Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

july, 2017, self, critique, thursday, the, compass, rose, 20, wednesday, 19, 13, archives, blogs, about, me, iii, ii,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (230), and (103), that (87), was (35), with (33), may (32), are (30), but (30), you (27), for (27), work (24), there (24), not (21), photography (20), what (19), your (19), one (19), own (18), have (18), about (17), images (17), july (16), art (16), book (16), all (16), would (16), could (16), any (16), can (16), which (16), they (15), like (14), had (14), march (13), more (13), january (12), february (12), october (12), december (12), this (12), from (12), prints (12), were (12), photographs (12), june (11), september (11), november (11), into (11), landscape (11), people (11), april (10), august (10), some (10), their (10), many (10), them (10), though (10), even (10), than (10), has (10), photographers (10), sense (9), just (9), large (9), really (9), don (9), adams (9), make (9), image (9), its (8), most (8), books (8), making (8), think (8), best (8), who (8), when (8), been (8), way (7), seem (7), much (7), enough (7), always (7), time (7), myself (7), self (7), part (6), world (6), artistic (6), away (6), will (6), out (6), made (6), quality (6), must (6), others (6), digital (6), willing (6), print (6), century (6), never (6), serious (6), seen (6), wanted (6), curtis (5), end (5), few (5), things (5), something (5), photograph (5), doing (5), kind (5), great (5), trying (5), ansel (5), finally (5), possible (5), anyone (5), photographic (5), either (5), subject (5), edward (5), weston (5), value (5), negative (5), photographer (5), same (5), once (5), format (5), faville (4), object (4), meaning (4), respect (4), our (4), isn (4), effort (4), being (4), good (4), themselves (4), every (4), color (4), aesthetic (4), his (4), certain (4), printing (4), point (4), gallery (4), galleries (4), use (4), process (4), idea (4), through (4), hand (4), original (4), 2017 (4), too (4), merely (4), set (4), these (4), take (4), simply (4), also (4), camera (4), equipment (4), knew (4), conditions (4), picture (4), view (3), posts (3), posted (3), material (3), know (3), such (3), exist (3), market (3), simple (3), design (3), doesn (3), question (3), each (3), artist (3), him (3), only (3), control (3), artists (3), upon (3), define (3), ultimately (3), interest (3), year (3), technology (3), explore (3), became (3), realized (3), producing (3), having (3), back (3), first (3), consider (3), medium (3), without (3), years (3), then (3), given (3), run (3), seemed (3), thing (3), higher (3), seriously (3), real (3), challenge (3), compositions (3), nothing (3), materials (3), little (3), luck (3), perhaps (3), subjects (3), become (3), printed (3), critique (3), criticism (3), taken (3), lens (3), whether (3), kinds (3), said (3), makes (3), opportunity (3), pursue (3), matter (3), place (3), scene (3), imitation (3), light (3), how (3), canyon (3), probably (3), cameras (3), compelling (3), big (3), well (3), potential (3), pretty (3), under (3), aren (3), 8x10 (3), accuracy (3), expression (3), greater (3), values (3), right (3), achieve (3), beginning (3), larger (3), achieved (3), etc (3), painting (3), complete (2), comment (2), content (2), artifact (2), vanity (2), valid (2), individual (2), person (2), unusual (2), produce (2), during (2), behind (2), marketplace (2), pleasure (2), pride (2), life (2), inspiration (2), did (2), confidence (2), product (2), marketable (2), child (2), answer (2), believed (2), critic (2), least (2), other (2), try (2), audience (2), looking (2), particularly (2), worth (2), measure (2), commitment (2), new (2), photo (2), drab (2), available (2), allow (2), spend (2), capable (2), tasteful (2), follow (2), seems (2), blurry (2), come (2), darkroom (2), precise (2), last (2), decade (2), turn (2), impressive (2), old (2), media (2), collection (2), sequence (2), sales (2), monographs (2), itself (2), imagined (2), publication (2), typical (2), publisher (2), handful (2), hardly (2), entirely (2), free (2), carefully (2), workshops (2), over (2), later (2), initial (2), clearly (2), fine (2), suppose (2), day (2), walls (2), stop (2), found (2), promotion (2), partly (2), want (2), class (2), paul (2), caponigro (2), william (2), cunningham (2), living (2), 1985 (2), true (2), black (2), white (2), chance (2), negatives (2), fully (2), suggests (2), now (2), long (2), tradition (2), room (2), 20th (2), architecture (2), thursday (2), easy (2), around (2), realize (2), critics (2), those (2), desire (2), divine (2), valley (2), dunes (2), tripod (2), using (2), kept (2), deeper (2), sand (2), changing (2), composition (2), often (2), blow (2), off (2), standing (2), still (2), several (2), places (2), sometimes (2), familiar (2), nearly (2), approach (2), mystery (2), number (2), fleeting (2), eye (2), power (2), choice (2), obviously (2), done (2), versions (2), suggest (2), yosemite (2), vantage (2), beyond (2), interesting (2), natural (2), scenes (2), because (2), different (2), difference (2), tendency (2), strong (2), form (2), depiction (2), aspects (2), remote (2), purpose (2), harry (2), callahan (2), began (2), eventually (2), truly (2), experience (2), occur (2), almost (2), told (2), arts (2), forces (2), field (2), keeps (2), full (2), held (2), message (2), wander (2), robert (2), fisherman (2), fish (2), insist (2), does (2), refrain (2), effect (2), timothy (2), sullivan (2), 19th (2), imply (2), should (2), possibility (2), exotic (2), get (2), smaller (2), very (2), moving (2), formats (2), didn (2), ambitious (2), failure (2), short (2), hobby (2), working (2), see (2), modesty (2), fact (2), called (2), development (2), difficult (2), accepted (2), high (2), straight (2), standard (2), compass (2), rose (2), skip (2), profile, blogs, archives, subscribe, atom, home, older, newer, next, blog, address, contextual, critical, implications, scope, gratifying, launching, acquires, independent, existence, integrity, ambition, fall, honor, act, ambiguity, custodians, lives, insights, records, residue, leave, posterity, decide, efforts, hands, within, confluence, presenting, exciting, poem, drawing, wow, reflected, creativity, wouldn, put, sale, auction, why, treated, commodity, bringing, course, finds, rise, level, deserves, wide, dissemination, remains, justify, spending, resources, summarize, synthesis, text, herself, qualified, care, dislike, placate, depend, obsequiousness, please, comes, confirming, vision, rely, haunt, bookstalls, used, dealers, thousands, poorly, conceived, artistically, careless, finer, productions, publishers, fewer, conceiving, presentations, ephemeral, trends, cash, temporary, fads, another, exploitation, reproductions, intended, capitalize, reputation, decided, stored, fill, accomplishment, risk, fool, advent, increasingly, transfer, flat, files, fed, laser, machines, astonishingly, physical, pages, organic, chemical, processes, rapidly, supplanted, projection, ultimate, fulfillment, allows, choose, parameters, presentation, certainly, commercial, sold, open, less, dependent, depends, purchases, exhibition, promote, selling, tools, sublimation, pre, visioning, nevertheless, mind, able, underwriting, bothered, charge, indeed, submit, machine, understands, compromises, along, except, household, names, claim, whatsoever, order, terms, relying, organs, culture, obligation, husbanded, untouchable, gone, trouble, promoting, expect, reputable, publishing, risky, established, sure, today, thirty, expectations, wasn, expecting, enter, competitive, thinking, unconsciously, imagining, find, daunting, proposition, typically, worked, single, satisfying, replicating, target, say, hundred, copies, absurd, since, owner, enjoyed, schmoozing, engage, campaign, camp, follower, ego, pretend, better, genuflecting, someone, presumably, pyramid, vying, inside, system, distraction, bore, took, formate, mid, 1980, response, imagery, clift, imogene, impulse, documentary, create, japan, where, quickly, controlled, produced, left, mastering, technique, transferring, require, trial, error, devotion, soon, seduction, somehow, phrase, decadence, frivolity, indulgence, designed, furniture, appurtenances, upper, middle, ostentation, created, experienced, extravagances, tables, early, joined, travel, proper, containers, progressed, rival, derived, arrival, revolution, equal, originals, coffee, table, comments, final, post, estimate, published, hard, talked, issue, descriptive, teach, cut, down, size, edmund, wilson, hugh, kenner, attacking, ordinarily, mystical, guy, religious, interested, superstition, notion, combination, accident, timing, unconscious, intuition, intervention, emphasize, remember, death, heavy, wood, sinking, looked, ground, glass, focus, wind, bits, crest, wave, shutter, dark, slide, shield, sun, rays, develop, manner, planned, ponderable, issues, build, overwhelm, inspired, visions, ideally, nose, inspire, pantheon, shrines, spots, planet, everyone, drawn, awe, magical, yield, beauty, saying, mysterious, elements, converge, moment, voiceless, invisible, untrained, chosen, fate, allowed, perform, gift, aspiring, towards, goal, actually, apart, mountains, waves, trees, flowers, canyons, cars, buildings, determines, successfully, photographed, close, door, permanently, future, slavish, points, variations, atmosphere, condition, explored, exploited, clearing, winter, storm, celebration, name, referentiality, purer, appreciation, referential, summon, recognizable, arranged, portrayed, tourist, perch, edge, grand, margin, pacific, ocean, snap, feel, before, awesome, rarely, interpreted, understand, translate, feeling, sunsets, equally, subset, sunset, transcendence, notice, portray, fascination, heroic, eliot, porter, michael, kenna, dozens, reductivist, nature, closely, detail, presented, intense, concentration, love, abstraction, genre, surfaces, spaces, mean, pure, texture, metaphorical, suggestiveness, approaches, admire, while, directly, against, advantage, deliberately, instance, distortion, times, harder, whatever, lies, direction, precision, closer, soul, deciding, investment, locations, access, suitable, space, toward, expenditure, spent, leads, remarked, going, certainty, start, reliable, compulsion, felt, pictures, liked, admiration, idolatry, moved, uncharted, territory, exploration, far, ask, yourself, reprocessing, reflexivity, regard, presents, difficulties, regarding, oneself, critically, exercise, myopic, delusion, objective, products, imagination, craft, wednesday, ready, unexpected, hazardous, dreary, rainy, morning, tilden, park, getting, wet, afterwards, uncertain, showed, fascinated, tree, trunks, translucent, methodical, routine, shot, involves, decisions, imposed, discipline, depth, ambient, occasions, essence, transient, shadows, general, calm, pursuit, allowing, unfolding, dictate, inconvenience, underlying, eccentric, coming, attempt, unravel, intriguing, oil, storage, tanks, cylinders, raw, refined, petroleum, thought, implied, here, oddly, named, company, logo, criss, crossing, grid, lines, unintentionally, setting, ironic, pattern, mathematical, snapped, millimeter, resulting, importance, enhanced, clarity, crispness, snapping, happily, missing, conservationist, preservationist, concern, environment, reflect, devastation, man, caused, earth, lewis, baltz, pain, disgust, outrage, hopelessness, apposite, deliberate, political, statements, doubt, subtract, appreciate, preservation, else, fly, sensitive, fresh, water, habitat, live, protest, sacrifice, classic, essayed, lesser, success, deserve, appreciated, organization, sensitivity, context, traditional, pictorial, humorous, kooky, strain, pioneers, rigors, outback, mule, teams, carry, baggage, excitement, outdoors, civilization, hunt, wild, untamed, unspoiled, wonders, sound, cliché, unless, hiked, five, miles, 30lb, carrying, wooden, steep, trail, promising, overlook, feet, accepting, axiom, necessarily, limited, range, restlessly, hiring, bush, pilots, helicopters, position, location, both, extremes, resisting, embracing, unnecessary, construct, photos, arrangements, objects, hiking, alabama, hills, eastern, side, sierra, nevada, fruitful, truth, let, stand, rim, chelly, blasting, below, shooting, barrel, couldn, resist, lure, iconic, 11x14, guarantee, contact, naturally, finding, completely, examples, forgiving, odds, impress, tonal, scale, upping, ante, demanding, expensive, enable, goals, square, blur, dimension, ups, test, exactly, theirs, journey, resulted, acting, promulgator, specter, lurking, amateur, meant, read, realizing, shirking, excusing, reluctance, calling, pastime, instead, conscience, call, mentioned, methods, determined, expectation, ever, shown, particular, reason, multiple, mounted, satisfied, stopped, usually, ended, satisfactory, expected, sell, anywhere, additional, ones, pragmatic, efficiency, laziness, debate, theory, endlessly, reproduced, impossible, identical, exposure, assuming, paper, chemicals, proprietary, privately, concocted, uniform, begin, superior, addition, successful, knows, edition, controlling, popular, closes, dies, fixed, entered, primarily, inexorably, forward, strand, 1940, after, commonly, major, museums, western, mount, exhibitions, alongside, plastic, belong, origins, henry, jackson, darius, kinsey, adamson, david, octavius, hill, evolves, 1930, via, included, brett, van, dyke, lavenson, soft, favored, deference, qualities, ironically, undergoing, formal, crisis, reaction, invention, disintegrate, throwing, painterly, preoccupations, declaring, vividness, chief, verisimilitude, reality, spheres, f64, group, honest, craftsman, welcomes, help, guide, further, objectively, requires, special, disinterestedness, apply, maybe, aspired, admit, standards, weren, fell, lacked, inherent, talent, uncomfortable, questions, writer, faces, discuss, public, menu, fair, judge, writers, spectrum, attitude, vain, boastfulness, quiet, tact, courtesy, indulging, whereas, express, passive, acceptance, judgment, history, nice, ring, fairness, justice, seldom, driving, prizes, grants, praise, shy, offering, opinions, believe, apparently, endeavor, already, avoided, protect, tender, sensibilities, might, unable, handle, rejection, jury, peers, iii, ruminations, literature, politics, music, wine, spirits, sidebar, main,

Text of the page (random words):
any smaller format versions the greater challenge naturally was in finding compositions that were completely original and not just later examples of the same subjects harry callahan said that a good photographer was never more than 10 feet away from a great picture but accepting that as an aesthetic axiom does not necessarily imply that one should be limited to that range of possibility there are landscape photographers who wander the world restlessly for any kind of exotic picture even hiring bush pilots and helicopters to get them into the right position or remote location both extremes resisting the exotic or embracing it seem unnecessary to me i think it s possible to construct compelling photos out of arrangements of objects in a room but that doesn t imply that hiking around the alabama hills on the eastern side of the sierra nevada isn t also a fruitful approach serious landscape photographers may think of themselves as pioneers in much the same way that timothy o sullivan was in the 19th century though the rigors of the outback are nothing like they were in his time with mule teams to carry his baggage there is still the excitement and pleasure of being outdoors away from civilization on the hunt for the wild untamed unspoiled natural wonders that may sound like a cliché unless you ve hiked five miles with a 30lb view camera on your back carrying a 12 lb wooden tripod up a steep trail to a promising overlook though many of my photographs are of classic subject matter compositions that others have essayed with greater or lesser success i think that most of them deserve to be appreciated my images all have a strong sense of organization a sensitivity to context as well as a respect for traditional pictorial values they aren t humorous they aren t kooky they don t strain for effect as a conservationist i have a preservationist s concern for the environment some photographers are willing to allow their art to reflect the devastation man has caused on the earth robert adams lewis baltz there is pain in their photographs and disgust and outrage even hopelessness is it apposite to use your art to make deliberate political statements with your camera no doubt but the choice to do so will subtract from the opportunity to appreciate what we most value probably the best expression of preservation for a fisherman is not to fish at all and to insist that no one else does either as a fly fisherman i am sensitive to the use i make of fresh water habitat but the point is to live not refrain from experience either as a protest or as a sacrifice for me no photograph could be merely pretty and be truly compelling there must be an underlying mystery a quality of power or eccentric design which keeps us looking keeps us coming back to attempt to unravel what s intriguing to our eye though oil storage tanks big cylinders full of raw or refined petroleum aren t pretty i thought that the message implied here by the oddly named company logo with the criss crossing grid lines unintentionally setting out an ironic pattern of mathematical meaning told me something about the world this photograph was taken with an 8x10 view camera it could obviously have been snapped with a 35 millimeter hand held and the resulting content would be the same but for me the importance of the message of the picture was enhanced by the clarity and crispness of the accuracy of the lens people who wander about with little hand held cameras snapping away happily are missing something one of the best aspects about large format cameras is the methodical routine you go through to set up for a shot it involves a sequence of decisions nothing worth doing in the arts is really easy and much of the inconvenience of large format photography is really an imposed discipline it forces you to think about depth of field about vantage and about the ambient conditions though there may be occasions when time is of the essence when the available light or transient shadows are fleeting in general the best photographs occur under conditions of calm pursuit allowing the unfolding process to dictate what your desire can realize and then there s luck you have to be ready to experience the unexpected interesting photographs often become possible under changing conditions and these may occur under unusual or hazardous conditions one of my best photographs was taken during a dreary rainy morning in tilden park when the light was drab and my equipment and i were getting wet i almost had no idea what would come of this picture and for some years afterwards i was uncertain about whether it was a good photograph or not but people i showed the image to told me it fascinated them the tree trunks almost seemed to be translucent posted by curtis faville at 11 49 am 1 comment wednesday july 19 2017 self critique ii reflexivity in self regard presents difficulties is regarding oneself critically an exercise in myopic delusion can anyone be truly objective about the products of one s own imagination one s own craft like many people who pursue photography seriously i began in admiration and idolatry moved on to imitation and eventually found myself in the uncharted territory of original exploration imitation will take you only so far in any artistic medium eventually you have to ask yourself whether what you re doing has any purpose beyond reprocessing others work in deciding to pursue landscape photography seriously there were several aspects to consider there s the investment in equipment the opportunity to explore remote locations access to a suitable work space and the purpose toward which all that expenditure and time spent leads harry callahan remarked once that the one thing he knew for certain what kept him going was the certainty that the one thing he wanted at the start of each day was to photograph it was a reliable compulsion and that s pretty much what i felt when i began i knew i wanted to make pictures and as i became more familiar with it the more i liked it there are many kinds of photography many approaches to subject matter i admire many of these different kinds of work though not all there are things that photography can do well while some others seem to work directly against the advantage of image making deliberately making blurry images for instance seems to me a distortion of the meaning of photography it s many times harder to make a precise depiction of a real scene than it is to do with a camera this would suggest that whatever potential lies in the direction of that precision is closer to the soul of photography one of the first things you notice about serious landscape photography is the tendency to portray big scenes and i was typical in my initial fascination with the heroic images that the great landscape photographers ansel adams edward weston eliot porter michael kenna and dozens of others had made but i also have a strong reductivist tendency in my nature i like the closely seen detail presented with intense concentration and i also love abstraction as a genre the interest in surfaces or spaces that are not about what they are but what they may mean as pure form or texture or metaphorical suggestiveness ultimately the best landscape photography isn t about the celebration of place but about the transcendence of place and name beyond referentiality there s a purer appreciation of any scene than the simply referential can summon most photographs are recognizable images but it s how they are seen arranged portrayed that makes interesting work any tourist can perch on the edge of the grand canyon or at the margin of the pacific ocean and snap away probably in color the sense of inspiration people feel before awesome natural scenes is rarely interpreted by their cameras because they don t understand how to translate the feeling into a compelling composition all sunsets are equally a subset of sunset but all are different and it s that difference made into photographs that makes all the difference if all landscape photographers are aspiring towards the same goal in what sense may they actually define themselves to set themselves apart many of the images in my book are of subjects that all landscape photographers pursue dunes mountains waves trees flowers canyons cars buildings so it can t just be that the choice of subject matter determines the quality of your work obviously no one can own a place simply by having successfully photographed it though the way one great image has been made or done may close the door permanently on all future versions of that scene anyone trying to re do adams s clearing winter storm yosemite will merely end up in slavish imitation but no one would suggest that yosemite valley has been done once and for all there are always more images more points of vantage more variations of light atmosphere and condition to be explored and exploited ideally i always wanted to do several kinds of photographs but you have to follow your nose to the places that inspire you landscape photography sometimes may seem like a pantheon of shrines familiar spots on the planet nearly everyone is drawn to as you approach them you do so with respect and awe they are magical places which may yield up their beauty or mystery to your lens or not sometimes it s all about luck there s an old saying in photography that photographers don t take photographs photographs take them paul caponigro has said that the process by which a photographer makes an image is an entirely mysterious one in which a number of elements of opportunity and chance converge this moment may be fleeting or voiceless or may seem invisible to the untrained eye one is in this sense given to complete certain image chosen by fate or some higher power to be allowed to perform it it s like a gift i m not ordinarily a mystical guy not religious not interested in superstition but i think there really is something to the notion that one is given to have certain images it s a combination of desire accident timing unconscious intuition and perhaps divine intervention though i d not be willing to emphasize the divine part i remember trying to set up this image taken at death valley dunes the heavy wood tripod i was using kept sinking deeper and deeper into the sand changing the composition each time i looked through the ground glass to focus every so often the wind would blow little bits of sand off the crest of the wave standing as still as i could with the shutter in my hand using the dark slide to shield the lens from the sun s rays and i had no idea whether the negative would develop in the manner i had planned all these ponderable issues can build up and overwhelm the most inspired visions i ve talked around the issue of value but i realize that the point of criticism isn t merely descriptive great critics teach you more than they cut you down to size that was true of edmund wilson or hugh kenner but there are few serious critics of art photography and few of those spend much effort in attacking what they don t like in the final post i ll try to estimate the value of what i have published in this book without being either too easy or too hard on myself posted by curtis faville at 10 26 am no comments thursday july 13 2017 self critique i coffee table books somehow the phrase suggests decadence frivolity perhaps self indulgence there s by now a long tradition over the last century of books designed to exist as a kind of furniture as appurtenances of upper middle class ostentation created to be seen or experienced as tasteful extravagances on living room tables early in the 20th century photography joined art travel and architecture as one of the proper subjects for such containers as the technology of printing progressed it has become more and more possible to produce printed photo books that could rival original photographic prints from which they were derived and with the arrival of the digital revolution it has finally become possible to make printed images which are just about equal in quality to originals when i first took up large formate photography seriously in the mid 1980 s it was in large measure in response to the imagery i had seen in books ansel adams edward weston paul caponigro william clift imogene cunningham though my original impulse had been documentary to create color images of japan where we were living in 1985 i quickly realized that the real challenge the true seduction if you will was in making carefully controlled and produced black and white compositions that left nothing to chance mastering the technique of making large negatives and transferring them to fully realized prints would require some materials and some trial and error but with devotion and a little luck i soon became capable of doing so i m not sure today over thirty years later what my initial expectations were but clearly i wasn t expecting to enter the competitive world of galleries and workshops and fine monographs then what was i thinking i suppose given that i ve always been a book person i was unconsciously imagining that my work would one day find its way into a book producing prints for gallery walls is a daunting proposition typically when i worked on a print i would stop when i d made a single print that i found satisfying the idea of replicating that target print with a run say of 20 or 50 or a hundred copies seemed absurd since i had no audience and no gallery owner to market them for me i ve never enjoyed the schmoozing and self promotion that most serious photographers have to engage in either as the subject of my own campaign or as a camp follower i suppose this is partly an ego thing i don t want to pretend that i think my work is better than it is on the one hand and i don t like genuflecting to someone who is presumably higher than i am on the pyramid i don t like vying inside the aesthetic class system it s a distraction and a bore nevertheless the idea of having a book of my images was always there in the back of my mind and by the end of the first decade of the new century i was finally able to consider underwriting such a publication all by myself i m not bothered by the vanity charge indeed anyone who has had to submit to the machine of publication by a typical publisher understands the compromises that go along with it except for a handful of household names hardly anyone can claim to have marketable photographic material in any medium whatsoever in order for any art to exist on its own terms without relying on the organs of culture it must either be entirely free of obligation or be so carefully husbanded that it s untouchable without having gone to the trouble of promoting my work through galleries and workshops i could hardly expect any reputable publisher to consider doing a book of my work art book publishing is risky enough even with established artists and photographers with the advent of increasingly precise digital printing it finally became possible in the last decade or so to tra...