AIM FOR THE HEART

I can't tell if you're a cynic or a frustrated optimist.  Either way, once the sweetness melts away, there's a bit of a bitter aftertaste. 

I'd like to think frustrated optimist, but I'm aging and cynicism may be a last resort. I've been trying to do "message" photos lately, but they seem not to be of much interest. Could be because I'm just no good at it, or maybe the message isn't appreciated. I hope it's at least not boring.

"I ain't got to show you no stinkin' messages...!"

Actually, here the presentation (or "medium" if you prefer) works against the message in my opinion. It was the presentation, composition and fade to right-central sharpness that attracted me to this picture. It took me a while to see that she is pointing a gun at the heart shaped box of chocolates; at first I thought she was shooting a bow and arrow. How's that for obtuse! Is this the first shot in the rebellion against the sweet tyranny of Mother Sees (and me a secret chocolate addict) or just target practice using love as the bullseye? But message or no message - and I've got enough messages for the both of us - I like the end result.

Well, thanks for the thoughts. It's clear to me that this is not very successful in this form, in this forum, or in providing any emotional attachment to anybody. With all due respect, you and Jeff always look at my stuff, and I'm truly, truly grateful. I really respect you both as people and photographers. But not only were neither of you particularly eager to respond to this (my instincts here, of course), but you are the only ones that have even attempted to express any thoughts. Almost fifty other people viewed it and didn't find it compelling enough to make a statement. No, it's not pretty. I had hoped it would be thought provoking.  I know Pnet isn't what it used to be (and I don't put the effort into it that I used to either), but I'm reminded of an image I once did of my grandson that was taken on the casino floor of some Hotel/casino in Las Vegas where we were staying at the time. It was Christmas, and he was wearing a lighted green vest and a flashing Santa red hat. I thought it was the cat's meow. And some guy chastised me by making some comment like, "Great going taking a kid to a casino."  Well, of course, I was outraged that instead of cute, he saw corruption. I now realize that I should have been grateful, not offended. At least there was an emotional connection. Albeit, not the one I expected.

Now I know this could be ambiguous. Charlton Heston's grandson might look at this and think, "How cute! They're bringing this young'un up right and teachin' her to shoot straight so she can shoot the balls off of some commie lowlife." 

Or, I could have been chastised for putting a gun in the hands of an innocent young child and using her as a tool for my own derelict political philosophy.

Well, it didn't happen. Nothing happened.

I'm doing a two man show that opens tomorrow night, and my portion of the show is completely themed on politics and religion. (I think you all can guess which way I lean on those matters). This image will be there, and I hope I get some feedback. It's a real challenge to make something that is "art" and try to use it to bludgeon others with your message. Maybe I'm no good at it, or just trying too hard. Or shouldn't be trying at all. The blossoms are springing up around here. :~)  I remember a Pnet member, Mike Marcotti (sp?) who wrote in his bio that he hoped someday to make a photo that mattered. I really loved that thought. I'm still trying to do that.

Thanks for reading the ramble if you did. 

Those are thoughts worth chewing on. Maybe it's just one of the effects of growing older (old!) but I think our view of the world changes. We live at a time when everything is for sale - politicians, religious leaders, artists. We've all followed the Pied Piper song of the businessman and our child-like innocence has left Hamlin for parts unknown. There is a steep price to be paid for everything, even the rewards of success. Materialism invades every aspect of our life, a kind of creeping gangrene that is corrupting and consuming our spirit, never satisfied, always demanding more. It's the last act in the latest version of the theater of the absurd, the same old tragicomedy that has entertained the masses and brought down civilizations throughout history. There's a different cast of characters, of course, and it's been jazzed up for contemporary tastes with all the over-the-top effects and hyperkinetic hijinks that lots of money can buy, but it's nothing new. This current madness seems to have extended all down the line, to every order of society. The community is shattered, business has become cynical and depersonalized, families have lost their cohesiveness and each of us has become more and more apprehensive and isolated. I see this everywhere. I see it right here on photonet where it seems something vital has gone out of the artistic community. We have less and less time for each other as we withdraw into our own little artistic worlds. Busy, busy, busy. You want to make people think, to challenge them to look at the truth? Nobody is interested in such archaic sentiments today. That's something to stay far away from, truth is a laser that cuts too close to the bone. It's better to turn off our brain and turn on the tv with it's hundreds of channels to choose from and it's pre-packaged convenience store slices of laundered, well-spun reality. We are awash in choices and you would think with all this abundance spread out before us we must truly be a lucky people, more intelligent and freer to define ourselves and our lives than anytime before. Alas, the opposite is the truth. We have become slaves to our own creations and innovations and refinements and world views; we have everything but a moral or spiritual compass to lead us out of the maze we have fashioned. Jesus won't save us this time, He's just another brand like Coca Cola or Nike. We believe in brands, afterall. In Brands We Trust. Especially one that comes with a "Get out of hell free" coupon attached.

I am amazed how old I am. It takes years and years to get to where we are, David, high up on the mountain where you can see your personal history down below like a river running through the changing landscape. I'm older than my father, who is frozen in my mind coming home from work every day, walking up the street at 5:30 in the evening. 5:30, can you imagine? He'd change clothes and we would eat as a family at 6pm every night. Again, can you imagine? How quaint! Like an old Norman Rockwell Look Magazine cover. I don't think any young person who might read this would know or understand what I'm getting at. Or care.

So I have a deep sense of the changes that have occured in the last 50 or 60 years. Events move faster and time has lost its defining character (in fact, I think there is a movement afoot to abolish the tyranny of time once and for all, We want what we want and we want it now!). Technological change is so rapid that as soon as you buy a new thing, it's already obsolete. My answer is to duck my head and not buy anything until I absolutely have to. I don't pretend to understand this world and I wander it like a curious visitor in a strange country beyond his comprehension. But I am comforted by the realization there are other travellers who also understand that the old idols have failed and their replacements are worse, and demand even more incense burned before them. I feel like Moses must have felt when he stood on Sinai and looked down upon the Hebrews worshipping the Golden Calf. He was really pissed as I recall. The Bible also tells us that Moses was given a glimpse of the Promised Land but was not allowed to enter it (if I remember my O.T. correctly). In that sense, the artist is superior to the prophet. He knows of the Promised Land and can even enter for awhile, albeit temporarily. It's the search for that Promised Land that animates us, that keeps us from just giving up in despair, that allows us to continue up the mountain,putting one foot in front of the other You can have your Golden Calf and all its adornments, all of you who remain below. You can have your prestigious homes in exclusive neighborhoods and lavish skiing holidays and golfing trips to Scotland, I'll continue my journey and hopefully find a companion or two like yourself along the way. I don't need much more. Buon Voyage. Jack

I have read the whole lot of your thinking, and I so much agree with both of you.

 Jack you well depict the situation, and it is sad to read it,  and so true.

Dave I think that even we never met face to face and  my work is different from both of you , your works speaks to me as I feel, in many points, like both of you. I think that to understand what you want to express it needs the perspective of our age and life experience, and the ability to evaluate the changes....... 

I try to stick to my work trying to  express some of my feeling through it.In my own way, it  feels like you.

I like the composition Dave, lingered around it for sometime and thought that what it was saying to me, is that nowadays sweetness is looked at  through "ammunition".....

Thanks for your thoughts so succinctly and eloquently stated. You are truly a master of language and a damn fine observer of the human condition as well as one of my favorite photographers. It is our job (this to Pnina, too) to try not to let the world turn us into the kind of curmudgeon that has nothing left to say. Nothing wrong with being a curmudgeon, but it has to be approached with reason. We cannot simply quit observing and continue to respond with the same tired and dire predictions. As much as it hurts and seems futile, we must absorb the facts and history which is passed around the table with so few takers. I find this harder and harder to do with the passing of each year. 

Jack, I love your thoughts on the artist entering the promised land, but I disagree. I think all of us, artists and others, can only see the promised land. Some stretch higher trying to see it better (as if that would satisfy our curiosity), and some are content to simply know that it's there (never know that it's all illusion). If we were to cross into that land, we would cease to be artists, bricklayers, doctors and teachers, and become mad men. We can't go home again, and we can't enter the promised land. I think it's called "The Promised Land" for the very reason that it is only promised. It's never really there. Never given. It's the dangling carrot. The doppelganger of our tangible lives. A chimera. Yet, we continue our masochistic Quixotic journey.

But at our ages, we must try harder than ever to sample the goods and to immerse ourselves in the market. We need not buy, but we cannot reject the merchandise simply because it is new. Equally, we are in a better position to not buy, based on the greater perspective we have of time and what went before. 

Suddenly this is starting to sound like more of a statement of my shortcomings in communication than a manifesto of beliefs. I can only hope that it makes some sense. I'm going to fix some coffee and hope that the darker and bolder it is the more clarifying it will be to my thoughts.

This one might be a little hard for you to understand in the sense that in your country, being armed is a day to day matter of survival. In our country, arms have become a terrible plague. There is a cowboy mentality that few in other countries would be able to comprehend. It has to do with our history, but I often think that that is simply an excuse for a lack of moral fiber. There is a whole culture of people who not only support the owning of firearms, but worship them. I've been a hunter (grew up with it) and have owned firearms since I was just a boy. I've had training in firearms and even once had a job where I had the option of carrying them. But I've come to believe they are a plague on the land and a true indication of our moral and intellectual failings. I'm aware that in Israel, I might have a different opinion. And that opinion might be justified by reason.

Dave,

The message is clear, well presented and unambiguous from where I sit.  The fact that scores of people looked at this and only some good friends took the time to respond speaks more to the shifting aesthetic of PN viewers than it does to you ability to conceptualize.  One of the joys of following your stuff is the fine combination of spot on politics, a wry sense of humour and the vision and stones to put it all together. Whether it be a concept realized or one of your bizzarro road side gems I am always left with something to think about.

Reading through the preceding comments has made me realise that I am a closet optimist.

I wish I lived close enough to go out to a gallery and see your work printed and hung. 

Thank you for the very kind words. To hell with my photos. You don't need to see 'em. I just wished you lived close enough to be able to come over and have a few glasses of wine in the garden. Man, I'd really like that.

Dave,

I've been know to set out on impromptu rod trips so don't discount the possibility that one day I may show up at your garden gate with a bottle of wine in hand.

 Yesterday I mentioned seeing your photographs in print in part as a response to having begun to wrestle through printing up some of my own work and coming to appreciate how much I enjoy the  physicality, the  tactile pleasure of having a photograph in my hand as apposed to staring at in back-lit on a screen. That rather empty feel of on-line photo viewing  among other issues, has kept me away from PN.   I think I overdosed on screen viewing and required a self intervention.  The internet is wonderful and affords plenty of previously unknown options and experiences,  such as  the pleasure of our meeting and sharing ideas and images,  however too much of good thing can be ... well...... a less good thing I suppose ?

 I took a look at one of my images which I uploaded yesterday and noted that it had 30 views and only one comment. There may have been a time when I would have believed such an underwhelming lack of enthusiasm reflected on my photo.  These days I console myself with the belief that what gets an image attention at PN is not image quality but rather a good track record of placing comments on other peoples images.  There was a time  back when I first discovered Pn and online communities in general when I believed that  the many comments my images garnered was a direct indication of the quality of those images. I now realize that the amount of comment my images received was much more a result of the quality and most importantly the quantity of comments I tossed out.  I am quite certain that if I were to become interested in regressing back to that hay-day of  comment exchange I could do so by getting back in the game.... but to what avail?

I uploaded 3 images yesterday primarily to fill back in those three slots on my page after having uploaded some other work to a hidden folder to show to a gallery. I like those three photos I uploaded no less because they will languish in the PN backwater which my pages have become.  If I check in once in awhile and find that a few good friends have dropped by and shared an impression or two I am grateful and satisfied. I have gone on at length about this this only because I would hate to think that you would consider the overall reaction or lack thereof at the P.Nut farm to your recent photographs to be indicative of anything more than your current social status :-)

Your comments strike me as spot on. It's publish or perish. I don't suppose it can be any other way really. I have to say that through Pnet I've met many folks that I admire and find genuinely likable. And I have actually been hosted by two of them who invited me to come stay with them and providing me with not only some really cool pics, but with some experiences I would never have gotten on my own. I've also hosted one couple from Flickr when they were passing through my way and formed a relationship with another Flickr person that has lasted for several years, and with whom I go out photographing several times a year. So, the on line community has been really good to me. Certainly if you ever pass this way, you would be welcome to stay with us and I would be at your disposal.

I feel very much the same about a print. I've wasted so much money on printing stuff up because I've never really gotten over the darkroom days where the only purpose was to produce a print. So anything that strikes my fancy gets printed up. Of course you know how much accumulation can result from doing this for years and years. I often joke with fellow photographers, about how, when I die, all the drawers full of prints will go into the same dumpster with my lifetime collection of things that have meaning primarily to me alone. But, there are no alternatives.

So my friend happy printing and rest assured that should you be passing through the central valley of California, you are welcome to stay over with us and we can tip a glass or two of the best wine I can afford at the moment.

Only an optimist would care enough to be so disappointed with the current state of affairs.  One has to wonder about this current generation who believe that every text and tweet is gravely important, but who cannot maintain eye contact or make small talk.

The unfolding discussion on this page confirms the value of the site, even though I feel more and more relegated to the sidelines of the party, engaging in quiet conversation with a few good friends.

You are not a person that could or should be relegated to the sidelines. You've been a faithful Pnet friend and I value that friendship immensely.

Reading all that thread has brought me to thanks this group of people I have met through PN!  which I could not be familiar with and appreciate otherwise. You can call me a crazy Optimist.... but you people are one of the main reason I stay in this site  for so long., It changed with time, but as long as you are here not only as friends, but as photographers with a saying it has a future!

Dave, I understood your point of the  cowboy mentality and culture, but even though we need to defend ourselves, I hope that one day our :"swords will change to shovels"...

I think that we have to plane a meeting somewhere in the middle of the road, as we  did before with 7  PNers in Vienna!

 what do you think?

I think that would be lovely, although I have no doubt that in person you would find me boring and a disappointment. Right now, a trip to even the East Coast, is not in my budget. I've been fortunate that I've been able to make some fantastic road trips over the last few years, but my ability to financially support futher extensive travel is waning.

I'll host you all if you come here though. I'm two hours from Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park, two and a half to Yosemite, two and a half from the beautiful Monterey coastline and midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  It would be lovely.

thanks for your answer and invitation.Some points: first I don't think you will be boring as you say,being familiar with your work,I will be very glad to meet you , be with you and  talk with you  I see that no one of the members of this thread "lift the glove" so maybe it is hard for them as it is hard for you. I still would like to do the effort to meet , so maybe when Jack wil travel to his family in the USA? I like to dream...and maybe one day it will work out and become reality,...;-))Thanks again for the invitation, looks tempting.!

It would be fun. I even have a friend who has a 3 bedroom townhouse on the water in Monterey that could be available should you come. I know you travel a great deal, so maybe we can pull it off. 

Dave ,

Thanks for the generous offer.  Likewise if you ever find yourself in Central Ontario let me know as I'd be happy to put you up and go out travelling the back roads with our cameras.

 I am boring and by this stage in life pretty content to be that way.  We could get together and bore each other , might be a change of pace from boring myself :-)

Thanks. It occurs to me that we could invite Pnina, and she could judge who is the most boring. We could even have fellow Pnetters taking bets on the outcome. ~)

Let see who is more boring, I will bring a scale and put each of you on each side, I will know then..and let PNeters know the score ...;-))..LOL

(I wish more PNers will be this boring as both of you together..  ohhhh), so be ready!

I stand ready for the great bore off. Not even gonna train for it.