The photo performs . . .

[Norma Desmond]

<p><<<<em>I'm not so sure that it is the same thing for everyone.</em>>>></p>

<p>I doubt it is.</p>

<p><<<<em>On the pre/visualization vs. photographing to see what it will look like photographed, I vary widely, but lean towards the pre- side when photographing set-ups, much less so in fluid situations.</em>>>></p>

<p>A good reminder that few of us probably work the same way in all situations. Being adaptable seems helpful.</p>

<p>On the previsualization thing, I'm also aware that I do it, to some extent, relative to my body of work as much as I do it (or not) with regard to each photo. I do have an idea where I want to go with my photographs, as a whole. That, too, is ever-changing and evolving but is guided by an overarching sense of what I'm going about doing. As I photograph, it changes, since I learn and am molded by what I do as well. Sometimes I surprise myself.</p>

<p>_____________________________________</p>

<p>Michael, thanks. Glad the topic worked for you.</p>

<p> </p>

[cyanatic]

<p>The arrangement of photos in a show or website definitely strikes me as a performance, the different impact from different prints or processing less so. Perhaps because one is experienced in real time by the viewer (the show), while the other (the making of the print) is seen by the viewer after the fact. No matter.</p>

<p>Mainly, Fred, I just wanted to wish you the best with your show. I wish I could be there to see it. To me there is such a difference between a book or monitor and the act of standing before a physical print. However, there is a growing number of people for whom the digital presentation on a monitor or smart phone screen is the final result. Oh well. </p>

<p>Now here's a question for the POP group to consider: Do I wish Fred "good luck"? Or, in the sense of a performance, would it be better to tell him to "break a leg"? Either way, Fred, let us know how it goes. You might consider doing a digital recreation of your show on your website for those who can't attend. I realize you can't recreate photos opposing each other on different walls, but it would be interesting to see. </p>

 

[doug_williams4]

<p>I look at this in a more academic way. Performance art is music, dance, drama, street performance, or Performance Art that an artist performs. These are recorded and the recorded piece is art but not the performance itself. Because the print is permanent, even though it can be changed, it is not like a performance than can only be experienced once.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Doug, sometimes academics misses the point. It wasn't really so much about whether the print was a performance as much as it was about your personal relationship to prints given that they can be so variable if one wants. It was meant to stimulate your personal response about your own prints and photographic process rather than be a "this metaphor is right or wrong" kind of discussion. Thanks, though. If you feel like getting a bit more into how printing affects your vision, your photographic process, etc., I'd love to hear that.</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>Post exposure modification can be considered as a performance. Although most do this in Photoshop, I think that the alternative of spending of an evening or several hours in the B&W silver print darkroom, in the iterative and often exhilarating process of planning, experimenting, progressive modification and in printing and developing an image, is a definite performance, the result of which is as good as the performer and cannot be known until it is enacted.</p>

[jeremy jackson]

<p>Good topic Fred. As an academic, I'm afraid the idea of performance is misleading to me but I feel I do understand the issue you raise. I would just say two things here.</p>

<p>At first I used to try to make my prints conform to my web image. So the process was one of copying not creating. That I gave up after realizing that a screen depicts light in such different ways to paper that it's just hopeless to try to make the two look and/or feel similar. In this respect I feel as if I miss a lot of opportunities to make paper prints by assuming they will never live up to the web version, or at least my sense of what the image should look like. I just feel like the extra contrast of paper and the vastly different type of luminosity make the printed image much more challenging. This makes me not try when perhaps I should. In fact, just as with the old days of the dark-room, I now feel I have a good sense of whether a paper print will work when I take the photograph. Perhaps there is a fear of failure at the root of this. Perhaps I feel as if the web image as as good as I can do so I quit before starting.</p>

<p>The other thing I sense deeply is that print making is highly non-linear. What one does in step c depends such a great deal on what was done at step b. If one follows one's emotions, senses, feelings in making the print, (which vacillate hourly, daily, weekly, etc.), it follows that the process of print making will likely be different each time an attempt is made. So I generally expect that my prints will never be the same when made on different occassions. Often they vary dramatically. Often, weeks need to go by before I can separate myself enough from the printing decisions I have made to really evaluate the results honestly.</p>

<p>You mentioned a comparison to music in your original post. As a classical musician, I would expect my musical performances would vary much less from day to day than photographic prints. Perhaps a jazz musician might feel very differently. In classical music it seems there is much more of a clear, well-defined "way I want something to be done" which I would practice over and over to ensure I could repeat when a performance demands. A jazz musician might allow momentary emotion, etc., to take the performance in a new direction. I think different images are different in this respect. Some images seem to have more of a singular direction while others seem pretty malleable and admit of numerous different interpretations or approaches.</p>

<p>I hope the show goes well Fred. One thing is certain, it will be challenging and enlightening for your patrons. I must say, I envy those that will attend. Best, Jeremy</p>