Bored With The Art Scene

I like the composition of this, with the pictures aligning the left side, the organic shape of the white space and shape of the dad and baby.

Wonderful shot, Jack...like the composition too...nice expression of the child...my best

Very nice juxtaposition Jack. Well composed , but what it signifies , is that education of the arts starts early in Japan. At  the child's age it can be tiring and  boring, but the seed is planted;-)). Nice moment and message.

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them.

Amy - Yeah, I really should pay more atention to my compositions. I saw a DVD where Cartier-Bresson spoke about his pictures; he had the superb ability to see relationships and compose in the split second.

Kallol - Thanks. The kid was a real charmer. He was very animated earlier but by this picture he had about run out of gas.

Pnina - Actually, it's quite rare to see a child at an art exhibit here in Osaka but this little guy was as much a center of attention as the artwork, itself. The whole art scene in Japan is a complicated issue and very much reflects the Japanese sense of hierarchy and the tendency to categorize. People seem very unsure of their own tastes and what they're supposed to like.

Jack, admirable composition. I feel the child is remembering those days in mother's womb, after seeing these paintings

it's a composition in which every element seems to add to the story, very well told due to the photographer's awerness and ability to react quickly. Just thought the kid's eyes and the grip on his dad's arms give a special meaning to this image and make it a kind of visual review of the exhibition:-}

You are born and you have to stir everything in your pot ...very much Japanese ....

I had wonderful morning today as I happened to check out your latest to discover this very very gem. I'm delighted and relieved as this is so fresh, so different to your customary output. Makes me believe you have had a creative process running during you "off-line" time and this is now the result (by the overall composition and subject as well) of some maturing process. Every pixel here is a winner for sure. Along with the umbrella and the student photo recently this one gives me assurance, things are rolling well in Osaka.

Linda would love this photo too because the toenails are painted (besides the obvious).... ;-)

LOL! Markku, I was so engrossed in the comp and the delightful little boy, that I didn't even see the painted toenails until you pointed them out! (Mine are currently painted hot pink by the way) I especially like the negative space in the center of this image. Nice work Jack!

Amal - Well, for sure he's tired of all the chatter and activity and just needs to curl up with Mom or Dad. The world can be overwhelming, especially if you're the center of attention.

Wieslaw - Thanks for you comment. I've always considered you one of the premier storytellers and very much value your words.

Tatjana - Very much human!

Markku - It's a funny thing about the artist and his relationship to his art. When you start out, the progress is easy and the ego exults; everything is new and fresh and exciting. And then as your education proceeds, you gradually develop a truer picture and realize that you are really not "a new and exciting star in the artistic firmament", just a pebble at the foot of a mountain. The ego is not much interested in considering scale or these kinds of stark  insights and,  preoccupied as it is with the shiny surface of things, begins to dream of easier roads and greener pastures. It's when the pilgrim/artist starts to understand the daunting and endless cycles of the creative process and the dark times any "serious" artist must endure for those few brief moments of vision, that he is put to the test. Then progress is measured not in great leaps but in hard-won millimeters. There are periods when every way forward appears to be so choked with meaninglessness that we  teeter on the edge of  artistic despair. You feel as if the muse who had long stood by your side and guided you had suddenly disappeared. I guess these are the times you simply have to pull back and regroup like the kid in the picture. But these are only pauses not a throwing in of the towell. The most important understanding of all is that the path always appears again; there it is, shining before you,, a silver thread in the darkness. I guess you've just got to keep looking for it. What else can you do.

Linda "Queen of the Pink Toenails" - The negative shape in the picture echoes the one between my ears. Plenty of room for stray thoughts to go a-roamin'.

Jack, I appreciate your remarks to Markku. I'm feeling a bit of that "pointlessness" lately. Like you say though, it is all cyclic. I'm looking forward to finding my renewed energy... hopefully soon.

Thank you so much for putting your thoughts in detail, though your words were rather in general terms. So true, so true. I recall seeing similar words elswhere, very likely by you, while being myself just a lurker. I would add that it's also about how much energy there is to realize one's ideas instead just being satisfied inside one's own mind. Something or somebody should be there to kick to action, as I feel this quest for development.

You maybe remember this other kid photo (click) by you, that I found fascinating for different reasons? Back to this one: here the contrasting elements, angular artwork aimed frontally and appearing like arms of an E having a soft organic content vs this excellently framed father and son oozing tender caring relationship and illuminated by soft light and further presented in warm colors. They are leaning towards right while artwork is frontal, and just right portion of clearing space in-between.

Impressive work, Jack! Amazing composition and details.

I couldn't agree more with what you've just written above about what happens to the beginner and his ego, about being under the impression that everything we do is fresh and new at the outset.  Yet, I really had the impression that few other people liked to do the kind of pictures our little group of friends already liked to do about five or six years ago. I mean the kind of approach our favorite shooters on Pnet seemed to favor. Well, I don't know what on earth has been goin' on over the last year or two, but suddendly it seems that I am seeing the kind of pictures we loved to take everywhere on TV or at the cinema these days. You know, every commercial or music clip is full of poles, posts, traffic cones, traffic lights and signs and so on... Have you also noticed that trend in the countries where you all live ? Well, I know that famous photographers ( like Shore, for instance) are hired by advertising agencies to direct important commercials and music clips, but it seems that there's a fashion at the moment of doing things after those great American photographers. Every advertiser seems to be making images that look like Eggleston's, Shore's or others I may not know, with the addition of a digital touch...Unless they just checked out on photo.net and stole our own ideas!!! (just kidding, but who knows after all?) In a sense, sounds like a pity , doesn't it? What used to be unique or rare becomes cheap and repeated until it becomes a cliché...It seems that ideas circulate so fast nowadays with new technology that they become obsolete before the next day has come...

To conclude, let me second the other posters about the quality of this picture. And that's what counts in the end.

It's early in the morning and I haven't even finished my first cup of coffee yet and here I am responding to your lengthy and thoughtful post. The brain cells are nudging each other and tryingto drag themselves out of the sack so I don't know how clear I can be. (Not very, it seems , since I just spent the last few minutes trying to dredge up a synonym for "clear" and the word I want absolutely refuses to come out of the shadows. I think English has become like a second language for me, though I'm not sure what my first is anymore. It sure as hell isn't Japanese.)

I think the creative process is one of fits and starts and one of the main criteria for success - however you measure it - is simply moving on, whether at a sprint, a stroll, a stumble or a crawl. There's really no end point to the road and the goals are elusive in that once they've been reached, they lose their power and allure. I look at the work of a lot of photographers, present and past, on photonet, at exhibitions, in books, in documentaries and biographies. Each photographer has an effect on me, some greater, some less. I can be impressed with them and even incorporate their point of view as I have incorporated the points of view of teachers throughout my life. I have seen several wonderful films on Henri Cartier-Bresson lately and I was impressed with his straightforwardness and humanity as much as his pictures. (By the way, do you know he spoke English almost as well as you do?) Two statements he made really impressed me. I'll paraphrase here or at least let memory serve. First, he said it's all luck but you have to be prepared for the luck - and he always was. Photography was not his life, photography was an exprsssion of his life. This is the unique thing. No one can be me and no one can see as I do, I don't care how talented or famous they may be. My job as a photographer is always to be more and more me. The other thing that I remember is that he laughed at one point and said "you have to gather a lot of milk to make a little cheese." Words of wisdom. I once asked my brother, an excellent fisherman, what the secret is for catching big fish (he had just caught a near record salmon) ad his answer paralleled Cartier-Bresson's. He said "fish a lot".

So despite all the frustrations and bruises to my ego (which bruises as easily as an over-ripe peach), I'm sure I'm going to keep on taking photographs as long as I am able. It's enough to come up with an interesting picture every once in a while even as the great majority of our efforts fade away and lose their luster. It's enough to make good friends around the world and enough to have stimulating conversations like this. Let those who need the recognition have it. I'll just keep doing what I like.

ps: that elusive word that I was searching for was "coherent". I typed "synonym for clear speaking" in Google and that's what it came up with. I swear, Google is the handiest tool. I use it for everything, even spell check. At last the techno-dweebs have come up with something that is both easy to use and useful. I didn't think it was possible.

A pleasure reading you again. I think you're right. It's all about truth, about integrity, about being sincere trying to look at things beyond the surface and hopefully succeeding in getting better no matter where you start. Everybody has to live up to their own standards, I guess. On the contrary, what I tend to dislike most is that kind of shallow-mindedness that makes everybody do the same thing to be up-to-date, and we see a lot of that in the artistic field too.

P.S.: Jack, thanks for the compliment about my English, though to be honest I must confess that I see it as I see my photography. Neither of them is good enough to me, so that it often feels frustrating when I find myself unable to extend my vocabulary to the point of being really accurate.