Leander, almost any country western song, etc), but each re-telling of the "cliche" can be appreciated for variations on a common theme that we all have had or will experience, for the richness of the embellishment by the story teller, for the sheer size of a tapestry depicting the events re-told, or for the technical execution of the attempt to communicate even what is an old, old story. Revealing my childish preoccupation at times, I love boobs; all the time, every way, size, shape, real or "fake" it doesn't matter. My 89 yo father still loves boobs, too! Sure, I would love the Platonic ideal, but I sure like going through the data to find the most perfect approximation or should I say approximations Media can be used to create everything from the profound, to the mundane, to the vulgar, but I would argue that to be successful, they must in some sense represent a "cliche" a cliche to someone, somewhere. A cliche to one skilled in the art, may not be a cliche to a neophyte. But this does not negate the fact that a rendition is appreciated or found irritating and overused, precisely because it communicates something of our common experience; beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

When I saw Russ' photo graph, I could appreciate it for it's technical excellence (composition, exposure, post processing, etc). I could also appreciate it aesthetically, feel the sense of emptiness that exists in a million different venues and within all of us. But what I loved most of all were the empty tracks, which to me signify the inevitability of loneliness and I found Russ' rendition beautiful and terrible, at the same time. I keep hearing Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" in the background as I write this, which is probably mixing metaphors , but I also love the renditions by Rosanne Cash and every other artist that sings this song even though I've heard it a million times (that' hyperbole)

Just because Shakespeare writes another story about a mad king or a cuckolded husband, doesn't mean we don't appreciate, enjoy, even revere how he uses common (vulgar?) words to tell the tale. Now, I'm no Shakespeare with a camera, but I sure enjoy all of the renditions here in LuLa land, some successful, some not. I enjoy the repartee and thought provoking discussions here in LuLa, and while I have yet to produce my "masterpiece" I also love the gathering of kindred souls around a warm fire on a cold evening, even if we are re-telling "old stories."

Probably way off point and did not mean to be pedantic, but also wanted to share what you all elicited in me. Thanks, and all the best!

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Very beautifully expressed, David!

[RSL]

Thanks David, and I certainly agree with Eric. Very well said.

I might add that to a large degree response to any art is learned. Sometimes something in an unfamiliar genre can knock your socks off at first sight or at first hearing, but that kind of thing is very rare. The more you study an art form the more its subtleties reveal themselves, and the more you perceive those subtleties the more you can appreciate what's there.

[David Eckels]

The more you study an art form the more its subtleties reveal themselves, and the more you perceive those subtleties the more you can appreciate what's there.

Si. Which is why I am having so much fun here in LuLa!

[Rob C]

Si. Which is why I am having so much fun here in LuLa!

The reason I like photographs of faces more than of boobs:

https://www.google.es/search?q=hans+feurer&tbm=isch&imgil=Fc_zEWVNc3rx6M%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcTK6jZcRbUqvQvTXdrR0qxiaomFaXZf-Daw45sXuTygYjtkq0qF%253B744%253B496%253BFn8xrvMYW7KOeM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.benjaminkanarekblog.com%25252F2011%25252F04%25252F16%25252Femmanuelle-alt-hans-feurer-vogue-paris%25252F&source=iu&usg=__1Ddr_ZhcMsnmBxCdUCYgUODRmF8%3D&sa=X&ei=VFUOU8KIBsOSywOww4K4AQ&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q9QEwAA&biw=1257&bih=886#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=hDWKvnOJa4IXgM%253A%3BWGmuj-9zzDPUpM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-OFf__64ggb8%252FUdLQbwMbhrI%252FAAAAAAAAiYE%252FueILku2zL3A%252Fs1361%252Fmode3_newslicious_hans_feurer_antidote.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fmode.newslicious.net%252F2013%252F07%252Fstreet-style-catherine-frida-zuzanna.html%3B1361%3B908

Rob C

[David Eckels]

Rob, like you, I am a lover of the female form! Thanks for the link.

[RSL]

I never could understand why Garry Winogrand's book, Women Are Beautiful got slammed. Women ARE beautiful, even when they're caught in what they consider to be unattractive poses. Even when they're not models or ballerinas. Even when they're old. Women just simply are beautiful.

[luxborealis]

Totally undifferentiated "wonder" isn't what I'm looking for, Rob. But photos that tell me everything I might want to know about the subject get pretty boring pretty quickly, IMHO. So, the kind of ambiguous photo that I like is one that suggests at least some boundaries on the viewer's speculation, but still leaves room for the viewer to exercise some imagination.
Eric

+1

[Rob C]

I never could understand why Garry Winogrand's book, Women Are Beautiful got slammed. Women ARE beautiful, even when they're caught in what they consider to be unattractive poses. Even when they're not models or ballerinas. Even when they're old. Women just simply are beautiful.

Wow, Russ, that's one sweeping statement! Or you live a charmed life.

I've come across beauties with scarred personalities; beauties that drive you insane with mindless chatter within fifteen minutes and you mentally pray for a taxi home alone; I've met ugly ones who are as ugly inside as out; ugly ones that are beautiful within and some that have a little bit of all the above rolled into one. I'd suggest that there are almost (but not quite) as many unpleasant and boring women out there as there are men, with one saving grace: none I have met has talked about sports, unless she was still a child for whom it was a continuing part of school life.

On the whole, though, I'd rather sit at a pavement table and have a coffee with a bunch of birds than with a bunch of men. Men are so predictable in their conversation - when they have one. Or maybe it's just the ones I meet. Of either gender.

;-)

Rob C

[RSL]

I can't argue with any of that, Rob. But I was looking at your web site and I got carried away.

[David Eckels]

I never could understand why Garry Winogrand's book, Women Are Beautiful got slammed. Women ARE beautiful, even when they're caught in what they consider to be unattractive poses. Even when they're not models or ballerinas. Even when they're old. Women just simply are beautiful.

+1

I can't argue with any of that, Rob. But I was looking at your web site and I got carried away.

+1

[Rob C]

I can't argue with any of that, Rob. But I was looking at your web site and I got carried away.

It's these damned guys in white coats again, Russ; they spoil everything in the end! Couldn't you just tell them you felt an obligation to run my viewing numbers a bit higher and were only trying to help? I'm sure they'd have understood the good motivation...

;-)

Rob C

[BernardLanguillier]

Interesting image indeed, a great starting point for a discussion.

Without elaborating further on the said/unsaid that is fascinating in its own right, there is ony aspect I find particularly interesting, it is the position of the 2 rails within the image relative to its edges.

I believe that the near coincidence between the right rail and the bottom corner of the image is by far the single most important compositional aspect of the image.

I am not sure I like it from an aesthetical standpoint to be frank, but leaving that aside, how do you guys feel about the message conveyed by this concidence as opposed to other options where the 2 rails would have been fully within the image, or the right one passing outside the image to its right (the photographer being somewhere between the 2 rails)?

Cheers,
Bernard

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Interesting image indeed, a great starting point for a discussion.

Without elaborating further on the said/unsaid that is fascinating in its own right, there is ony aspect I find particularly interesting, it is the position of the 2 rails within the image relative to its edges.

I believe that the near coincidence between the right rail and the bottom corner of the image is by far the single most important compositional aspect of the image.

I am not sure I like it from an aesthetical standpoint to be frank, but leaving that aside, how do you guys feel about the message conveyed by this concidence as opposed to other options where the 2 rails would have been fully within the image, or the right one passing outside the image to its right (the photographer being somewhere between the 2 rails)?

Cheers,
Bernard

Interesting.
I half-consciously recognized it, but didn't include it in my thoughts.
Now that you mention it, I for me it increases the uneasy feeling and the discomfort because of the ambiguity (Russ? !!!) of the position of the right track.
Its neither clearly on the bottom of the frame, nor in the corner, nor on the right side and because its position is not clearly defined, it's sort of floating in between something.
I think this of opens the frame of the image here, like hole drilled in by that track and therefore extending the image into the space of the viewer, which makes it compelling.
Also the left track is pointing towards the viewer, like this famous American Uncle Sam thing ("We want you!") which increases the effect of the image grabbing us.
Not sure if I really nailed it with that analysis, but that's how I feel and think about it.
Cheers
~Chris

[Rob C]

Interesting image indeed, a great starting point for a discussion.

Without elaborating further on the said/unsaid that is fascinating in its own right, there is ony aspect I find particularly interesting, it is the position of the 2 rails within the image relative to its edges.

I believe that the near coincidence between the right rail and the bottom corner of the image is by far the single most important compositional aspect of the image.

I am not sure I like it from an aesthetical standpoint to be frank, but leaving that aside, how do you guys feel about the message conveyed by this concidence as opposed to other options where the 2 rails would have been fully within the image, or the right one passing outside the image to its right (the photographer being somewhere between the 2 rails)?

Cheers,
Bernard

This is critique or this is reconstruction?

Whatever, it underlines, points out or illustrates - call it as you might - the problem with the concept of asking for other people's opinions on posted images. Imagine if God had given this forum the chance to redesign the planet: walking or driving would have been rendered impossible by those cussed concrete tripod holes distributed everywhere.

On the bright side, we might all have been given free, light-weight carbon fibre Gitzos at reaching the age of twenty-one. Then we could hold our heads high in peer company!

;-)

Rob C

[David Eckels]

Hi everyone, I decided to blog about this discussion thread (shameless self promotion) , but thought some might be interested. It can be found on my blog site, which you can reach by clicking on this link: Why take a photograph? Comments are always welcome, here or there 

[muntanela]

This is one of those intriguing images English teachers would use to stimulate creative writing. There must be a thousand stories down those tracks! A very appealing image!

I'd write about my holidays in Porto Civitanova when I was a little boy ('50s), perhaps because there was a railway near our house and mediterranean plants.