Hi John,
That's a nice contrast between blur and crisp components - like it!
I think that part of the pressure to do this sort of imagery is derived from boredom, and a wish to produce something different, a break from the traditional, representational stuff that has become all so easy to do well (technically) as to no longer provide either challenge or any sat¡sfaction in achievement.
Your remark that one can't be sure of getting exactly what one wants from these experiments is telling: that's the new buzz, the place where the interest is to be found, mirroring the extended thrill of waiting for the Kodachrome to come back home, not in terms of time but of anticipation of whether we pulled it off or not. I think I've already said somewhere that disappointment in this kind of shot, when it fails, is quite intense in its own way, despite providing a wider scope for the faking of success, for self-delusion, for who can tell you you failed, other than yourself?
Taking that a mite further, I think that black/white is even more critical in measuring success or otherwise: it strips away several layers of possible camouflage from a bad idea. Which is not to say that colour, of itself, isn't often the whole idea. Which simply goes to illustrate the possible complexity of this genre.
Not an easy road to satisfaction, but few of them ever turns out to be.
Rob
