Spring Sea Ice by Roberta Holden

In my first semester photography class we studied with only black and white photographs. One of the dictums we were taught was that there images should be very dynamic tonally. The range should always begin with black and end with white. I suspect this rule was put into place to help us develop an eye for contrast (not to mention to provide a grading criteria) as in the world of art there are no hard and fast rules.

That's what sets this image apart for me. The image is low on contrast, seemingly underexposed, and contains no pure black and no pure white. In my first semester class this would have not quite earned an 'A'. But these things are merely technical, it's what the image says to me that is important.

This image was taken in northern Canada and I assume it's above the Arctic Circle. The harsh environment in that part of the world makes it a desolate and lonely place, not unlike those environments of the other extreme known as deserts that populate almost every continent. Here Ms. Holden captures that desolation. The darkness of the photo gives us the sense of the cold and lonely desolation in this part of the world. While most photos I see of the polar regions are taken in the day, the nighttime capture here adds weight to the feeling.

Not a lot of people know much about this part of the planet, mostly because barely anyone lives that far north. Ms. Holden makes no attempt to try to force more understanding here. The motion of the ice and water is captured in long exposure. The mystery of the Arctic environment is highlighted by this motion blur. We can see enough to know what is there, but not enough to form any sort of coherent understanding. Along with the sense of desolation, the darkness adds to the mystery of the region.

The absence of pure black and white, along with the low contrast, challenges our thinking of this environment. Polar regions and deserts are opposite extremes in terms of environment, and they are rightly thought of that way by most people. The lack of dynamic range and contrast for the most part forces us to consider that the environment is not what is extreme, it is our thinking that makes it extreme. Here we see that it this area is just what it is... the result of nothing more than its geographic location on the planet.

These simple elements all combine to bring a high level of complexity to this minimalist photo. Very few minimalist photos can convey so much, and of this work Ms. Holden I'm sure is proud. To see more of her work, you can visit http://www.nobarriersphotography.com/. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this photo as well.

Minimal

I don't know why, but a lot of times I find photos with minimalist subjects to be some of my favorites. When I see one subject in the photo it often leaves me to wonder what the artist was thinking by not including any other elements. Does he only want to convey one thing? Perhaps he or she is leaving it up to our imaginations for what the image means. Or perhaps there is a more complex relationship between the subject and the space around it. I have started to develop a little more vision for minimalist type photos.


The image above is one I took on Saturday. The vent fan is the subject. It is surrounded by negative space, in this case it's the sky. There is a relationship between the vent fan and the air, as well all know. The wind blows, turns the fan, which in turn pulls warm air from the attic and vents it out to the sky. But the beauty is we can't see this action. It is left to our imaginations what is actually going on. The fan was turning slighty when I pressed the shutter, but I decided to not trying to capture the motion. Here I want you to wonder if the vent fan is fulfilling its purpose.


The above image was also taken on Saturday. This is one of a pair of sandals that my puppies got their teeth into early into their lives at my house. I have no idea where the right sandal is anymore, but that's beside the point. Here we have the one subject that, rather than be surrounded by negative space, is shown surrounded by grass. Here I wanted to show the sandal in its permanent environment as part of the outdoor dog-toy collection. The shoe itself is all but forgotten, as the puppies moved on to chewing other toys, leaving this one in solitude. But if you realize that if I hadn't told you the story behind why this lone shoe is sitting in the grass, you could be left to wonder... did something horrible happen? Did somebody lose their shoe? Is this a testimony on the wastefullness of some people. There are a number of questions as to why it's there and the grass, although not part of the subject, adds to the mystery of the lone shoe.

As my vision evolves I'm starting to think about the relationships between elements more and more. It's interesting what our mind's eye can come up with sometimes.

Any comments, suggestions, or critiques are welcome.

Migrant Worker 2 by Peter Liepke

I was running some errands on Monday morning before heading to the tire shop to replace the tires on my vehicle. I stopped by Best Buy to drop some old cell phones in their recycling bins when I decided to head over to Barnes and Noble to pick up a photography magazine to read while waiting for the tires. As so happens I picked up a copy of Silvershotz. This is one of many fine art magazines out there and one with which I was not quite familiar.

It was in the current (Volume 6 Edition 1, International) issue that I first spotted the work of Peter Liepke. At first I wasn't sure if these were photographs in these pages as there seemed to be no focus in the images whatsoever. I learned that the images were mostly gum bichromate prints. This process was developed in the 19th Century and gives a very painterly look to the photograph. The images I am discussing today was printed using this process.

Migrant Worker 2 by Peter Liepke

What can I say about the composition here other than it seems to be perfect? The sky, earth, and person all have an appropriate sense of scale, where the earth is bigger than the man and the sky is bigger than both put together. With the man all alone in the field, we can see the enormity of the task before him. Holding his tools he is looking down and focused on what needs to be done. Although the clouds appear overhead, through them we can see the rays of sun shining down on the man. It suggests that although his labors are hard and long, his reward awaits him in Heaven.

These elements all compete for attention, but no one element overpowers the other. The loneliess of the worker is telling. I have to admit that I myself am ignorant of the mind of a migrant worker, but here the image suggests a loneliness felt. Perhaps he feels forsaken? That could explain why his back is turned to the rays of light. Or perhaps he is so focused on his task that he fails to take notice of the beauty behind him? There are countless theories as to why this is. Here through the whole image there is more clarity than in some of Liepke's other images, but nowhere is the image tack-sharp. This makes the image almost surreal, as to suggest that while we know about migrant workers and how hard they work, as mere observers we can never know truly their life experience, which is the reason we will never know why his back is turned on the sky.

In the Silvershotz article Mr, Liepke discussed some of his philosophy. In general he is against the current trend of showing vulgar and bleak scenes that highlight the failures of society and individuals. He sees himself as more a detached observer who wants to record the inherent beauty, and to show what could be instead of what is. Most of all, he wants to instill an inspiration with his work. With this image, while he shows a reality, there is an inspiration that can be gained.

I'm going to admit right away that this wasn't my first choice from Liepke's body of work to critique. My first choice was an image entitled "Poet's Walk". Unfortunately, that image is not found on his website and the only copy I could find on the web was less than satisfactory. But this image struck me. The balance of the tones and composition could not be ignored. All in all this is a beautiful image that could easily find itself amongst a collector's favorites.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas on this particular image?

Umm, Yeah... Okay

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a year since my last post here. I started this blog as a way to help track my growth in photography. Shame on me for abandoning it.

I've been a little busy with the camera, though probably nowhere near as busy as 2008. I did manage to take a little trip to Minnesota for the sole purpose of photographing some of the state. I've also shot a few concerts here and there, but nothing like 2008. With the absence of Ozzfest this year I was sure there were going to be a lot of smaller tours going through. I'm not sure if it's the economy or what, but the concert season was unbelievably light this past summer. Other than the trip to Minnesota, my productivity with the camera this year has not been as prolific as 2008.

While I'm striving to take technically correct pictures (i.e. good exposure and, in the case of digital, white balance) I found my vision seemed to suffer a little bit. I'm not sure what's going on, but my photos over the past 8 or 9 months just don't seem to be all that interesting when I look at them. For a lot of rejected photos I will look at the digital negatives again 6 or 7 (sometimes even more) months later. In some cases I find that there is something there I didn't see before... but this year that has been the case very few times. To that end, in the past 2 months I've been looking at a lot of what are considered fine art photos and trying to draw inspiration from them. Perhaps my mind is becoming more discriminating in my own work. If that's the case, I need to sit down and figure out what's causing me to be more discriminating.

Whatever the case, I'm thinking of merging this blog and Primordial Light into one website. I don't know yet what the name will be as there is another website called Primordial Light, which is a hobbyist astronomy site. It will be a little while before I get to that point. Whatever the case, that's still a little ways off as I work through the real-world responsibilities of a job and raising 2 puppies. Also, I will be discussing more of some other work I see out there and talking about how it works for me. This should help me get closer to the answer of what exactly is the nature of my own vision.

There aren't any pictures today as I still have a lot of work to do. I just needed to update my faithful and not-so-faithful readers of my status.