The idea was called *scapes, though I noted at the time that I "could also call it fake horizons or imitation horizons or manufacturing horizons or something".
I'm not sure if something was actually a suggested title or just a concluding statement. Anyway, you kinda get the idea.
It was about making landscapes from non-landscapes - such as polling station signs.
And windowsills.
And um ... other things (again with the McCahon).
I was hoping to do something with these. In fact I was hoping to collaborate with another artist (a non-photographic artist!!) to realise this series. But our talks fizzled to nothing. I think we both needed the other to do something so we could respond, rather than trying to build up an idea from, well, an idea.Also, it appears I only took two films for this. I think I got to the point where I realised it was very easy to get shots, but much less easy to get worthwhile shots. These five, I guess, are the best from the 70 odd shot.
Part of the problem relates to this comment I posted recently specifically about digital abstraction but :
it seems to me that there are inherent issues with the digital playground. i remember a show patrick reynolds had at tinakori gallery a few year back where he heavily pixelated his images, and blew them up big. they were nicely abstracted. but after seeing two of them i didn’t need to see any more. i felt the same with brian’s work.I don't know if it's just me, but I strongly feel that it is much harder to do decent abstraction in photography, or at least to create a decent body of work from abstraction. Generally I find the idea, the conceit, wears thin very quickly.
i am yet to see a show where the use of photoshop to abstract images has resulted in a decent show; where the original idea, however good or bad, has been successfully transferred across a number of images required to make a show, while retaining the necessary individual vitality of each image.
There are photographers who do it very well - this one being my main point of reference.
I still like these horizon pics. But I got bored. As I tend to do. Too often.
But not before I got one of the transparencies printed on backlit film - using a positive as a negative to create a positive.
Kinda cool, but I think I prefer the positive positive positive over this positive negative positive.
3 comments:
I think I get what you're saying about abstraction but I don't think it's just photography but all art - visual art at least. I know I'm not an expert in such areas but I've always thought, for example that apart from the real epic Gate 5 etc, the Colin McCahon "word" paintings would have kept far more impact if there were a lot less of them. Or that one Jackson Pollock "dribble" painting (I mean dribble in a purely technique-descriptive sense, not in a perjurative summation of artistic merit sense) was a fantastic new idea, but by the time the same artist has made many works in the same style then it veers dangerously close to self parody. But then The Audience expects more of the same because That's What That Artist Does... maybe photographers have it easier because maybe they're more expected to play round with different techniques... maybe I should stick to being vaguely sciency and leave this alone now...
I think you should keep at it. There is something in the ones that you have posted that appeals to me. Just keep shooting.
And, shucks, thanks for the compliment.
hey deskjockey. you're right, but i think your comments hold for all art not just abstraction. i know people who are sick of bill hammond still doing birds and aberhart still shooting the same subjects. ideas get tired.
for me the difference if that photographers require something to shoot, whereas painters can (literally) just throw paint on a canvas. to my mind there's more freedom in painting which means there's more room to explore abstraction. that's not to say that all abstract paintings or ideas work.
i also think i'm a lot more critical and staunch in my views when it comes to photography.
acitw: maybe you're right. one issue i have is that i need outlets for my work. i have too many ideas and not enough places to put them (or money to make them, but that's always going to be the case).
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