pictures of nothing

A nurse saw my photos and said, they are like the photos on the ward - they are all of nothing! I believe she meant nothing of personal or collective importance, just decoration. Let's raise an empty glass of toast to something, then erase it with a photo (or two) of nothing. Speaking of nothing, I just made Phobrain.com introduce micro delays to simulate awareness of the user experience, and it feels like I accomplished something!

 

Slide scanner with no slide

Very nice examples. I will come back and post something when I get hold of my computer.

 

Since these are supposed to be pictures of nothing, what they reflect in the viewer's mind could be very distinct and personal, or they may give rise to a common feeling as well. it may be an interesting excercise to think of one word that comes to mind upon seeing each image.

 

For example, Tim's picture brings one word to my mind, optimism.

For pictures of nothing, the main word that hits me is 'uniqueness', because such photos have to work harder for not having any content. Looking at the photos people have posted, I feel like moments of life are being celebrated for their own sake (though a slide scanner with no slide takes more than a moment in my experience :).

 

We have ways of getting the truth (@Phobrain.com).

 

Edited June 4, 2017 by photoriot

Describes most of my photos...

Found this not only nothing of interest, not even in focus.

I incorporated the starting pair into a set illustrating a song, very abstract in a way, but since it includes some friends' photos it doesn't belong on pnet. It would be interesting to see links to other words+pictures abstractions.

 

 

Sanford is doing Baldessari!

I just took a picture of someone else doing Baldessari. Had to look him up.

I just took a picture of someone else doing Baldessari. Had to look him up.

 

 

That's a very Baldessari thing to do. Aside from the dots-over-faces thing he did that is in your picture, he had a project where he wrote up a description of a picture he wanted made, then he hired a local painter to do it for him. In a documentary film I have about Baldessari, years later they went and found that local painter. He too had never heard of (and did not remember being hired by) Baldessari. He too looked him up and said, "He's not bad, but not really my style." He was not impressed.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Julie H

Is there a boundary between pure nothing and fabricated nothing? Is fabrication a sort of finding?

Is there a boundary between pure nothing and fabricated nothing? Is fabrication a sort of finding?

 

Since any picture of nothing is made out of something, I am wondering if there is really any picture that is truly of nothing. Aren't all pictures of nothing fabricated nothing?

The distinction I would draw is between "naturally-occurring" and "fabricated," since there's no such thing as pure nothing, or at the very least "pure nothing" is redundant since what could be impure about nothing.

 

I think if there's such a thing as fabricated nothing, we'd have to leave room for there being such a thing as pre-fab nothing. That would be a relatively recent concept, like plastic.

 

Having said there's no such thing as pure nothingness, I'm reminded that there is such a thing as eternal nothingness, at least according to one clarinet-playing movie director:

 

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

—Woody Allen

 

Fabrication is a sort of making which is a sort of finding.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Norma Desmond

I feel nothing is really nothing, since everything has an origin, a cause, and a definite end. Even JDM's scanner image is noise, and has a cause and end. Eternal nothing (if that exists) may be called pure nothing, since that has no beginning, no end, and no meaning, Everything else is nothing based on how we look at it. However by categorizing something as nothing, we are giving it a definition, hence it can no longer be nothing.

Supriyo, nothing, by definition, is not a thing. If anything, which it really can't be either, it's just a concept, though I'd maintain an inconceivable one. So photos of nothing can't be nothing. Like all photos, they are merely cheap imitations of reality. Fakes. Frauds. Lies and Deceipts. ;-)

Photos of nothing can be something, and I hope something very valuable, in my case at least.

I maintain that nothing remains nothing, even when an image of it becomes something.