Hard to resist the travel-bug with news like this
Opening shortly at Tate Modern in London (Oct 28 to Jan 23, 2005), is a major show of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, who will be 80 on 9 November 2004. It features over 150 of his photographs... [From About Photography]
Perhaps one of the more surprising recent announcements is a new Zeiss Ikon M-mount rangefinder system, reviving a well-known old name last seen on cameras in the early 1970s. From... [About Photography]
Frederick Sommer, an inspiration.
Not sure why but have been poking around on the web with this great artist, who sadly passed away in 1999. Many articles acknowledge his ability but all agree that he did not get the recognition he deserved. Ok I admit it I have been thinking about surrealism and photography a bit lately and Frederick Sommer is one of several photographers associated with the Surrealism movement. The question remains though, what would these folks have done with computers and digital cameras?
Have just downloaded this neat little app called "Books". fantastic, as I'm a little bit of a book collector, this allows me to keep a record of what I own along with all it's publishing info (if it has an ISBN). I recommend it to anyone who has lots of books as I do, the auto-completion feature alone is worth it.And while it has nothing to do with Photoshop or Photography really I think it's worth mentioning.
The reason I am using it this morning is because, our box of books and ephemera from the first half of the trip arrived here yesterday, so I dutifully started adding all the NEW books to this data base app. I then discovered that there is a newer version, (updated just days ago), so I downloaded it installed added my backed-up files and away I go. Now the app has more features, yet to be explored, something that I WILL be doing though, is saving the file and exporting it as html and uploading it to my website. stay tuned both of you for the link - if you really want to see the books I own that is! it's a MAC app so here's a picture of of it for you all to see. I'm sure there is a PC equivalent.
Sitting at home twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the arrival of the parcel/box of books from the first half of the trip around the world. Made an image sitting on the couch. Love the wide angle lens on my Nikon Coolpix 5400. Now I especially love the fact that Adobe have released a raw plug-in for this camera, and I have, thanks to the folks over on the Nikon forum at dpreview.com, go it working in Photoshop. Which allows me supreme control over the resulting Photoshop conversion, something I guess I'll add to future versions of my Photoshop workshop series.
During August 2004 while the eyes and ears of the nation were firmly fixed on the Olympic Games, 150 ABC Local Radio listeners ventured into their communities armed with disposable cameras. Their brief? To capture the diversity of sporting, leisure and day to day activities in their region. The result? 3000 photographs illustrating an insiders view of Australian life beyond our big cities.
My 4 all time favourite Tom Waits albums?
Glad you asked.
And in no particular order.
It's Sunday!
I'm fully recovered!
In the backyard!
Online!
Drinkin' beer!
Listenin' to Tom Waits!
It's sunny and warm as only Melbourne can be at this time of year!
Does it get any better?
So here I am sitting at home.
Broadband is set up and now is wireless! And both of us are connected.
Despite feeling ill I managed to drag myself into town today to see the Man Ray photography show at the NGV, which is finishing this weekend. Let me begin by saying how impressed I was! The work is surprisingly interesting. Lots of small intriguing prints(perhaps contact prints), often with marks on them that appear to be ideas for cropping etc. The diversity of the work was excellent as well, I expected lots of solarisation but his work extends well beyond that. Some wonderful portraits, great fashion photography, and some really kooky dadaist images/ideas.
The marks he made, Man Ray, really impressed me. They added to the images in a way that I'm having trouble articulating, and it is of course something that could be easily done using a digital app, such as Photoshop or some other image editing program. The size was just perfect too. I'm sure that they were contact prints. Must buy the catalog, one day.
Something that is running through my mind at the moment is surrealism and digital photography, how would have these guys (the surrealists) handled it all, what kind of images would have they made, or would they have thought it all too easy to just cut and paste and juxtapose using a computer? What was their position on technology and culture? Maybe I'll find out one day, maybe I'll get an oppurtunity to work it all out, who knows but in the meantime, I'm gunna have fun thinking about it I'm sure!
This one turned up in my inbox tonight. Bit un-needed really given that the Liberals are going to fuck up anyway!
Am absolutely stoked about the new Tom Waits album, pure Tom Waits ALL the way!
At last yipee, yahoo, I've got the new album by Tom Waits - Real Gone. What can I say it's up there with my other favourite Tom Waits Albums.
Also purchased, Nick Cave and the bad seeds new one, Abbatoir Blues / The Lyres of Orpheus, and Sigur Ros' Music Split sides. Got some listening ahead of me!
look I'm no writer and I'm still a seething ball of fury after this weeks election results, that appear to be guided by people's hip pockets, no surprises there!
John over at Dog or higher has rather succintly summed up a whole heap of stuff about the current state of play here in Australian Politics, check it out!!He even talks about how the so called free trade agreement impacts on technology here in Oz!
Post Election depression creeps in! However this little snippet helps me keep perspective.
" Number of bald US presidnts since TV age began: Zero
Bald British Prime ministers Zero
Bald Australian Prime Ministers One!"
Source? John S Croucher, Professor of Statistics, Macquarie "University
Does this say something about us as a nation? Are we capable of seeing through the veneer of television, or has our current, and barely hirsuite PM manipulated things the way he really wants through the media? Part of me feels this is the end, other parts realise that life will generally go on for most of us. It's the bottom end fringe dwellers who are going to suffer the most. The marginilised few who slip through the net. these thousands, will feel the pinch the most. I also fear for our Medicare system and wonder about the national Telco, Telstra. Of course again as a big city dweller with a reasonably consistent and reliable income these things are actually choices for me, what about those who have no choice but to use Telstra, or find a bulk billing doctor in their region? And how will they fare in 5 or 10 years time when Little Johnny is long gone from the scene, and some other party hasn't the balls or vision to try and fix things.
Political commentator/writer I'm not. I've been fortunate over the years, I have managed to hang in there, despite a couple of close brushed with homelessnes, and unemployment. I strongly feel that the fabric of this country is slowly unralvelling, no-one in political power makes decisions based on any moral ideals just what they think that most of the populace want. And sadly history judges these people but history may not be enough for those already staring at a range of diminishing choices.
Blast destroys camera. Smart media card survives. This one has been around for a while now, so I'd thought I'd share it with you both.
My two recent loaves weren't too bad(both fruit loaves), I was surprised the first one worked at all as I completely got the measurements wrong!
Yet to purchase Tom Wait's new Album.
Have an upcoming exhibtion, the 20th Anniversary show from where I work. We're also publishing a comemorative book to celebrate this auspicious occasion. I'm hoping a copy of which will end up in the State Library of Victoria.
Some quotes from a book I discovered lying around at home
Good teaching is more of giving the right questions than a giving of the right answers.
Josef Albers
Back into bread baking, one of my ambitions to get a loaf that is fluffy, light, that rises high, and with a nice crust. This is my second attempt since restarting, I used to do it often a year or so ago, now with our new stove I am inspired to get back into it.
This one is good, bit heavy on the crust, but light enough for my liking. Could be a bit sweeter maybe, and not sure how to get a real dark crust yet anyway here's a snap of the bread just before I started eating it.
Googled s2arts and came up with this site (allconsuming.net) linking to mine, bizzare really?
Well known photographer Richard Avedon has died. He died after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on assignment for the New Yorker magazine in San Antonio, Texas.
More on the BBC website
The article mentions his brutally honest black and white portraits. These were a source of inspiration for me for many years, his book the American West was truly fascinating, and I have contemplated for several years now making portraits with a 5 x 4 camera just like his!
Researching online this morning and I stumbled across this site, Picture Australia, may well be useful in a variety of ways. Might even add it to my sidebar?
"Looking for images of Australiana? PictureAustralia® is the place to start! Search for people, places and events in the collections of libraries, museums, galleries, archives, universities and other cultural agencies, in Australia and abroad - all at the same time. View the originals on the member agency web sites and order quality prints at your leisure."
Funny how you stumble across information on the web, whilst browsing the ICP site, I cam across this info for some early video art,from a group calling themselves Ant Farm.
"...Projects by these media collectives ranged from documentaries and agitprop to novel street theater and performance art. Guerrilla video never fully achieved its utopian goals of returning broadcast power to the people or fostering the free flow of information and images, but the same iconoclastic spirit of skeptical political expression thrives today in new media, independent video, cable television, weblogs, and net art."...
Maybe I can use this in my classes next year, who knows?
Are you a student of image making using cameras? Do you enjoy taking photos and want to take better ones? Do you enjoy visual histories? Then check Kodak's George Eastman house web site out. It's a resource that as an artist, educator and photographer that will prove invaluable for many years to come, here's why. And I quote from the front page.
The photography collection includes more than 400,000 photographs and negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present day. The collection embraces numerous landmark processes, objects of great rarity, and monuments of art history that trace the evolution of the medium as a technology, as a means of scientific and historical documentation, and as one of the most potent and accessible means of personal expression of the modern era. More than 14,000 photographers are represented in the collection, including virtually all the major figures in the history of the medium. The collection includes original vintage works produced by nearly every process and printing medium employed.
Now if I could just find some one, anyone to pay me to study this collection full-time, I'd be a happy man. Are either of you offering?
For what its worth, I have made some small changes to my website, added some links, to my links page and modified my 126 gallery pageand tweaked the bbq page.
Ah music to my ears, anyone out there in TV land listening? No I didn't think so.
The days of the monolithic local television station Web site are numbered. They're all built on the portal model, with a home page and links to material deeper within the site. That model is being rewritten by people who don't want to be forced to go here just to get to there. RSS and search are enabling people to have it their way, and who knows what's to come downstream?
You may well ask how I know this comment/idea is true? Glad you did, here's an example of why, last night my wife and I *both* had our laptops open and searching browsing the web at the same time. The TV? well it was on but we hardly paid any attention to it.
Will anyone in TV land notice? Probably not, do I care nope! All I ask for is the death of TV as we know it, and pronto thanks!
This morning has seen a flurry of activity, thanks to about.com and it's photography writer Peter Marshall, as well as my fab little news reader, NetNewsWire, I have found a ton of interesting things relating to photography, but I want to draw both my reader's attention to this article about digital photography, found on digitaljournalist.org. It touches on some issues that I alluded to in my own article on the digital v analog argument.
To my way of thinking this argument is simply not a valid one, analog is good and has its uses digital is good and has it's uses, both have their own cons as well as a raft of pros. While I see my own creative analog output slowed dramatically over the last 5 or so years, I still qam not in the forseeable future going to abandon it. Particularly in the area of *fine* black and white prints.
About to start updating my work's site, put together when I was beginning to learn more about CSS. Now with a whole new template, that for future updates will require minimal coding just a tweak of the stylesheet itself....I hope!
First day of second week of the holidays. Things are shaping up to be an active one. Planning at this point to make images today, as well as, make some bread, mix developer for my students tommorrow, try and find some books on the new software package I am trying to learn, read some more of the interesting book I'm reading.
Recently while reading over on dog or higher I learnt about possible future developments of the web and it's associated technologies. Google featured heavily in this article John speculated that they were in the process of producing a new browser, which he felt would be more than a browser, a kind of Über browser perhaps? One that enables all the current technologies to accessed through one interface, that has full support for ALL CSS from 1 through to 3, and many other things beside.
Is this a good thing? I'm not sure, there are some folks out there who are absolutely paranoid about the power that Google has. I can kind of see there point, I mean they have vast amounts of data in there databanks, as they trawl the world for links and text.They have no accountability to anyone, yet if you are involved in the process of website creation ignoring Google can be a dangerous thing?
Do we need another Micro$oft to hamper our online endeavours, because that's what the guy seems to be saying on his website? For me the jury is out on this one and I guess I need to talk to more folks.
Here's a small sequence of images made recently. Slices of time, one of photography's strengths or weaknesses? You be the judge?
God is watching over the Americans and here is the proof, a map outlining the paths of several hurricanes in the region.
Now all we need is for one to strike John Howard down!
Wanted to add some new images this morning but seems like there are server probs this morning, well maybe tomorrow then!
Well am really and truly on holidays now, finished my regular VU class, and have week off. So no classes no preparation just learning how weird it is to be a student again. I hope I don't give my teacher too much greif, I know in the past that having taught other teachers it has been a little bit of a pain. Still it's kinda cool answering rhetorical questions in a class room situation personally I hate it when students in my classes sit there unresponsive when trying to get the to participate in some sort of discussion.
Something else I'll be doing especially if this weather keeps up is making more images, this one is from the weekend but I hope you can feel the light and clouds the way I did. I love this view from our backyard! Today's class made me wish that I could take my students outside to work, sadly this is not the fate of classes involving multimedia and computers. The students were responsive to the idea though! However if this weather keeps up I'll be hard pressed to stay focused on my own studies.
Needless to say the list I wrote yesterday hasn't moved very far, prepared my lesson ok, and ressurected our old wok, still plenty of time to get cracking on the rest; famous last words though I guess. Still I'll be mighty friggin' impressed if this weather keeps up!
The weather forcast for today is excellent, 23 degrees Celcius, just what the doctor ordered, pity I have a shitload of things to catch up on?
As I am on holidays, here is a list of things I'd hope to do over the break
Oh boy priorites eh, gota get onto them?
This morning, popped back and read some of my first entries on this blog! Oi what an experience. It seems all those months back I was confident on getting my 'Nokia' Gallery up and running well it still hasn't happened, I have the soft ware just have been brave enough to run Virtual PC to get it all happening?
Which leads me to yet another thought, Oi my mind wanders easily!
How would this, reading old/archived thoughts, impact on people's perception of themselves, particularly the young 'uns who are busy typing away out there? I mean a lot of contemporary art is about identity/memory, either individually or collectively, think about it, you write a blog entry on day X you revisit that blog entry 10 years later, or some one else finds it 10 years later. how weird it would be to realise how much you have changed, or how little you've changed?
This is all too much for this early in the morning!
Should I do a writing course of some sort? See off I wander again!
Made an update today to my website, added another gallery, to my eclectic gallery, '... as a log book stand to a journey', crikey 3 posts in one day, I must be on holidays!
As a footnote something is happening at stunik dot com, the Nikon gallery is driving shit-loads of traffic to my site. Why? No idea? Still it's good to know that folks are at least coming to visit.
Today is the day....... of my wife's birthday. Happy birthday you gorgeous lovely woman. Enjoy your new iBook.
On a completey different note, here is a nice abstract image made recently, simple, formal, almost zen-like. I have taken several other images recently that are similarliy zen-like, oh well a new series here, maybe I'll put it up on the other section of my site insead of the Nikon Gallery section?
For both my regular visitors, you should aware of the part of my site called '...as a log book stands to a journey'. This is a place where I have been trying to use the web as a on-line narrative publishing system. Where I take the images I make that 'feel' connected to me and each other and turn them into a low level interactive image sequence. Well up until recently, I was using a Kodak DC260 to shoot the images for this part of the site, recently there hasn't been that many updates, even with my new digital camera. Now, as I am growing more comfortable with the new camera I am able to start producing satisfactory images with it, images that lend themselves well to my somewhat intuitive/subconcious/surreal approach.
This is what I like about the WWW, and photography/art, it openly encourages that kind of approach. I can work fluidily, shoot many, many images and just as quickly have them online for many to see, and it seems they have been coming of late, so perhaps this is the germ of a bigger idea about to develop (no pun intended) and take on some more serious research?
I remember back in my Undergraduate days, I saw Video as a highly responsive and politically charged medium capable of producing powerful imagery. Of course broadcasting this imagery was somewhat limited to Art house cinemas and galleries, but the web, the web is to my mind a highly democratised environment that this may be an even more suitable place to make this kind of imagery accessible to all. these days I feel I am more suited to somewhat less politically charged ideas but none the less the idea that access to these images is made in an open and democratic way is what appeals to me.
Just started a class in in a new software package called Lightwave 3 d. I am suitably flabbergasted at the fact that the software defies logic. There are no menu items at the top of the screen. Some key information the name of which I don't know, it is my first class after all, is at the bottom of the work space, the list goes on and on. At one stage, I spent 20 minutes poking around trying to do something in the wrong app. It was a simarlarly named app and looked identical, but was NOT the same application, go figure, I suspect the the world of 3d apps is one that has simply managed to ignore all common sense when it comes to GUI interfaces?
My wife's birthday is approaching quickly, so is Christmas, the end of the term is today and, I am participating in an exhibition in a months time. The house needs lots of work done on it, from simple lawn moving to major renovation inside the house and shed.
This begs the question what is it that *I* do to relax? ( I am often racked with guilt as I watch TV or nap on the couch)
Well one way is by making images with my numerous cameras, make prints from said images, or post them to the web, depending of course on which camera I use to make them. I also read or watch movies, either on DVD or at the real cinema. You'd think that that would be more than enough?
Now I'm thinking of doing a writing course part time, Oi what sort of fool am I?
Now this week I I read on the web about a grass roots movement that is taking back family's time, but encouraging people to cut back on extra curricular activities, apparently a real problem in the US? and of course I can't remember the place where I read this and nothing in my history list in Safari is showing anything vaguely familiar? Ah well!
On another note I made some images of a sculpture on the weekend on the beach on the great ocean road, and they had a distinct feel about them that is reflected in a sculpture by a well known English Sculptor, and what should turn up in my inbox this morning but a link to the Met in New York where this same artist is exhibiting, spooky?
Art mimicking life or life mimicking art?
On the flip-side to yesterdays early post, I am reading a book on Technology and Culture. 'Human built World', by Thomas P Hughes is the book, published by the University of Chicago Press. 2004 ISBN 022635936
It is early days yet, I skimmed the book whilst browsing in the book store in San Fran where I bought it and was suitably impressed by it's content, and so far have not been let down. It of course starts off trying to define technology and I am understand the authors dilemma about how to do this but really like his delving into Technology of the past, and the idea that the word only came into common use in the last 50 or so years. Of course there is one technology that I have been heavily involved in for the last 16, that rates a mention already, and another technology that I have been involved in for over 6 years that I suspect will feature heavily as well. Yes Photography and computers respectively
More as I get further into the book, quite easy considering that the term break is upon us.
Just uploaded a new Nikon gallery to my website, and picked up a missing page at the same time. So pop on over and check them out.
The newest gallery is a handful of images that I chose from the weekend away in the Otways. The other gallery is a series of images I shot from a moving car. While I realise this could be potentially dangerous habit, it produces some interesting results, enjoy them.
Some photographic musing from one of my favourite photography books. The nature of photographs, by Stephen Shore, pub John Hopkins press, page 56
"Pictures exist on a mental level that maybe coincident with the depictive level - what the picture is showing - but does not mirror it The mental level elaborates, refines and embellishes our perceptions of the depictive level. The mental level of a photograph provides a framework for the mental image we construct of (and for) the picture.
While the mental level is separate from the depictive level, it is honed by formal decisions on that level: choice of vantage point (where exactly to take the picture from), frame (what exactly to include), time (when exactly to release the shutter), and focus, (what exactly to emphasize with plane of focus). Focus is the bridge between the mental and depictive levels: focus of the eye, focus of attention, focus of the mind. "
Yes wonderful words that all students and practitoners of photography could learn from. As I personally hover between continuing my fine art photographic print making and a more computer based/interactive approach to my creative output, these words are a reminder of the power of photographic images. Their ability to convince persuade and influence thoughts and feelings.
Sobering indeed
Recently on a trip away to the West coast of Victoria in a region known as the Otways, I shot this image. The weather was abysmal, it even snowed twice while we there. However I'm pretty impressed with the results taken with my digital camera.
I have been going to this area for over 20 years now. One waterfall in particular Stephensons Falls has been a favourite place of mine to visit. This waterfall has changed immensely since I first visited it in the late 80's I suspect I might even have enough images for a small show of images of it. Will need to poke around my archives to be sure.
What this means is that yet another little gallery will be a added to my growing Nikon photography gallery.
Recently got a mention on John Allsop's blog dog or higher, he has written a piece on the upcoming Web Essentials 04 conference. And yours truly gets a mention, hey hey, fame at last! Thanks John, love the CSS WYSIWYG software keep up the good work.
Been away for a few days on the victorian coast. Managed to get some great shots. when I get the chance I wil post a couple here and upload most to my gallery.
Stay tuned
Just found out today that my all time favourite musical artist is going to release a new album in the next couple of weeks. Man oh man can't wait for that. Tom Waits is the artist in question, and the track I heard this morning on was classic Waits, rough crackling guitar, with those vocals that defy description!
I have been hanging out a bit for a new album as sadly I felt his last 2 album releases didn't quite cut the mustard even the art work was a poor copy of the previous ripper album Mule Variations.
My 3 favourite albums of his would be
Some links to other Tom Waits sites
So stay posted for news on the new release of this upcoming album!
Started to shoot out the window of the car, which I admit can be risky but is also very hit and miss in terms of resulting image.
This one is, in my opinion, worth it, perhaps a new Nikon Gallery will come out of all this?
Wow! The magic of digital cameras recently scored a quick dirty job of putting together a CD cover. Thanks to my little digital camera I quickly shot a series of images around the appropriate location and off home I went to post process and start mocking up ideas.
An hour and half later I had scrapped my first idea and moved along to the next, which with some modification became the third. No film no waiting for processing, no re-shoots because of exposure errors.
Ah the joys of digital.
One of my favourite techniques is "flash and blur". It is where the ambient light is low, and produces camera shake say about 1/4 of a second, and is combined with flash to give interesting ghostlike effects, see image above. My new Nikon Coolpix 5400 produces this effect effortlessly and easily in automatic mode as well as manual, so this is indeed an improvement on my old Kodak DC 260.
Whilst on our recent trip, and sorry to harp on about it, I purchased a book of Images made by Gary Winogrand, 'Winogrand 1964'. On the front page of the book is a snippet from his Guggenheim grant application, and I quote,(without permission)
I look at the pictures I have done up to now, and they make me feel that who we are and how we feel and what is to become of us just doesn't matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columinsts, some books, I look at some magazines (our press). They all deal in illusions and fantasies. I can only conclude that we have lost ourselves, and that the bomb may finish the job permanently, and it just doesn't matter, we have not loved life. I cannot accept my conclusions, and so must continue this photographic investigation further and deeper. This is my project.
Wow! Gary Winogrand died in 1984, what would have thought of the current state of the world, and digital? What would have he thought about digital cameras and their their impact on his style and approach, I know when I work with my Nikon Coolpix 5400, digital camera I probably shoot more as an experiment to 'see what the world looks like photographed' than to actually make good images, what then to do with these images is the eternal question? This is where the web steps in, I can now exhibit 24/7/365, for a very modest fee, (for my server space, traffic is low enough to not worry about excess downloads).
Indeed spring is here!
These images made this afternoon in the late afternoon light in my backyard.
Sadly the trip to Mildura on the weekend didn't yield as many images as I would have liked. A couple were interesting, but by no means my best work.
Spent some time in Kyneton what a pretty little town, worth a revisit in a different frame of mind, I suspect.
