Cabbage
Some see photography as “finding beautiful things and capturing them”. I see it differently as “seeing things and creating beautiful photographs of them.” To wit, the lowly cabbage, especially with some bruises on it on a market stand will not appeal to many as it is not “beautiful.” A careful study of the subject, its shape and lines, texture, the light falling on it will likely prove the beauty seekers wrong. The road to creative and innovative photographic work requires departing from what you have been doing over and over again with reliable results, leaving your comfort zone. You need to go out on a limb, try something different, new, and create new work.
I photographed these in a small Aegean coast town in Turkey, Ayvalik, at its weekly market. The form and lines appeal to me greatly. I decided to present them in monochrome, toned B&W images to remove the impact of color, a layer of abstraction if you will. Tell me what you think of the subject and the photographs resulting from it.
On Photography, a Panel Discussion
The following video recording is from a panel discussion I moderated in 2007. Fair warning, it is over one hour long and no photographs are shown. It is a conversation on photography, art, and various dimensions of both.
On Color
I have been working on a presentation that I will make in a few weeks about color and color photography. I have read many books, visited many Web sites, and the last book I have been reading by Wittgenstein1 prompted me to ask a series of questions in my exploration of the idea of “color.” Ponder upon these:
- Is it meaningful to talk about the “evolution of color” in the sense that we talk about the evolution of the planets, species?
- All the colors must have emerged spontaneously.
- If not, is there an order of appearance?
- Are there “unknown colors”? Can there be?
- Once we are aware of the idea of “color” do we know all the colors we can?
- What is the difference between “surface color” and “emitted color”?
- Was there a time when humans did not see all the colors we now know?
- Will humans see more colors one million years from now?
- Is human evolution a factor in “color”?
- If it is, is human evolution the analog for the evolution of color?
- Is there color inside a tightly sealed wooden box?
- How can we know that?
- If there is no color, what would it look like if we could observe the objects inside?
Penny for your thoughts.
On Giclée and Understanding Digital Photography, III
Oh, where was I? Yes, I was trying to dispel some myths about digital photography. Let me continue with a few more I heard at the panel discussion. These attacks on digital photography, by the way, are not based on first hand experience of the medium but rather on uninformed conversations about a medium. The belief must be, “if it is repeated enough times, people will believe them.” Of course, it worked for them! Let’s get on with it. Read more
On Giclée and Understanding Digital Photography, II
In the previous post, I tried to give you an idea about the setting, now I will try to address specific arguments leveled against digital photography. Read more
On Giclée and Understanding Digital Photography, I
Yesterday evening I attended a panel discussion at the Bert Gallery in Providence. The topic “What is original art? Is it a giclée?” was interesting and the panelists were mostly informed about the digital art and digital photography. I thought of Graham Nash and Mac Holbert as they ventured into the digital fine art printing with hacksaws in hand to chop a very expensive IRIS printer so that they can use a better medium, better ink, and the rest is history. And about the word “giclée”, let’s call a spade a spade, it is ink-jet printing. Yes, it comes with greater care and understanding the medium and more accumulated knowledge, but it is ink-jet printing, which has come a long, long way since Nash and Holbert. Read more
Fine Art Photography
Photography is a democratic medium, everyone can take photographs. They may not be great photographs but the process of taking pictures has become exceedingly easy. This is both good and bad.
It is good because it allows anyone with a creative mind to express her or his ideas without being bogged down with technique, like learning how to paint. This will present a great opportunity to those creative individuals. On the other hand, everyone snapping another picture, to clutter the closet, or more recently, the computer storage takes a little wind out of the photographic sail. This apparent ease of making pictures erroneously creates the impression that photographic art is easy. Quite the contrary. Read more
-
All content on this site is owned by A. Cemal Ekin. Copyright © 2009. No part of the content, including images, text, and other files may be used for any purpose without prior written permission from the site owner.
