More New Work...

Here's a couple of other new images I'm working on. The basketball goal is the beginning of what I imagine will be a series of goals from all over the place. I've already made a couple of other images and have a few more in mind when I get the chance to go make the photos. In the end I imagine it will be presented in a sort of collage format, but at the same time I'm pretty happy with this one as a stand alone image. I think it says a lot that the grass has overgrown the court and the building in the background is also in bad repair. It's like a "better days" or "times gone by" kind of photo. Nostalgic at least.

The other image I've got here is the old rotary phone dial. I've incorporated another layer to the image that is a very close image I of a Gulf heating oil logo I found on an old truck in Lavonia, GA. There's no real significance to the layering, I just like the way the two images work together graphically. As for the process, these two images were actually layered together the old fashioned way. I
placed the two images on top of each other and scanned the chrome film (slide film) through both images at once. The result i think is one interesting image from two not so interesting ones. I'll be printing it at 30" x 30" for the gallery edition, I think that size will make for a very striking graphic image.

Please feel free to leave any comments and critique, I've got pretty thick skin.

New Work!!

Here's a sneak peak at some of the strange things happening here...

Phirst Photo Phriday!!

So if this is something I'll want to continue doing then I suppose the best way to start would be with the great master photographers of the 20th century. There are many, but I don't suppose there are any greater in my mind or as an influence on what I do than Harry Callahan. Here is a brief bio that seems to be accurate:

Born in Detroit, Callahan studied at Michigan State University before going to work for the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation. In 1936, he married Eleanor Knapp, who later became the subject of some of his most important images. Callahan bought his first camera in 1938, and credits Ansel Adams' visit to the Detroit Photo Guild in 1941 as pivotal in his decision to become a photographer. Although he had almost no formal artistic training he received encouragement early in his career from such luminaries as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. At the invitation of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Callahan joined the staff of the Institute of Design in Chicago (later known as the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1946. In 1948 his work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Callahan left Chicago in 1961 to establish a photography program at the Rhode Island School of Design. There he was joined by Aaron Siskind (who had been a colleague at IIT). Callahan was chair of the Department of Photography until 1973 and continued to teach at RISD thru 1977.

As for influencing me personally, his images have been a source of inspiration since very early in my photography career. It was some time in 1997 that I began my first college level photography course at the University of Georgia with Dr. Robert Nix. Dr. nix was, at the time, in the latter years of life and of his career. He was a kind old man with a bald head and what  hair remained was white as snow. Although I was never told this directly I believe he was being pushed out of the photography department to make room for the new, Yale photography graduate school-educated photographer that made the University look better. But he knew something about photography that none of my other professors ever manged to convey to me. He knew about the importance of simplicity, the beauty of what's not included as opposed to having it all thrown in your face. He was the first person to show me the work of Harry Callahan and I will forever be grateful to him for that. So I'd like to leave it at that and try and convey what I mean with images. I'm going to show some of Callahan's images and if it's appropriate, some of mine to show his influence on my work. 

 

This is an example of what I really love about Harry Callahan. When he made this picture you might think that he was interested in the structure of all of these windows, in their similarities,  but i think he was interested not in that but in what made them different! The subtleties of the differences in their shapes, their reflections, and even in their spacing. He took something that people pass by every day and if they think about it at all, they think it's a bunch of windows, exactly the same. He took that framed it and made you look at the differences. It's the same thought I was having when I made the Perfect Blue Buildings photograph. It's a seemingly repetitive pattern but the really interesting things are the small pieces, the tiny lines like no other in the image, that make it work. Obviously, I am more a color photographer and Harry, if I may be so bold as to call him by his first name, was a black and white photographer but I think our intentions were the same. 

Above is bar none my favorite Callahan image of all time! And up there in the list of top photographs of all time. The beauty of this image again is it's simplicity. Upon first glance I, and I think most people, assumed it was a pen and ink drawing. A simplified sketch of the female anatomy maybe. But on further inspection you realize it's a photograph! It's a lonely little weed set against a stark white sky! An absolutely beautiful example of how simplicity can be so striking and powerful in art. My photograph below was actually made before I had any knowledge of the weed photo from Callahan, but again, my intentions were almost identical. I admit though, his was a much better solution! None the less, simplicity is the name of the game in both images. 


In the end what I really love about Callahan is his willingness to experiment. He was not a trained photographer so he wasn't restrained in what he did. He tried it all, even if that meant his work was a little disparate. He enjoyed photography and that I think is why I feel such a bond to him. I love what I do and I hope that it comes through in my images as it does in his. Here are a couple of other Callahan images that I've always loved that further illustrate that point. Thanks for reading!!

 

Music Mondays, Photo Phridays

So I think I need some sort of structure here or I will probably find it hard to continue writing on any regular basis. What I've decided to do it take the two thing in this world that inspire me more than any other and write a little bit about them on regular (possibly weekly) basis. Thus Music Mondays and Photo Phridays! If it's not abundantly obvious, what this means is that Each Monday I will write about what I've been  listening to and in what way, if any, it has affected my work. Then on Phriday I'll be looking at another Photographer and talk a bit about their work. Now, I'm not a writer per say so it may just be a link or images or whatever but regardless if your into photography or music it might be worth a look.

Working!!

I'm  happy to report that I was able to get into the studio and start work on a few photographs that have been knocking around in my head for months now! Sounds like it wouldn't be that big of a deal, right? Well, try two kids, one on the way, being a stay-at-home dad, and running a business from home; that seems to take care of most of your free time. Anyway, my sweet wife Tia was super thoughtful and amazingly understanding and took the kids to Grandma's on Valentine's day so I could have a little time to work! I am truly a very lucky guy! And the film is going out today so i should have new work to share in the next couple of weeks! Hooray!

In my opinion...

I have opinions about a lot of things, ask my wife. Some of them are well thought through and informed and others, OK most, are intuitive reactions to whatever circumstances brought them about. But if there is one subject about which I feel like I have an authoritative position based in experience, it's photography. Of course being art it's all objective but there are so many photographic images out in the world today that I feel like some lines need to be drawn between what is art, the result of a creative process, and what is not art but just a series of filters in Photoshop or a setting on the digital camera used to make a really poor image look otherworldly and therefore "artistic".
The source of my discontent: HDR! HDR stands for High Dynamic Range photography. Basically it's just a new toy for digitographers. (Digitographers, by the way, are camera-users who have more money than talent. Basically, the gear heads of the camera world. Digitographers do not have to be using a digital camera and there are plenty of folks that do use digital cameras that are not digitographers.) OK, now that that's clear let me get back to HDR. The argument is that HDR allows the camera to "see" a wider gamut of tonality and contrast therefore lending a more realistic view to the final image. It's true that film does not perfectly represent what the human eye captures but that is largely due to the fact that the eye is constantly readjusting to various lighting situations. But take a look and decide for yourself. Here are two images, both shot at the same time, on the right showing the raw capture of the camera, the left side the HDR version. You tell me which is more realistic? It's not to say that the picture on the right is a perfect representation of what the human eye perceives but if your world looks like the one on the left you might want to have your rods andcones checked.
And like I mentioned before, the bigger issue is not that the image has been altered, but that the image is relying on the alteration to make it seem like something more than it is! Lord knows there are plenty of photographers in the world who alter images in a creative way to enhance an image. From Ansel Adams to Jerry Uelsman photographers have used their tools to make an image more interesting. The difference is that these photographers started with a well designed, nicely crafted photograph that would have stood on it's own and used these tools to make it something more. The digitographer just presses a button.
And it gets worse! Here are just a couple I found looking online that are really bad!
Ewww! Super-wide distorted angles and HDR! A horrible combination!










Then there's this one! Look at the area around the windmill, you can see what looks like dodging marks! There's no reason for that, it's just obnoxious! It looks more like a cartoon than a photograph.












I think that just like any other tool there is a learning curve with HDR, and I suspect that right now there are a few photographers out there using it in a restrained manor that are making beautiful images with it. But until the novelty wears off and the price tag goes down these types of images will dominate. My goal is not to call anyone out, it's just to advise. Beware, be aware that these images are out there. Don't be lured into mistaking quality image making for a cheap trick. Be advised, there is now a distinction between a photographer and a digitographer!

The news

Gearing up for the coming show season!! It's going to be a busy one, first off there's a new Turco heading our way in early May (Spring show season peak) but I guess I should have thought of that before. We are very excited for our third to arrive. In the mean time though we've got to make some money! Tia (my wife) is taking a year off from teaching obnoxious, ungrateful teenagers to be with the baby and the rest of the family. And she's begun her career as an artist making beautiful sterling silver and resin jewelry to fill in the financial gap that will leave. Check out her Etsy site here. So for those of you who are counting, yes, that means two artists, three kids, four animals, one mortgage, and no "real" jobs. Are we crazy? Probably. Are we going to look back on this is twenty years and say thank god we took a chance and enjoyed our kids while they were young? Definitely!
So here's the low-down: The economy sucks so shows are slower, so we are doubling up and doing a lot more shows this year! Some will be just me, some will be just Tia, and some will be both of us! So far this is what we know about:

March 19-21, Eastern Shore Art Festival, Fairhope, AL (Greg)
March 26-27, Mulberry Street Festival, Macon, GA (Greg & Tia)
April 9-11, Artrider, Morristown, NJ (Greg)
April 23-25, Magic City Art Connection, Birmingham, AL (Greg)

Then we take a little break to birth a baby in early May!

I will post more of the Summer schedule as it solidifies. I hope that you can come visit at a show or two. It's one thing to see artwork online but to really get the whole idea you need to see it in person! So come on out, forward this message on to your friends and family, and be sure to also visit my Etsy site for new and different listings all the time!

Robert Parke Harrison

Robert Parke Harrison is without question one of my favorite contemporary photographers. His work straddles a delicate line between fantasy and reality without any of the modern issues of looking over manipulated. That's because he does it the old fashioned way, making multiple paper negatives and fusing them together in the darkroom. The old processes used in the final print add to the authenticity. Check out his site here: http://www.parkeharrison.com/
A true modern master!