Pizza Cyborg

You are really on to something interesting here with your juxtaposition of various steering-wheels and odd backgrounds.

Has that abstract look, from the thumbnail my thoughts first were that I was looking at knight in armour, well done.

Excellent! Pizza Wars.

Jack, you are too much. Excellent!

Hi Jack,

 

you're on a roll with this new series of abstracts that involve motorcycles, scooters etc. ! It all comes down on the way you look at the world around you, which is vastly different from how the rest of us mortals see it. Most people see a scooter with a helmet, you see a cyborg. You also have a way with words, so your carefully composed photo -let's not pretend this is an easy job- gets this very catchy title. Thanks for allowing us into your mysterious urban world. Kind regards, Vincent

Phillip, George, Mariusz. Patrick - Thank you very much for your comments and sticking with me as I battle through this latest fixation on cyborgs to which in actuality I don't usually give a moment's thought.

Vincent, as always thank you for your comment which as usual I found stimulating and worthy of some thought. First of all, I realize that my center of balance - and yours as well, I suspect - lies in an earlier age. I'm not much interested in the latest "art" movements anymore than I am in the latest food fads (currently tapioca tea here in Osaka). I am always drawn back to the old masters: Kertesz, Weston, Cartier-Bresson et al and some of the ones that followed them and were pioneers of modern street photography like Winogrand, Eggleston, Erwitt, Arbus and many, many others. I find the history of photography interesting but it's the individual artist and how s(he) sees that really gets my attention. I really don't care about establishing my brand and see that as the beginning of the end of creativity. In that way, photography mirrors the thing I'm most curious about and that is how we see things. We are generally programmed in our response to stimuli even though we are not aware of it. I think the artist has to fight to break through these default responses if s(he) is going to create the world anew. I'm on a pretty low level in this regard and am too old to make any noticeable difference but still, like Don Quixote, I continue tilting at windmills in my own fashion. Thanks again for making me think. Regards, Jack

Jack, looking at the thumbnail gave me the impression that there was a huge cockroach standing on the pizza, engorging itself. ( Perhaps I was channeling Kafka.) Of course, I took note of the title, but I felt compelled to find out anything else the image was communicating to me. As usual, you found an odd juxtaposition of elements and took full advantage. - - Other than the time I spent viewing the image, I read Vincent's comments and your response to them rather intently. You stated that "[you really don't care about establishing [your] brand and see that as the beginning of the end of creativity." Respectfully, I vehemently disagree in one sense. Anyone who's followed your work can find commonality among it. The elements to which I allude have been noted very often in critiques of so many of your photographs. Your obvious creativity exists even if you should decide to stop shooting. To the best of my knowledge, your having no overarching commercial ambition like some other photographers puts the lie to your ever trying to establish a brand per se.

Michael - As I might have mentioned, I'm also posting on Instagram which has the benefit of exposing me to a huge number of photographers that run the gamut from talented professionals to people who take snaps of what they're having for breakfast, lunch and dinner Of course I always try to find photographers who interest me and who I hope I have something in common with . After a month or so, I am already following well over 100 members. Having said that, I notice a certain predictability with many photographers which I, perhaps erroneously, referred to as branding. They become known for a certain type of shot: people caught in shafts of light emerging from deeply shadowed urban geometry; extreme close up street photography (usually of girls); shadowy market places (what's this fascination with darkly toned pictures nowadays?) and so on. Their photography is different but somehow very much the same as if they've been drawn into the contemporary photographic zeitgeist. They often seem to have one eye on the direction of photography today and I guess hope to find meaning (and perhaps fame and fortune) within that field; There are a lot of very talented, professional photographers but not a great number of pictures that really make you sit up and take notice. They found something that seems to work and repeat it again and again in different variations. That doesn't mean that I'm not blown a bit by the prevailing winds myself but I have neither the inclination nor the energy to settle on a single direction for my work. My mind spins off in too many directions - sometimes to a fault. In the end I think the most important thing is not to try to impress others or to find your place in the pantheon but rather not to repeat or bore yourself.