Postcards from the Creative Journey

684 The Negative Used to be the Score

The effect of digital editing has certainly made a significant change on the nature of photographic output. Digital editing creates the photographs we see today. The sophistication of the software is amazing. I recently completed a project taking fifteen year old RAW files and processing them with current software. A side by side comparison of prints clearly demonstrates the advances made in digital editing software. (Well, maybe my digital editing skills might have improved in the ensuing years, but we’ll set that aside for the moment.)

Here is where I am puzzled and saddened and a whole host of other conflicting emotions. The negative and the print used to be closely related. If the negative was off, the success of the print was in doubt. Today, it is difficult (if not impossible) to fail at making a great digital file. The options available to make the digital file usable are so great, no matter what the state of the capture there is no doubt an acceptable image can be created. We can do this because digital editing software has become incredibly sophisticated.

Now, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible to create photographic images (files? captures?) that are technically flawed. To complete the analogy, the score is perfect, the performance is perfect and now the big problem we face is how to make art people want to see. 

683 Photographs of Nothing First Published 11/9/2017

Abandoned places have to have a story behind them. We see the moment at the time the photograph was made, but we don’t see the story behind why there is nothing there. I think this boils down to the level of abandonment we choose to capture. I have noted before that a completely abandoned and defaced location may not be really interesting because it is completely abandoned. Someplace that has some evidence of humanity and more importantly some indication that humans might come back is more inviting to me photographically.

A temporary absence is intriguing. Most everyone has left a location temporarily and recognizes that experience. We all know what that feels like. We leave things on our desk and go to lunch, or leave our tools on a workbench when we take a break. We are absent for a few moments, not gone forever. If a place is abandoned, will anyone (save the photographer) willingly come back to see what is left? Abandoned means no one is coming back. That we don't know why people have left leaves the viewer with questions that may not be able to answered by the photographer's vision. This type of image needs more than more than a visual treatment; the how and why of the abandonment needs to be included to complete the story.

682 Waiting for Rescue

The antennae pointed towards the sky. There was little hope the distress signals would be picked up and more importantly responded to in time. In a desperate attempt to hasten their rescue, they grouped the antennae together and hoped the combined power would be able to penetrate the heavy atmosphere and summon their rescuers from the Mother Ship.

681 Knowing When To Quit, First Published 12/14/ 2014

I’ll bet that somewhere back in these almost five years (OK, now more that fifteen years) of blog posts I have posted the most important thing to remember about a photographic project. If I have, it’s worth repeating again. The most important thing you do when starting a photographic project is to figure out when it is complete. While that sounds really silly at first, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? Without a clearly defined end point your project will just meander around and probably will never be finished. With a clearly described end point you know exactly what you have to do get there and what the completed project will look like. That leads you down a path from beginning to end.

When I do a project, I will complete a web folio, create a print portfolio (with an introduction to the work) and create documents to print exhibition sized prints. I think that’s pretty good ending point. But I do know photographers who will go further. They will write a press release for the exhibit, select publicity images and do a mock-up of a post card announcement. One does not need to go that far, but the point is to clearly define what is required to complete a project. Define the end of your project well enough so that you recognize it when you get there.

Like now.

680 More Museum than Gallery

Future photographic exhibits might be virtual, taking place on the internet rather than photographs mounted, matted, framed and hung on a wall. Museums would become repositories of art that cannot be easily digitized. Granted you can photograph several views of a sculpture, but viewing a sculpture in person is just an experience that can’t be replicated digitally. Two dimensional artwork would exist as an artifact only if the scale of the work is essential to the piece. Huge paintings and prints would continue to be displayed on gallery walls. Museums would exist to display the oversized and installation art experiences.

I would love to see a museum/gallery with big digital displays on the wall showing digital images of their collection. The museum could show much more of what they possess and the audience could search the collection by author, era or subject matter and make a personalized experience of a public collection.

679 The Secret Language of Post-Modern Photography, First Published 12/11/2018

In last week’s post I posited the thought about the necessity of learning a photographic language to understand (and possibly enjoy) post-modernist photography. I wondered if there is a guide to understanding the post-modern photograph that would allow me to gain an appreciation for what is presented to the viewing public. I went down that rabbit hole to see what there was to see.

Oh my.

If there is anything less understandable to me than the post-modern photograph it would be the writing about post-modernist photographs. It’s as if this entire artistic discipline exists in a completely other world that speaks its own language and makes it extremely difficult for non-insiders to truly understand what the artist’s intent is for the work. I cannot fathom the dense, imprecise prose surrounding these efforts. It’s like the authors and artists dare you to try and understand what the meaning and motivation are for the art. The meaning of the work and the critical assessment might be well understood in this fraternity, but alas, I am an outsider.

I wonder if I am missing out on something by not being able to interpret the cryptic writings of post-modernism. Or are the rest of us left out on purpose?

678 Panning for Photographic Gold

This is a "before" image about today's blog. Go ahead, read today's blog and then check out the "real" image at the bottom of the blog.

I’m starting to go waaaaay back into the Lipka Photographic Archives to find images for my “other blog,” The Daily Photograph. I’m going so far back in time I’m actually looking at large format negatives made in the last century! (Hey, now, that’s the twentieth century there, buckaroos. I’m not all that old. Okay, maybe a little bit old. But I try not to think that way. At least I digress like an old timer.)

Anyway, I am really enthusiastic about this latest foray into my photographic history, because of the large number of usable images I can digitize and share on the internet. Back in those old timey days there was a real (and expensive) cost associated with exposing a large piece of film. We took care with our composition and exposure because we didn’t want to “waste" film and waste time, effort and money to create a good photographic print. The default position was to make technically great photographs of traditional subjects. The downside to the process was the compositions were rarely “grab shots,” experimental or avant garde. 

We would not spend time or effort on anything less than the absolute “killer shot” from any time we photographed. There were a lot of very good images that never made it past the proof sheet stage (if we even made a proof sheet). Some of these really good images are now waiting to be digitized and become A Daily Photograph.

Tonally inverted, cropped ,sharpened, and generally made so much nicer. A 5x7 negative that really looks good on the internet. 

677 Much Photography, Few Photographs, First Published 6/26/16

While considering the tasks at hand to complete my current photographic obligations, it did occur to me that my version of photography today is complicated. Thirty or so years ago I decided to try to do my very best in being a photographer. I had to learn how to expose and develop film and make prints. Mounting, matting and framing were the final skills needed for those of us on a budget. We could then hang the finished print on the wall.

Not so much today.

Now, along with my Digital cameras, lots of software, I have multiple avenues to an audience. There are now many things to learn about how to display photographs; Graphic design, typography, creative writing, editing and mastering all the software to do that. There is a another whole set of “meta” skills required to make the use of the creative software such as managing image databases and the operating system of your own computer. Most importantly, for those of us that show most of our photographs on the web there is an ever evolving set of skills required to help people find your photographs.

While the opportunities to share photographs with other photographers has grown, so too has the number of skills needed to make such sharing possible.

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This is even more true today than when I wrote this just a few short years ago. I might have written in one earlier blog that my current art work begins at the point where my artwork ended a few years ago. Completed photographs are now the starting point for what I create today. 

676 Do as I say because I don’t do.

When I was learning photography (so long ago I don’t want to think about it) the instruction came from other photographers; people that had a lot of experience with the creation of photographic prints from film negatives. They showed us their photographs, examples of their art created through technology. Their profession was making images and they shared their knowledge of photography.

Look at the current crop of photographic teachers. Pleasant people, very good at explaining the arcane functions of increasingly complex electronic contraptions and how software works. Have you seen anything other than “example photographs” in a book, or on a YouTube video?

We have reached a point where photography is so sophisticated we separate the instruction on camera operation, software and photography. We worry so much about hardware and software we have little time left for the aesthetics of photography.

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An apprentice gunsmith in Williamsburg, Virginia works on the barrel of a rifle. This is a job that must be learned by putting hands to work. It can't be learned by watching a YouTube video.