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Author Topic: Is it art, but is it also dead?  (Read 5203 times)

D Fuller

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #20 on: October 21, 2019, 12:04:19 am »

Heh.  I know just what you mean.  Many years working as a camera operator and second unit DP has left me with little but a dated demo reel. (and a healthy bank balance)  Now in retirement, it's prints that give me the most satisfaction.  And now, most recently Blurb books. Now, that's fun!  Pays even less than landscape. :)

Love your work.  The Osram PR piece is marvelous.

Thanks! The OSRAM and OSRAM/SYLVANIA work as some of the most fun of any I’ve been privileged to do—mostly because the Creative Director I worked for was brilliant.

I need to try making a Blurb book. Thanks for the nudge.
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RSL

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #21 on: October 21, 2019, 12:49:02 pm »

I just reached that exact conclusion a few days ago, Russ. Comb-bound small print books.
What's your favourite double sided media?  My Epson L805 would love to know.

Hi Peter, I use what Epson currently calls "Premium Presentation Paper Matte, double-sided." That paper has had at least two other names over the years, and my Epson Stylus Pro 3880 calls it something else. But it works. I have books going back many years and they still seem to have their full original color.
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #22 on: October 23, 2019, 08:04:42 am »

Interesting. I think that looking back 40 years in the past brings nostalgia into the table. But really, polaroids back then served the same role as social media sharing these days - sharing the image for immediate consumption. They were popular because they could be, well... immediately shared?

Nostalgia fast forward to today - mu daughter likes her Fuji Instax a lot.

RSL

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #23 on: October 23, 2019, 10:21:22 am »

Right, Paulo. Polaroid brought instant gratification (and often less satisfactory instant reactions) to photography. Being able to show a subject what you just shot was a “wow” thing. The really great thing about it was that if you were using type 55 you could hand your subject a print and still have the negative. You can’t do that with digital, but you can show your subject the picture, get an email address, and email the picture.
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John Camp

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #24 on: October 23, 2019, 02:18:19 pm »

My take on Wenders is that he's gotten old. He doesn't feel just that his time has passed, he feels that *everybody's* time has passed -- things just aren't as good as they used to be.   I'm old, and I feel some of the same things he apparently does, but I reject them. I think his photos are valuable, and that similar and just as valuable photos can be taken today. And, for that matter, are being taken. What's critical is that they reflect life and culture, and aren't some auto-wanking "art" produced by a bad photo of trees and six minutes with photoshop. IMHO. 8-)
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KLaban

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #25 on: October 23, 2019, 02:49:48 pm »

My take on Wenders is that he's gotten old. He doesn't feel just that his time has passed, he feels that *everybody's* time has passed -- things just aren't as good as they used to be.

We hear this on LuLa and elsewhere all too often.

I'm old, and I feel some of the same things he apparently does, but I reject them.

We don't hear this often enough on LuLa and elsewhere.

Ivo_B

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #26 on: October 24, 2019, 03:42:21 am »

My take on Wenders is that he's gotten old. He doesn't feel just that his time has passed, he feels that *everybody's* time has passed -- things just aren't as good as they used to be.   I'm old, and I feel some of the same things he apparently does, but I reject them. I think his photos are valuable, and that similar and just as valuable photos can be taken today. And, for that matter, are being taken. What's critical is that they reflect life and culture, and aren't some auto-wanking "art" produced by a bad photo of trees and six minutes with photoshop. IMHO. 8-)

Hear hear.
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Rob C

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #27 on: October 24, 2019, 01:48:21 pm »

It's somewhat simplistic to tie personal age with what any individual likes or dislikes as style within any given genre. Not all people start their photographic trip at the same age; the different influences that an individual absorbs are always varied.

Somebody a decade older than I am might not have begun to feel any particular interest in photography because of what was in vogue when he was a teen, and may have come to the thing in his fifties or sixties, with retirement in mind, and the sudden thought of hey, what will I do with my days? His tastes may be coloured by what he sees as contemporary work when he is at that point, or, perhaps, he might be looking at pictures on the Internet and discover the wonders of the old masters and old techniques from before his own youth, and therein see his future hobby.

On the other hand, myself, ten years younger, became addicted to the camera as a very young teen, and the ideals in mind were absolutely not about the f64 group, the influence of the Sierra Club (of whom I had never heard) nor of the works of St Ansel, about whose elevation I was just as uninformed. I was straight in at the cutting edge of the times, which is not to pretend that I was there doing my razor thing: I was simply in love with the work of those who were.

The condensed version of the above: people do whatever they do because they like it.

That they have those different views doesn't, of itself, alter the fact that there are and have always been recognized "boxes" into which everything falls, more or less. Call yourself the most free of the free spirits, and unless that freedom is expressed by electing to do nothing, your output cannot avoid falling into one of those little containers, or be uncomfortably suspended across the edges between one or two of them; a hedged bet of a style, then.

For myself, I think I have come to the natural end of my outdoor photographic trip. An experience on Wednesday of this week saw me hustled by a woman around twenty-five or so years of age who came out of nowhere from behind me on a quiet street in this little town, asked me the way to a bus stop, made some meaningless chat about nationalities and then came up close to hug me, as if in gratitude for telling her where the stops are. I was uncomfortable from the start, but when she made this proximity move I pushed her away as hard as I could, feeling I was being set up for a fake sex assault charge. Her hands all over me, I got away and a few seconds later discovered there was no longer a Rolex on my wrist.

There was no woman to be seen either, when I turned to look for her. The following three hours were spent sitting around in the Guardia Civil offices wondering if my third heart event was cutting in. Anyway, the point that became clear to me was that old guys, nice things and the street do not mix. I consider I was lucky it was a woman and I did not get punched, stabbed or shot for a pretty bauble.

Once lucky, the idea of doing it all again with cameras seems silly. Age fixes everything.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2019, 01:52:06 pm by Rob C »
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rabanito

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #28 on: October 24, 2019, 05:32:40 pm »


There was no woman to be seen either, when I turned to look for her. The following three hours were spent sitting around in the Guardia Civil offices wondering if my third heart event was cutting in. Anyway, the point that became clear to me was that old guys, nice things and the street do not mix. I consider I was lucky it was a woman and I did not get punched, stabbed or shot for a pretty bauble.


And possibly she was not that alone, only you didn't notice.
Hope you had an insurance 8)
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #29 on: October 24, 2019, 08:29:28 pm »

Hi Peter, I use what Epson currently calls "Premium Presentation Paper Matte, double-sided." That paper has had at least two other names over the years, and my Epson Stylus Pro 3880 calls it something else. But it works. I have books going back many years and they still seem to have their full original color.

Thanks, Russ.  What colour of comb binding do you use?  I'm assuming you're using the plastic stuff that's either white or black.  Do you make separate weight items for the covers?  Or just use the regular Epson material?

I've just tried a test document and the production process is definitely non-trivial!  :)
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #30 on: October 24, 2019, 08:34:55 pm »

Her hands all over me, I got away and a few seconds later discovered there was no longer a Rolex on my wrist.

How horrible for you, Rob.  My sympathies.
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Rob C

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #31 on: October 25, 2019, 12:52:53 pm »

How horrible for you, Rob.  My sympathies.

Thank you, Peter; if there's any consolation, it can't happen twice!

Rob C

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #32 on: October 25, 2019, 12:55:41 pm »

And possibly she was not that alone, only you didn't notice.
Hope you had an insurance 8)


Insurance is only for while cameras and jewellery are at home; here, at least way back when we accepted the policy, they won't offer cover for outside risks. Guess that's warning enough...

Rob

rabanito

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Re: Is it art, but is it also dead?
« Reply #33 on: October 25, 2019, 02:26:09 pm »


they won't offer cover for outside risks. Guess that's warning enough...

Rob

I guess you live in a dangerous place then.
Sorry about that  :(
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