Details about the Shutter Magic Show Next Month

I've just posted a page giving all the information I have so far about the upcoming Shutter Magic show at the Chaffey Art Museum / J. Filippi Winery.

[ photograph above: Little Lakes, 2004 ]

New TFUG Images

Twenty-five new images have been added to the Tales from the Underground page. All of these were taken yesterday afternoon at Gallery 57 Underground and Progress Space.

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Portraits

"Creativity with portraits involves the invocation of a state of rapport when only a camera stands between two people...mutual vulnerability and mutual trust."

--Minor White

Agua para los Ninos

Two new fuentes have been added to the Agua para los Ninos portfolio. These were taken a few days ago at Cole Elementary School in Highland, California.

[ photograph above: Highland, 2005 ]

Claremont Packing House Update

I spent a few minutes over at the Claremont Packing House this afternoon. It doesn't look like much has happened in the 4 or 5 weeks since my last visit. I did take a handful of photographs, the four best of which are at the top of the page. There were these strange vertical "stripes" of white paint against the west wall that looked quite odd.



[ photographs above: Claremont Packing House, 2005 ]

Thomas Kinkade, Take Note

"Mass production has no place in real art."

-- Bruce Barnbaum

Guerrilla Art by Heavy Trash

An article about guerrilla art installations around Los Angeles by a group called Heavy Trash.

[ photograph above: Los Angeles, 2004 ]

The Journey, Not the Destination

"The actual goal of producing that perfect photograph...well, that's just a distraction. Simply put, for me it's the journey...not the destination."

--Huntington Witherill

[ photograph above: Virginia City, Nevada, 2005 ]

Bruce Barnbaum: The Super Natural Environment

Bruce Barnbaum's The Super Natural Environment portfolio.

New Show Next Month!

It looks like I will be taking part in a photography show called "Shutter Magic" at the North Wing of the J. Filipi Winery / Chaffey Community Art Association Museum of Art next month (running May 29th – July 31st, 2005)! The winery / museum is located at 12467 Base Line Road in Rancho Cucamonga. More information coming soon...

[ photograph above: Virginia City, Nevada, 2005 ]

The Ultimate Digital Image

Making the ultimate digital image.

Imagination

"What my work 'is' or where my work 'fits in' doesn't really concern me. My photographs are metaphorical, they are from my imagination. They reflect the way I see and feel about those things which arouse my curiosity and imagination."

--Larry Wiese

The Art of Convenience

Bruce Barnbaum's Thoughts on Digital Photography.

[ photograph above: Claremont, 2005 ]

OpenRAW.org

"OpenRAW is a group of photographers and other interested people advocating the open documentation of digital camera RAW files."

All Art is Useless

"The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it immensely. All art is useless."

--Oscar Wilde

[ photograph above: Claremont, 2005 ]

Brett Weston: Japan

From the Brett Weston archive, his Japan Portfolio.

Scale

"Small pictures since the Renaissance are like novels; large pictures are like dramas in which one participates in a direct way."

--Mark Rothko

Cosmic Photography

Happy 15th birthday to theHubble Space Telescope .

An Ant is Not an Entomologist

"There's a saying that an ant is not an entomologist. Just because you are a thing doesn't mean you know why you do things. You just happen to be that thing."

--Jonathan Safran Foer

The Utility of Art in Modern Society

"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."

--Stella Adler

Brett Weston: Hawaii Portfolio

From the Brett Weston archive, his Hawaii Portfolio.

Amateur vs. Professional

"Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with photography--that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs. As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular classification is readily apparent."

--Alfred Stieglitz

Maybe I've Got it All Wrong

Maybe I'm in the wrong business; I'm spending hour after hour in a basement staring at the stained concrete floor looking for abstract art, when maybe I should be looking for stains that look like the Virgin Mary?

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Marc Doyon: Architecture

Marc Doyon's Architecture portfolio.

Passion

"Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors."

--W. Eugene Smith

Virginia City

I recently added about 10 new images from Virginia City, Nevada to my New Work page. These were taken while on vacation about two weeks ago.

[ photograph above: Virginia City, 2005 ]

Brett Weston: Dunes

From the Brett Weston archive, his Dunes Portfolio.

Lily Obsession?

Calla Lilies, Water Lilies, ... did I mention I named my dog Lily?

[ photograph above: Lily, 2004 ]

First Water Lily: Day Two

Yesterday I posted a note about the first Water Lily of the season. Today the blossom opened up, and it was so beautiful I had to take some more photos of it.

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005 ]

Finally, A Calla Lily!

I've been trying to get Calla Lilies to grow in my backyard for years, with no luck, and eventuall gave up on the whole idea. And a week or two ago, I looked, and what did I see? A beautiful Calla Lily!

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005 ]

Matter and Mind

"We don't know what matter is anymore than we know what mind is."

--Christian de Quincy

Objectivity

"Objectivity is of the very essence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its limitation… Honesty no less than intensity of vision is the prerequisite of a living expression. The fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of processes or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods."

--Paul Strand

First Water Lily

In my backyard this morning, I saw a little bud coming out of one of my ponds...the first water lily of the season!

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005 ]

Brett Weston: Baja California Portfolio

From the Brett Weston archive, his Baja California Portfolio.

Tibetan Take on Reality

"Reality is not what it seems to be, nor is it otherwise."

--Tibetan Buddhist teaching

New Flower Photographs

Several new flower photographs, all taken in my backyard over the last two weeks, have been added to my New Work page.

[ photograph above: Still Life, 2005 ]

California Coastal Records Project

Thousands of photographs of the California coast at the California Coastal Records Project web site. Read all about the Barbara Streisand fiasco.

Subtle Reality

"In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality."

--Alfred Stieglitz

Levels of Abstraction, Part II: The Reality of Dreams

"If there is anything about which we feel sure, it is that the world we experience is real. We can see, touch and hear it. We can lift heavy and solid objects; hurt ourselves, if we're not careful, against their unyielding immobility. It seems undeniable that out there, around us, independent and apart from us, stands a physical world, utterly real, solid and tangible. But all is not what it seems."

--Peter Russell

(Note: This is Part Two of my Levels of Abstraction essay. In Part One, I used the steps in the seeing and photographing processes to work through the levels of abstraction. In this second part, I take it to another level of abstraction that is sometimes the subject matter of abstract photography: dreams.)

Most of us have seen a photograph that has a "dream-like quality," but what exactly does that mean? How do you capture a dream in a photograph? I guess the first step is to try to understand what exactly a dream is.

It's an age-old question: what do dreams mean? But whether you take a Freudian "tell me about your mother" view, or you think dreams are just random thoughts produced by an idle brain, everyone agrees that dreams aren't real. But compared to what we call "reality", dreams may in fact be not that different.

A couple years ago I found an enlightening document linked to from a web site. Titled simply "Reality" and by an unknown author, some recent searching on the Internet leads me to believe that the document was apparently cobbled from Peter Russell’s work, mainly from his book "From Science to God". I think the two primary sources for the document posted on the web site were this and this. It's interesting reading, regardless of how much you want to believe, but I wanted to pull out one quote specifically related to dreams:

"The world we experience around us is no more 'out there' than are our dreams. However real it may seem, it is, in the final analysis, all in the mind. We never experience the physical world directly; all we ever know is the image of the world generated in our awareness. And that image is no more 'out there' than are the images of our dreams."



Lucid Dreaming

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

--Thoreau

Photographer Steven Fibonacci had been telling me for some time that I needed to see the movie "Waking Life", and I finally watched it a couple weeks ago. Fibonacci has been my foil for parts of this "levels of abstraction" thought process; it's great to have a friend to bounce certain ideas off of. First, let me say "Waking Life" is a cool movie. From a pure photography standpoint, they filmed it pretty low-budget with a DV camera, then edited it together...but they didn't release it like that. They just used that "completed film" as a base layer, on top of which they digitally animated the entire movie. As a fan of animation, I was immediately captivated by it; it's unlike anything I've ever seen before.

It's a fairly heavy movie, with little action but lots of talking and philosophizing, all revolving around dreams vs. reality, exploring many concepts such as the merging of dreams and reality, what death really is, etc. But the core concept presented in this movie is the lucid dream. A lot of thought went into this movie (it's no Hollywood chick flick, that's for sure) and watching it you'll either love or hate the philosophizing, not to mention that you'll either love or hate the animation.

This movie did a lot for me just by introducing me to the concept of lucid dreaming; actually by giving a name to something I've been experiencing for the last 5 or 6 years. A so-called "lucid dream" is a dream where the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming. In "Waking Life", dreamers become aware they are in dreams because one of two things happens: they flip light switches off but the lights stay on, or they try to read digital clocks or fine text and it appears as gibberish. I first started becoming lucid in dreams where things would happen that were not logical/not physically possible, and I deduced that I must be dreaming. Recently, I had the experience in a dream where I picked up a movie that had come in the mail from Netflix, and read the title; it was a combination of the titles from two well-known movies, and didn't make any sense, so I immediately determined that I was dreaming.

Apparently there are more advanced states of lucid dreaming, where once you determine you are dreaming, you do things to change the direction of the dream (as opposed to "normal" dreams, the subject matter of which you have no control over; the type where you wake up and say "why the hell would I dream something like THAT????"). Advanced states of lucid dreaming begin to blur the line between reality and dreams, and to the average person this is getting into way-out "fruitcake" territory. But again, let me repeat:

"The world we experience around us is no more 'out there' than are our dreams."



Dreams as Art; Art as Dreams

What about art as a means of expressing dreams? Not the lame, pseudo-hip, comically amateurish photographs of people dressed in bad Halloween costumes holding a feather in each hand and balancing a dead chicken on their heads and such; but photographs that have a so-called "dream-like quality" to them. This likely varies widely from person to person, but when I think "photographs with a dream-like quality" I gravitate towards the pinhole work of Martha Casanave or the work of Larry Wiese.

"My photographs are metaphorical, they are from my imagination."

--Larry Wiese

The difference between documentary photography and fine art photography is that the former channels images, while the later channels emotions. Put another way: a good documentary photograph makes someone say "I like that image because the subject makes me feel good", while a good fine art photograph (hopefully) makes someone say "that image makes me feel good". The feeling is disengaged from the subject. Nowhere is this more true than in abstract photography, where the subject is purposefully unrecognizable, forcing the viewer to have feelings based only on the color, form, and texture of the image.

I started out thinking that dreams and abstract photographs were one or two steps further away from "truth" than what we call "reality" is. But now I'm not so sure. Maybe their value lies in stripping away some of the layers, and they in fact get us closer than ever to "truth".

[ photographs above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Brett Weston: Abstractions Portfolio #2

From the Brett Weston archive, his Abstractions Portfolio #2.

Work

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."

--Emile Zola

Silence

"Silence is so accurate."

--Mark Rothko

Watching

"When exposures last hours rather than fractions of a second, there is much time for watching. Sometimes it is a basic concern for security but at others it is a more meditational activity. I watch the sky and imagine what patterns the clouds and stars will make on my film. I watch the water, the leaves on the trees, passing cars, changing shadows, smoke from chimneys, whatever is around. Wind, rain, mist, etc., all have effects on the eventual image. We live pretty fast-paced lives so it is a luxury to be able to slow down and better appreciate some of the more subtle effects of nature that we can so easily miss or take for granted."

--Michael Kenna

Why Black and White

"Why black and white? With color, subject and object are the same. Very rarely does a color print transcend the subject. A fine art monochrome print can be the object and also contain within it the essence of the subject."

--Douglas Howk

Roman Loranc: Vilnius, Lithuania

Roman Loranc's Vilnius, Lithuania portfolio.

Obscure Ansel Adams Images

The Los Angeles Public Library has placed its photo collection online, and it's fully searchable. My friend Mike pointed out that they have a large collection of obscure Ansel Adams images; go here, click "Browse the Photo Collection", and do a search on "Ansel Adams". It should make every photographer feel good about their body of work; not every photograph Adams took was a "masterpiece"...

Mind as Camera

"I am always mentally photographing everything as practice."

--Minor White

Six Articles Posted

I finally did something for the Publications section of my web site...

Brett Weston: White Sands Portfolio

From the Brett Weston archive, his White Sands Portfolio.

Plans for the Tales from the Underground Show, Jan./Feb. 2006

There are three galleries in the basement of the cool old building at 300 S. Thomas Street in Pomona: Gallery 57 Underground, an artist co-op gallery of which I am currently a member; PVAA Gallery SOHO, where I occassionally have some work showing; and the PVAA Progress Space, where I particiapted in the Visions and Perspectives show in December 2004. So I spend a lot of time in the basement of this old building which is rich in character.

My first solo show at Gallery 57 Underground, which is scheduled for Jan./Feb. 2006, will exhibit what I think is a unique concept: it's a series of black-and-white and color abstract photographs, taken entirely in the basement of this building (in the three galleries as well as the hallway and stairs). Most of the images are of the cracked and stained concrete floors, although a few are of more recognizable features in the building such as pipes. I plan on displaying approximately 30 images, and in some cases a photograph will be displayed only a few feet from the stain on the floor which was the original subject--again, a somewhat unique concept.

The two receptions for this show, which I am calling "Tales from the Underground", will be held on the second Saturdays of the months of January and February, from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. I'll post more information about this show as it develops.

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Making Images – Not Taking Images

"Taking an image and making an image are two completely different animals." A nice essay by Pete Myers over at The Luminous Landscape.

Art Dealers are Technophobes

Paul Graham just posted a new essay on his web site, Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas. In it he talks about Artix, a disasterous startup company that tried to put art galleries on the web. "...art dealers are the most technophobic people on earth. They didn't become art dealers after a difficult choice between that and a career in the hard sciences." That made me laugh.

Beauty and Symmetry

A couple years ago, I watched an interesting show on Discovery or National Geographic or some such channel; it was about beauty. Basically, they were trying to come up with a scientific explanation for why certain things (or more specifically, people) are more beautiful than others. Thier conclusion was that the single biggest factor in determining beauty was symmetry.

Paul Graham, in his classic essay Taste for Makers, says "Good design uses symmetry. I think symmetry may just be one way to achieve simplicity, but it's important enough to be mentioned on its own. Nature uses it a lot, which is a good sign."

Graham goes on to say, "The danger of symmetry, and repetition especially, is that it can be used as a substitute for thought." Maybe it's a good thing the water level is pretty much back to normal now up at Big Bear Lake; it will force me to put more effort into my kayak-based photography there, rather than taking the same easy symmetrical reflection shots over and over again....

[ photograph above: Big Bear Lake, 2004 ]

Receptive Mind

"...a very receptive state of mind...not unlike a sheet of film itself - seemingly inert, yet so sensitive that a fraction of a second's exposure conceives a life in it."

--Minor White

Let's Play the Abstract Game

I recently sent my friend Neal Dinoff a link to the Tales from the Underground page, and this was his reply:

"Ahh...it's a game. Name that abstract artist.

Max Gottlieb

Matt Artz

Jackson Pollack

Matt Artz

Robert Motherwell

Matt Artz

Jean Arp

Matt Artz

Victor Vasarely

Matt Artz

Alberto Giocometti

Matt Artz"

Thanks, Neal, that was fun!

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Steve Harris Photography

Large format black-and-white photographer Steve Harris has a new web iste.

Brett Weston: Edward Weston

From the Brett Weston archive, his Edward Weston Portfolio.

Most Things Look Good on the Surface

"People who comprehend a thing to its very depths rarely stay faithful to it forever. For they have brought its depths into the light of day: and in the depths there is always much that is unpleasant to see."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

Brett Weston: Ten Photographs Portfolio

From the Brett Weston archive, his Ten Photographs Portfolio.

The Language of Nature

"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures."

--Vincent van Gogh

Roman Loranc: Poland

Roman Loranc's Poland portfolio.

The Edge

"The Edge ... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."

-- Hunter S. Thompson

Abstracts vs. Sanity

I actually started questioning my own sanity the other day. There's nothing like spending many hours by your self in a basement, staring at the concrete floors, to make you think you might be nuts. But the stained concrete floors just happen to be the subject matter for my latest project, Tales from the Underground.

It's not just the loneliness and the concrete floor. It's also the results of the project--highly abstract photographs that look more like paintings than photographs. So I asked my good friend, photographer Steven Fibonacci, for some free psychological counseling. Was I going mad?

"Tell me, what is any different about these shots compared to Mosaic Canyon, random geology, or the backs of gravestones, or building sides? Answer...nothing.

"There are a handful of us who dig this kind of art, whether it be painting or photography. The rest might not 'get it'...but then...who are you doing your art for anyway ? I think you do art to satisfy yourself and to share with those who dig it. You have enough 'mainstream' type shots in your repertoire to appeal to the masses, but don't shirk your responsibility to yourself and to us abstract fans by not including these pieces."

Thanks, Steve. But if I'm ever wrongly accused of something and the prospects for being acquitted are dim, I can always point back to Tales from the Underground as my insanity defense. It's nice to have something like that in your back pocket, just in case of emergency.

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Working vs. Thinking

"My photography doesn't define what I do, rather it defines how I think."

--Larry Wiese

Ryan Bush: Photography and Paintings

Interesting black and white photography and paintings by Ryan Bush.

Tales from the Underground: Twenty New Images

Twenty new images have been added to the Tales from the Underground page. I took all of these yesterday at Gallery 57 Undergraound, Progress Space, and in the basement hallway.

[ photograph above: Pomona, 2005 ]

Inherent Abstraction

"Abstraction is inherent in the photographic medium, and through abstraction the photographer exercises choices that carry photography beyond record-realism to the expression of his or her personal viewpoint"

-- Barbara Morgan

[ photograph above: Arcosanti, Arizona, 2004 ]

Henry Chavez: Abstracts & Such

Henry Chavez' Abstracts & Such portfolio.

Photos of the "Visions and Perspectives" Show Last December

I just found a few photos of the "Visions and Perspectives" show online.

[ photograph above: Scotty's Castle, Death Valley National Park, 2003 ]

The System

"Everything everywhere may be regarded as a component of a system."

--David Pye