I like film...(open thread)

[edwardkaraa]

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M7 ZM 35/1.4 Superia 1600 by edward karaa, on Flickr

 

M7 ZM 35/1.4 Superia 1600 by edward karaa, on Flickr

[stray cat]

Cut to chase: thumbs up and a lot of enthusiastic finger snapping in the back of the room over this photograph!

 

The question is whether a photograph can evoke emotion. Is the photograph a mirror or reflection, realistic or abstract? Does it elicit empathy? Is it allegorical, metaphoric, literal, or do we simply run out of adjectives? Considering the construction of the question using text, there is a fault in using strict either/or propositions, simplifying the view to black or white that risks marginalizing gradations of yet other colors or perspectives. We may take a photograph at face value, literally, whatever that means, and this in itself opens never-ending hallways of discussion that define yet other never-ending hallways.

 

This photograph, to illustrate the point, is simultaneously realistic, literal, and abstract. It is the visualization of a static interior. Yet, the stability of this static view is undermined by the title of the work, “Swoosh.” Looking at the photograph first, then reading the title is not the same as reading the title first, then looking at the photograph. Reading the title first privileges the thought of motion, which is open for interpretation; the motion implied by the arc composition or the motion of an imagined object in transit. Additionally, the idea of motion implies a feeling of centrifugal force “riding the curve.“

 

One could argue that this is abstract realism. Initially, we don’t realize that the yellow line is actually a curb. So there is the push and pull of simultaneously looking at it as a realistic setting and an abstract yellow line. The movement implied by the composition arcs from left to right, which for Western society is the way text is read, left to right, and subliminally has the connotation of correctness, whereas movement from right to left is associated with conflict. Yellow, it should be noted, is often a color associated with caution. This seemingly straightforward, minimalist composition is surprisingly multi-layered and complex, not easily dismissed. Yet, your subject is so commonplace that it reaffirms your ability to validate dynamic compositions of the often overlooked, the ordinary.

 

I always appreciate visiting your inspiring work on your website.

 

Recently Googling the galaxy, I tripped over this YouTube link that reminded me of your photograph “Sydney.“ This calls to mind Elizabeth Streb’s “Sky Walk, One Extraordinary Day in London,” Extreme Action Company.

 

Cheers,

Rog

 

As photographers, we are influenced by the photographs of others and, at the same time, want to erase those photographs by replacing them with our own. It’s like Rauschenberg erasing de Kooning‘s drawing, then signing the erased work as his own statement. Even so, there is always a residue of other artists’ work in the present. Residue is always a challenge.

 

Once again, thank you sincerely Rog for your insight and wisdom. Also for your links to the work of Elizabeth Streb which are rather intricate and challenging (not least for the performers!).

 

I must admit I posted "Swoosh" very much with you and your interest in finding connections beyond the mundane in mundane scenes in mind. Your discourses on these topics have always been fascinating and I now see examples of the sort of thing you've been looking at in many of the works presented in this forum, let alone in my own work which I probably hadn't consciously recognized as such. That we are then able to evaluate the "why" of taking certain pictures surely elevates the connection (there's that word again) that we have to our own judgement and choosing in picture making. I have often found it a useful exercise to try to previsualize (apologies here to Ansel Adams) a scene - often an otherwise not-so-promising one - in terms of how it might look as a photograph (apologies now to Garry Winogrand!). Your tricolore above provides an apropos example. It is a found arrangement, yet whomever chose that particular colour scheme for that wall and window frame may well have been wishing to express something about the "Frenchness" of whatever is behind that window (of which we only get a hint). Yet, appropriated into a photograph, it strikes me solidly as alluding to that same Frenchness regardless of the rest of the scene. It plays with our minds a bit, which is a good thing, as that which is too readily given is often too easily overlooked. The fact that it is here before us allows us to question why it is here and then more questions emanate from that - some of those never-ending hallways you speak of.

 

On the question of "Can a photograph evoke emotion?" it may be rather a question of "Do all photographs evoke emotion?". Of course they don't, but why don't they? Because (this seems to be my answer to it anyway) the emotion springs from each of us as a viewer (or maker) of the photograph and is a product of the things that make us individual. There would be photographs that may evoke strong emotions in virtually all of us (Elliott Erwitt's photograph here is one I'd think would do just that: https://artsbma.org/faces-of-fatherhood/ ) and there are so many billions of photographs that leave most of us feeling ho hum. Look at Flickr (on second thoughts, don't) but just take it from me that there are millions and millions of let's just say jejune pictures there that have any number of likes and thumbs ups. So, they might not affect you and I and most of the rest of the world, but they move somebody. Conversely, the pictures that are published annually that got the most "faves" for a particular year have mostly tended to leave me decidedly cold. So maybe we could say that a photograph has the ability to evoke some sort of emotion in from zero people to everybody just by virtue of its being there, and its ability is realized by the experiences and persona of the viewer(s). It's an interesting question (as are most questions) and I'm sure there is a lot more that has been said and can be said about it.

 

Thank you also, Rog, for visiting my website, and thank you to all who have given one of my photos a "thank you" or a comment. I do greatly appreciate it.

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[edwardkaraa]

Very interesting, Edward.  That film can see in the dark and keep a reasonable color balance!

 

 

 

Thank you Adam! To make things more complicated I discovered that my trusted Coolscan V produces files that contain a lot of noise and off-colors. I rescanned the roll with Pacific Imaging XE and the Superia 1600 looks like an iso 400 film. The last 2 shots I posted are scanned with the XE.

Edited July 8, 2018 by edwardkaraa

[stray cat]

Love those two above, Edward - that feeling of a sultry tropical night really comes through very strongly. I can almost smell those fritters (yum!).

 

This picture is one that I hope further illustrates the (subjective) value of pictures taken with a mindset that there is sometimes a picture there when there isn't one:

 

 

Once Was A Doorway, Moorabbin 2014

Mamiya 7ii (now departed), 65mm (ditto), Fuji Reala (ditto)

Edited July 8, 2018 by stray cat

[chrism]

Trip 35 again:

Cape John by chrism229, on Flickr

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

 

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

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Leica M5 + 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH + Kodak Portra 160

 

 

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[Wayne]

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Agfa Ambi Sillette, 35/2 Agfa Color-Ambion, Ektar

[Steve Ricoh]

(null) by -Steve Ricoh-

 

AgfaVista 200, Pentax MX

[Wayne]

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Agfa Ambi-Silette, Agfa 35/2 Color-Ambion, Ektar

[Wayne]

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Agfa Ambi-Silette, Agfa 35/4 Color Ambion ( I may have given wrong f, before) Ektar

[Ouroboros]

Hill fog, Peak District.  A good test of traditional map and compass navigation!

 

Leica MP

90mm elmarit-m f2.8

Fuji acros 100

Heliopan 22

 

 

 

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[Steve Ricoh]

Hill fog, Peak District.  A good test of traditional map and compass navigation!

 

Leica MP

90mm elmarit-m f2.8

Fuji acros 100

Heliopan 22

Fabulous photography. When was it taken, may I ask? We've been basking in sunshine for the best part of 4 weeks.

[Ouroboros]

Fabulous photography. When was it taken, may I ask? We've been basking in sunshine for the best part of 4 weeks.

 

Thanks, Steve. It was this year in March.

[A miller]

Thanks, Steve.  I had thought that your use of "only" was in reference to BOTH only the Fuji and only by removing the crash bars.  Now that I read it more carefully I get that you were only speaking to the Fuji.  I did indeed manage to remove the crash bars on the 90mm and like how it works with the LEE filters.

Read again: the crash bars on the Fujinon 180mm and 300mm lenses are too narrow to accommodate a Lee or similar holder. You can just about mount a Lee holder with one filter slot on the 90mm SWD lens but it will impede infinity focus. If you want to use Lee or similar square filters on the Fuji, you’d need to remove the crash bars from the lenses. Obviously this is not an issue with some Linhof, and those Fotoman and Widepan 6x17 cameras that do not have crash bars fitted to the lens cones.

If you are considering a Fuji GX617 and have seen one for sale with a 90 or 105mm lens, make absolutely sure the original Fuji centre nd filter is included. Also check the battery compartment for signs of corrosion. The batteries only power the electromagnetic release on the camera body, which is useful for hand holding the camera. As most photographers use these cameras mounted on a tripod, the batteries can easily be forgotten about and eventually leak. I have never inserted batteries in my camera, but it’s something you need to be aware of.

ETA: To clarify, by ‘square’ filter systems I’m referring to Lee or similar 100mm wide filters which also includes 100x150mm graduated filters. These filter systems will all work perfectly well on lens cones that are not fitted with crash bars.

 

Very deep, Ernest.  I think my first attempt was a little like shooting blanks.  But with time I hope my skills will improve.  

Oddly enough, I keep coming back to this, not because it appears to be intended as simply technical information, your shift to a Linhof Technorama 617, but because I realize it's such a "self-reflexive photograph." It's a photograph of the photograph that will be taken by the camera pictured, although the camera taking the picture of the equipment isn't seen. So from this shard of information, we can only imagine what in the future tense the Technorama will produce. A camera takes a photograph of a camera that promises to take a photograph. I know, it's back to Starbucks to get my level adjusted.

 

Wow, I LOVE this, Patrick.  So authentic and full of old fashioned life.  Hang this somewhere!

Manarola Italy - June 2018

Portra 160 - Summicron 50 - M6

Edited July 8, 2018 by A miller

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[A miller]

So here is one from my trial run with the Fuji GX 617.  I had it scanned by a printing/scanning shop in NYC that has an X5.  Cost me $18 and I didn't like the output.  So I need to now think about a scanning solution...

This file - at 21017x7065 is simply massive at a little over 1GB. (I also sense my computer crashing soon loaded up with these files!)

 

Morning Glow over the East River (looking at the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge), NYC

Fujinon 90mm, Ektar (6x17 - full frame)

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Edited July 8, 2018 by A miller