Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => But is it Art? => Topic started by: Isaac on February 25, 2013, 04:52:41 pm

Title: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Isaac on February 25, 2013, 04:52:41 pm
"Schlaug feels his images appear as a cross-section of landscape that lure the viewer into believing they are seeing something below the surface of the land (http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/01/28/robert_schlaug_limited_area_digitally_manipulates_landscapes_photos.html)."
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Alan Klein on February 25, 2013, 09:34:52 pm
The "trick" gets old after a couple of photos.  Everyone is trying to be different - our ego in overdrive.  So we turn the camera on an angle, stick people in the upper corner of the frame or whatever.  Isn't it terrible not to be an Einstein or Mozart or Michaelangelo?
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: louoates on February 25, 2013, 09:46:35 pm
It took me about 1/1,000 less time to get tired of those images than HDR.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 25, 2013, 11:45:19 pm
The "trick" gets old after a couple of photos.
+10.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: francois on February 26, 2013, 04:11:24 am
The "trick" gets old after a couple of photos.  Everyone is trying to be different - our ego in overdrive.  So we turn the camera on an angle, stick people in the upper corner of the frame or whatever.  Isn't it terrible not to be an Einstein or Mozart or Michaelangelo?

Agreed, one photo is enough and those ones are just like cough syrup, first sip is fineā€¦
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on February 26, 2013, 04:17:57 am
My initial dislike of digital photography began with stock catalogues. The very fist image that I saw of canoes going over Niagara Falls was quite enough to dampen my ardour for ever. Why did it impact upon me so negatively? Because there is so much magic in reality, and it is so little well documented, that chasing false gods appears almost disrespectful of the existing creation around us.

The question has to be: why is anyone moved (positively) by such obvious fakery? Why don't they just say to theselves, how silly that is?

Rob C
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Chairman Bill on February 26, 2013, 12:32:06 pm
Thanks for that. That's about 37.5 seconds of my life I won't be getting back.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: walter.sk on February 26, 2013, 04:21:37 pm
While I tend to agree with the general statements, the 2nd image, with the railroad tracks providing the receding horizontal lines, there seems to be a more integrated purpose for the foreground vertical lines, and I kind of like the picture.  The others leave me cold.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Ed B on February 26, 2013, 11:17:59 pm
My initial dislike of digital photography began with stock catalogues. The very fist image that I saw of canoes going over Niagara Falls was quite enough to dampen my ardour for ever. Why did it impact upon me so negatively? Because there is so much magic in reality, and it is so little well documented, that chasing false gods appears almost disrespectful of the existing creation around us.

The question has to be: why is anyone moved (positively) by such obvious fakery? Why don't they just say to theselves, how silly that is?

Rob C

How do you feel about Uelsmann's work?
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on February 27, 2013, 04:20:48 am
How do you feel about Uelsmann's work?


I haven't taken a great, investigative interest: I have seen some of it here and there (not as print) and it only says manipulation skills to me. That isn't what photography, to me, is all about. I simply don't see the point of juxtaposing all manner of things that make little or no logical sense (to me) at all. Because one can doesn't mean that one should. I have no doubts as to his skills, only their application.

In photography, I really do believe in the notion that simplicity means more focussed thought rather than contrived thought. No, I'm not saying that a shot of a blank sky says more than WYSIWYG!

;-)

Rob C
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: RSL on February 27, 2013, 05:58:39 am
+20
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Patricia Sheley on February 27, 2013, 09:43:13 am
Referencing the Schlaug images...can't see the seeing...can see a random experiment but the leap to "body of work" seems a steep stretch... I need the rising to the surface aspect of seeing in my life personally...only way I've found to start this conversation with young children on our photohike days armed with our phones is by starting the day over cocoa at the hob adjusting the flame under a pot of water with a loose egg within. It's just the surface at first of the water, and then the alchemy of the albumin, water and heat and the almost faint/invisible perception of something on the rise. We adjust it back and forward and see it's many descriptions...these are 7-12 year olds mind you... they aren't blinded to the possibilities by the RULES. Then we go out for several hours to see what we can "see". It is amazing to travel in their paths!

Then this morning I came across this:   http://www.aperture.org/2013/02/jeff-wall-and-lucas-blalock-a-conversation-on-pictures/  

It felt good to read.
Followed by this:  http://www.aperture.org/2013/02/nine-years-a-million-conceptual-miles-by-charlotte-cotton/    

(An aside re: Uelsmann. The manipulation aspect is but a dust spec on the negatives of his vision...I freely admit that seeing only select images here and there might suggest otherwise, but for anyone able to view the larger body of his work the "manipulation" aspect ceases to exist. jmho)
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: amolitor on February 27, 2013, 11:25:26 am
What I find most interesting about Wall's discussion about photography and photographs is that we have been hearing roughly the same "Photography is on the verge of/finally free to explore its etc etc etc" stuff essentially since the beginning of photography. I find it fascinating (and Sontag found it equally fascinating in the 1970s) that photographers of a certain sort feel apparently compelled to argue for photography as Fine Art, as Art on the same footing as everything else. Sometimes the words change around a bit, now we have photography participating in the dialectic between high and low genres (it seems to *me* that photography's been doing this for 150 years already, but I am not very sophisticated), but the thrust is the same: Photography is legitimate, it is, it it, it is!

Every year seems to be the year that photography has finally achieved this.

Which is, well, a little odd, isn't it?
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on February 27, 2013, 03:16:30 pm
I think the confusion arises because of great expectations and the insistence on yes or no.

Some photographs are art just a some paintings, drawings and sculptures are art. And some of all of these are not art. Some are rubbish and failed attempts. Probably most of all of them are failures if one is seeking art, but that doesn't mean that they have failed other purposes.

If we could collectively get rid of this all or nothing vision, we'd all be much more settled and happy with our creative lives.

Rob C
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: kaelaria on February 27, 2013, 03:18:33 pm
Meh.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on February 28, 2013, 04:26:58 am
Meh.


?


Rob C
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on February 28, 2013, 11:56:01 am
The "trick" gets old after a couple of photos....

+101

+ LuLa award for critique brevity ;)
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on February 28, 2013, 11:57:52 am
How do you feel about Uelsmann's work?

Love it!
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on February 28, 2013, 12:07:25 pm
What I find most interesting ...

Welcome back, Andrew!
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on February 28, 2013, 12:53:28 pm
It's Art if it's too big or impractical to be in an average home, but will occupy lots of space in a gallery or mansion.


That's a sound, commercial definition!

Were I but able to play.

;-)

Rob C
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Ed B on February 28, 2013, 07:45:09 pm

I haven't taken a great, investigative interest: I have seen some of it here and there (not as print) and it only says manipulation skills to me. That isn't what photography, to me, is all about. I simply don't see the point of juxtaposing all manner of things that make little or no logical sense (to me) at all. Because one can doesn't mean that one should. I have no doubts as to his skills, only their application.

In photography, I really do believe in the notion that simplicity means more focussed thought rather than contrived thought. No, I'm not saying that a shot of a blank sky says more than WYSIWYG!

;-)

Rob C


I don't necessarily disagree with the simplicity stance, well done simple images usually are quite strong. However, when I look at manipulated images they aren't really much different to me than paintings with a strange concept, or a book like Lord of the Rings with creatures that don't and have never existed, or a science fiction movie that breaks every physics law we know. It doesn't have to reflect reality to be enjoyable, just needs to be done well.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Wim van Velzen on March 01, 2013, 01:44:38 am
Looks like his computer or videocard can't handle the large file while he was moving it around at his screen. Restarting PS might help.
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on March 01, 2013, 08:25:00 pm
Looks like his computer or videocard can't handle the large file while he was moving it around at his screen. Restarting PS might help.

That's the one Wim - ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: theguywitha645d on March 16, 2013, 04:17:39 pm
The taste paradox--everyone has good taste. These pictures don't do a lot for me, but others may find them fascinating. Wouldn't it be a boring world if we saw all the same way?
Title: Re: "Taking a Second Glance at Eye-Stopping Landscapes"
Post by: Rob C on March 17, 2013, 09:58:58 am
The taste paradox--everyone has good taste. These pictures don't do a lot for me, but others may find them fascinating. Wouldn't it be a boring world if we saw all the same way?




Not if I were the only snapper in the world and everybody liked my stuff!

I could live with that quite happily.

Rob C