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Author Topic: Without Prejudice 3  (Read 421098 times)

Rob C

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #960 on: January 15, 2018, 05:09:09 am »

Patrica,
When in search of winter nocturnes, I often find myself accompanied by thoughts that have been placed in my head and remain in my heart.
Fleeting light and mysterious shadows and the uncomfortable unknown are made safe with the voices and images of my past.

Peter


That, Peter, is why I hate having to have anything at all to do with forests!

Yes, on a practical human level they may be generally safe (in western Europe) from death by tooth and claw unless you wander through ferns, eating wild mushrooms and stand on snakes, but there is a spooking of the mind present nonetheless - for me. Blair Witch Project illustrated it perfectly or, maybe, created a recognizable form of what I had formerly known only as a shapeless sense of menace about the disorientation those places engender.

It's not reserved for humans. When we came out here to live (Spain) we eventually brought our Alsabrador with us - mainly Alsation - and she had the biggest teeth I ever saw on a dog. A hundred yards behind our home there is a hill covered in pine forest, with a road winding up to the crest, on the sides of which road were markings where houses were allowed to be built. Most, these almost forty years later, are still not built. Anyway, a great place for a walk with the reward of a magnficent view overlooking the Bay of Pollensa, right across to the next bay, the Alcudia one. But, that dog was straining against the lead every step of the way. She did not want to be there. I was to discover later that one of my neighbours who also had a dog, experienced the very same reactions with his. He told me that he'd once wandered off the road into the trees and came across a dead dog hanging from a branch. Who could do this sort of thing?

But dogs do more than sense by ear and nose. The predecessor to the above dog was a lot smaller - pretty much like a fox, she was; I would sometimes be in the front room playing my records whilst the family were in the next room watching tv or whatever, the dog with them. I would hear her bark, and then I'd look out the window to the road and see a chap and his dog come strolling down, about forty yards away. Now how, with music and tv on, could that dog know that this other animal was on its way? No chance of scent shooting ahead of the dog and into the house, and I can't imagine it could hear above the ambient sounds already in the house. Yes, the dog was a regular on the road, but the timing was not regular.

It's things like this that convince me of a hereafter, of the existence of so much of which we know zero.

But back to the forests: as you admit to the emotions they inspire, I'm surprised you actually seek them out. I thought you loved the woods... however, this new revelation puts another layer of meaning onto your paintings, widening the conversation one might hold with them.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 05:12:52 am by Rob C »
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GrahamBy

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #961 on: January 15, 2018, 05:31:03 am »

Yes, I think dark is a primordial fear... it makes sense, we lose one of our most useful defensive faculties, we're at a disdvantage to the beasts of claws and teeth. My friend of the shoulder blades and knees grew up in a tiny village in the Ardèche, the only Département in France with neither a railway nor an autoroute. Some would call it a "shit-hole", but it's where you end up when your father has left the priesthood to marry: did you know that the church is excused any contributions to the social security system? That means an ex-priest essentially has no hope of a decent retirement once past 40 years. In the case of her father, he solved the problem by dieing in his 50's.

Anyway, as a girl she would be sent up the hill to collect milk from a farm every night, on a road through the forest which in winter was completely dark. If she was lucky she could persuade one of her brothers to to come along, but often not. She was overjoyed when the family moved to the city :)

These are not her legs, they belong to a young woman who was reading musical scores and making notes on a laptop in my new favourite café...
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petermfiore

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #962 on: January 15, 2018, 07:13:50 am »


That, Peter, is why I hate having to have anything at all to do with forests

But back to the forests: as you admit to the emotions they inspire, I'm surprised you actually seek them out. I thought you loved the woods... however, this new revelation puts another layer of meaning onto your paintings, widening the conversation one might hold with them.

Rob,
To paint one needs to feel, if one paints only what is observed...well, the camera does that much better. Feeling can be uneasy, but feeling is life. I've never felt my life was endangered on my walks. My mind wanders to various life moments as I move through a space. The past is a tremendous reservoir to inform our future thinking. I force that upon myself.

Peter
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 07:19:33 am by petermfiore »
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KLaban

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #963 on: January 15, 2018, 08:19:27 am »

Going back twenty years or more I used to do a lot of woodland photography and spent a lot of time in these environments miles from any habitation. The day to day experience varied, perhaps depending on my frame of mind on any particular day. Some days it was an uplifting experience and on others somewhat daunting and even potentially dangerous.

Occasionally in the middle of nowhere I'd come across a lit manmade fire: a policeman friend told me this was more than likely evidence of criminals who are on the run. Another time I had my car broken into but thankfully I had all my equipment with me and there were no losses other than a broken window. On yet another occasion I got back to my car only to find a pornographic polaroid tucked under the wiper. I reported this to the police who told me the perpetrator was likely in the vicinity and watching for my return: rather unnerving.

On balance and despite the dangers I remember it generally as a rewarding time.

 

Rob C

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #964 on: January 15, 2018, 09:27:50 am »

Yes, I think dark is a primordial fear... it makes sense, we lose one of our most useful defensive faculties, we're at a disdvantage to the beasts of claws and teeth. My friend of the shoulder blades and knees grew up in a tiny village in the Ardèche, the only Département in France with neither a railway nor an autoroute. Some would call it a "shit-hole", but it's where you end up when your father has left the priesthood to marry: did you know that the church is excused any contributions to the social security system? That means an ex-priest essentially has no hope of a decent retirement once past 40 years. In the case of her father, he solved the problem by dieing in his 50's.

Anyway, as a girl she would be sent up the hill to collect milk from a farm every night, on a road through the forest which in winter was completely dark. If she was lucky she could persuade one of her brothers to to come along, but often not. She was overjoyed when the family moved to the city :)

These are not her legs, they belong to a young woman who was reading musical scores and making notes on a laptop in my new favourite café...

My bad forest experience wasn't there, but in Limousin, as we took the route from Brive-la-Gaillard across, eastwards, towards Clermont Ferrand and onwards and upwards to the champagne lands. I needed to take a leak and it's a route as empty as the places of your friend's experiences. After that I thought seriously about carrying an empty bottle around... I guess some things defy logic and common sense, whatever common sense may really be; it might even be the emotion tellng me not to turn off the straight line because then I'd never find the way back. I also wonder why the hell I didn't just go French, stop right beside the car and just unzip, there and then. Maybe the French do that because they know their forests better.

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #965 on: January 15, 2018, 10:27:05 am »

To paint one needs to feel, if one paints only what is observed...well, the camera does that much better. Feeling can be uneasy, but feeling is life.
Well said, Peter!

Expressing feeling using a camera is probably harder than using paints, but the photographs I find myself most attracted to are ones that express feelings, as do Patricia's, and Peter's, and, yes, even Rob's. And "happy face" isn't the only feeling worth expressing visually.

-Eric
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Rob C

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #966 on: January 15, 2018, 01:19:20 pm »

Well said, Peter!

Expressing feeling using a camera is probably harder than using paints, but the photographs I find myself most attracted to are ones that express feelings, as do Patricia's, and Peter's, and, yes, even Rob's. And "happy face" isn't the only feeling worth expressing visually.

-Eric


Thanks, Eric, and "happy face" is probably the most boring of them all; at least a selfie might show a tiny spot of embarrassment... !

I think emotional buzz must be one of the hardest things to try and achieve through landscape photography, though, as one lacks so much control over the subject and pretty words induce nothing by way of response. At least with Moira there is some communication: I whistle, she wanders over, and she gets a couple of carrots and I the pleasure of looking into her eyes. Done. No camera required. I have always failed to see anything when looking into the eyes of a cat, and for some years we had over thirty of them that we fed. That each had a name made no difference to the depth of relationship.






Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #967 on: January 15, 2018, 03:00:41 pm »

Ah,Rob,

Cats are like the purest of documentary photographers. They may have feelings, but they will absolutely NEVER let a human know what those feelings are. The sound of a can opener will cause any cat to come running, making a great (totally fake) show of affection, that lasts until the food is in the dish.

Eric
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Rob C

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #968 on: January 15, 2018, 03:52:00 pm »

Ah,Rob,

Cats are like the purest of documentary photographers. They may have feelings, but they will absolutely NEVER let a human know what those feelings are. The sound of a can opener will cause any cat to come running, making a great (totally fake) show of affection, that lasts until the food is in the dish.

Eric

Are you sure, Eric? Shows of affection could be no more than the wilder imaginings of anthropomorphic wishful thinking.

But they do relate, one to the other - the cats, I mean. The last surviving pair from our adopted lot of wildbunchers were both castratos (not done by us, but during our absence on a working trip by a crazed woman neighbour who poisoned the rest and took the surviving pair to a vet) and seemed inseperable.

When one died, probably by a heart problem as it happened so fast, the other walked up to it, sniffed it and literally jumped away from it. So some connection or understanding of death exists within the species. Equally, when some of the females gave birth, there would always be the kitten that came to feed last. We were friendly enough that the mothers would allow us to handle their offspring, and when we'd try to get the runts to feed by holding them up at the mother, they would just look at us as if thinking poor sods, don't they know it's not going to survive?

All said and done, the emotional stress of losing animals one has known all their life is too hard to handle anymore; also, the knowledge that having another dog today means the poor creature will eventually be left to fend for itself or, worse, put to sleep when I'm gone, stops me making the mistake it would be. The loss of our last dog was very hard to accept, and neither of us ever got over the sound of silence when we put the key in the front door lock...

Michael West

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #969 on: January 15, 2018, 04:59:34 pm »

a not very recent image from the actual interior of neighbor's rather odd  house

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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #970 on: January 15, 2018, 06:17:22 pm »

a not very recent image from the actual interior of neighbor's rather odd  house

Ah! Classic!
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Patricia Sheley

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #971 on: January 15, 2018, 07:11:36 pm »

~slow passage to sea ~(hard water)
and come to grips~
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 09:02:52 pm by Patricia Sheley »
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A common woman~

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #972 on: January 15, 2018, 08:01:04 pm »

Very hard water indeed!
Splendid.
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armand

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #973 on: January 15, 2018, 09:52:00 pm »

few streams from the summer time

armand

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #974 on: January 15, 2018, 09:57:39 pm »

and a winter one

32BT

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #975 on: January 16, 2018, 09:40:41 am »

My staircase fetish almost played up on me. SooC:
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Patricia Sheley

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #976 on: January 16, 2018, 11:41:59 am »

Ohhh, a nice patch of visual mind games rolled into one passage; my favorite, ~vertigo.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #977 on: January 16, 2018, 12:48:09 pm »

Escher would love it.
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armand

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #978 on: January 16, 2018, 04:11:20 pm »

.

Patricia Sheley

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Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #979 on: January 16, 2018, 04:40:18 pm »

http://myrvaagnes.com
 

Re: Without Prejudice 3
« Reply #1007 on: Today at 12:48:09 PM »
Quote
Escher would love it.

He was the string to my view too, but with a splash of Hitchcock~
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