john mackay

May 13, 2006

All the talk of steam with Matt and Chris' very good photos achieved its effect and had me come over all nostalgic. So much so that I felt compelled to create a presentation of my family's recent adventure aboard the Kingston Flyer powered by one of the retired steam engines of Her Majesty the Queen of England.

I've been on rollercoaster's in jet planes and on motor bikes but none of them compared to this.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/slideshow?presentation_id=320384</a>

May 11, 2006

Matt,

Thankyou for your thoughtful post. After reading and agreeing with much of it

I finally arrived at the realisation that I cannot talk about what photography

should or should not be for others. All I can hope for is that I get the chance

to express myself through my work and meet other photographers that share my

philosophy and somewhat more importantly learn from the ones who don't share it.

:)

To achieve this I realise that I have to put aside my fears of appearing

stupid or saying something dumb on the grounds that these minor embarrassments

pale in comparison to my fear of doing nothing as I too, like your photo, have

felt as if my life was parked. :))

You have talked to the very reasons that have seen me digging deeper into art

and philosophy than I would ever have imagined.

Cheers...John.

P.S. It looks more to me like you've experienced a formatting glitch when making

your post and I hazard a guess that MS-Word is the likely culprit with it's

extended character set that the text parser fails to recognize.

May 8, 2006

I think in context, Misha's work in the traditional analogue environment of

the 70's and 80's was considered groundbreaking. I understand that seen outside

of this context, Misha's work might be considered derivative and repetitive.

However, I think that this is not always the artist's fault but that the art

establishment demands that artists exhibit a definitive and recognisable style

because that's what the buying patrons demand. In artistic terms however, perhaps Misha

is asking us to examine our own conceptions of repetition, derivation,

strangeness and novelty?

Cheers...John.

May 7, 2006

Grant wrote: "The original question, "When does mimesis become art?" is

perhaps a tautology. Art, generally, has always been mimetic."

Thanks for concurring :)

Grant wrote: "Plato was expressing what art wasn't; the reality is not

'spectacularly opposite'."

For me, Plato was expressing the risk of confusing mimetic-poetry as

substantive discourse. In elaboration, by "spectacularly

opposite" I reason that rather than mimetic-art finding illegitimate

credibility as feared by Plato it has instead factored in it's

marginalisation. I don't know about you but I find that "spectacularly

opposite" :)

Grant wrote: With the possible exception of Stalin's Soviet Union and The

Third Reich, art was never prescriptive."

I would suggest that the substantial body of art, practice, study and

philosophy has apolitically been prescriptive, including

communist and fascist art which I believe borrows from Plato's ideology more

closely than some might care to acknowledge.

Cheers...John.

May 7, 2006

A long long time ago when everything good was Greek, mimesis meant the

act of imitation or dramatic characterisation and performing arts

was its principle playground. Plato's book Republic served as the

ideological battleground concerning poetry's mimetic license and its right to

sit at philosophy's side in substantive discourse. Importantly, Plato's argument

is not against poetry but against the act of mimesis. Specifically, his

argument goes to notions of authenticity, and truth. He's frustrated by the

power of mimetic-poetry to appeal to our emotions rather than our intellect and

questions whether this mimetic-art should have a seat at the table of his

ideal state. For Plato, mimesis' principle appeal is to our emotions

causing us to abandon intellectual reason. For Plato, Art was no mere trifle and

appeals to emotion meant the loss of the reasoning mind.

So, in answer to your headline question When does mimesis become art?

For Plato, the answer was never. The reality however, is spectacularly opposite

in that over the last 2,400 years there has developed a symbiosis of mimesis and

art that is for all practical purposes inseparable. Perhaps the real question

becomes Why has mimesis [imitation and dramatic characterisation]

become inseparable from art?

I found Eco, Umberto's excellent essay

<a title="Read this essay online >>" href="http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3671/is_200510/ai_n15745169">

Innovation & repetition: between modern & postmodern aesthetics</a> a

provocative adjunct to the above question.

Thanks for making me think :)

Cheers...John.

May 5, 2006

This depends entirely on your own philosophical bent I imagine.. :)

What I did when I wanted answers to the same question was to look for some

good writings on the subject and finally settled on "<a title="View details at Amazon >>" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415327989/ref=ed_oe_p/002-8380419-6673634?_encoding=UTF8">The Routledge Companion

to Aesthetics (2nd Ed.)</a>" which is a collection of essays canvassing aesthetic history,

theory, issues and challenges etc. Trust me when I say that it is this kind of

material that will give you good overview of the development of aesthetic

philosophy without actually having to endure questionable translations of

Plato's Republic (Book 10) or the elliptical and digressive writing style

of Aristotle's Poetics (Book 1) two very opposite views on the

value of mimesis.

Incidentally, if you feel up to the challenge you can read a

selection of Hegelﾒs

<a title="Read online >>" href="http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/aeindex.htm">The Philosophy of Aesthetics</a> translated by B.

Bosanquet and W.M. Bryant online--it's character building :)

I congratulate your enquiring mind and wish you good luck.

Cheers...John

where are member's hasselblad photos · May 1, 2006

Check-out Jeff Grant's featured portfolio on the front page.

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photos/Jeff.Grant">http://www.photo.net/photos/Jeff.Grant</a>

May 1, 2006

I can't help but wonder if perhaps Smee's next article should canvas literature's obvious decline in the face of the personal computer.

April 21, 2006

That's Ok Robert :)

I guess I felt the same way originally but seeing his photography was a watershed moment for me, not because I have any interest in shooting weddings--far from it. But because I realised at that point that whether my photography was boring or not really came down to me.

Cheers...John.

April 21, 2006

Thatï¿½s what it feels like to look into the images of Jeff Ascoughï¿½s incredible, evocative and emotional available light wedding photography. Shot using a triage of Leica M6ï¿½s largely on Neopan his images are so in tune with the moment that they transcend the traditional notion of wedding photographs and evoke such incredible emotion. You canï¿½t help but feel that this man has such a reverence and sense of worship for the wedding, itï¿½s every subtlety and nuance.

A tribute to the emotion and subtlety of available light photography. So, get yourself a cup of your favourite stuff, turn your speakers on and become immersed in the ceremony, the love and the very heart and soul of the wedding as youï¿½ve never experienced before by <a href="http://www.jeffascough.net/main.html">Internationally Acclaimed Wedding Photographer - Jeff Ascough</a>.

April 13, 2006

Another way that I have done it is to open MS-Word and insert the copyright symbol and then copy it out of MS-Word and just paste it into PS.

It pastes as text on a new layer and can be resized etc.

Cheers...John.

April 11, 2006

Grant wrote: "John, I wanted to check your reference for a broader context. Randomly, I opened my bible at Psalms. Is someone helping, here?"

Now that's a coincidence as I had the same thing happen to me. I wonder if it is because Psalms is reportedly the most popular book for Christians and so it's well leaved pages may simply be pre-disposed to opening there.

However, that's not to say that God doesn't employ a limited degree of divine intervention to preserve a balanced level of felt presence and blind faith. :)

April 11, 2006

I guess my reasons vary. The photo below titled Fleeing to the Mountain

was taken because I wanted the cathedral to appear as a mountain. Mountains

feature heavily in religious writings as do the ideals of ascension and I wanted

viewers to explore this symbolism. For me the

eleven steps represent Psalm 11 present in the

<a href="http://www.al-kitab.org/al-kitab/zabur/Zabur_11.htm">Qu'ran</a>,

<a href="http://www.biblicalproportions.com/modules/ol_bible/King_James_Bible/Psalms/11">Old Testament</a> and

<a href="http://netivotshalom.org/tanakh/psalms/11.htm">Tanakh</a> where

David says: "...how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to

your mountain?" This is in stark contrast to the the book of Samuel

which tells us that David did flee before

Saul to Najoth in the mountains of Ramah. Some scholars believe that

Najoth was not a geographical name, but rather a reference to where Samuel

housed his school of the prophets. So, rather than fleeing to a

mountain, I wonder was David in fact returning to a place or religious significance--his mosque,

church or synagogue so to speak?

My only other church photo titled Crisis depicts a man standing

tentatively in the isle of Christchurch Cathedral. The hook was to

have the viewer question where's the crisis? A man stands alone in the

aisle of an empty church--so what? Perhaps without realising the viewer begins to

ask further Where's the relevance? Who cares?

What does it mean? Some of the very same questions that are being asked

about religion today I imagine.

April 6, 2006

I'm only looking at doing 6x enlargements max. from these shots so I'm not too worried about any moderate increase in grain or even reciprocity failure for that matter. It will be astrophotography so I'm not even too worried about tonal loss.

My main concern is the potential colour shift through such a long exposure and trying to calculate filtration. Apparently, Provia 100F can suffer a green shift with longer exposures and I'm not sure if this is something I can non-destructively correct for in PS or whether I need to add magenta filtration at the camera.

Thanks once again for your help.

Regards...John.

April 2, 2006

Hi,

Hope someone can help with this. As a new LF shooter I notice that

Fuji doesn't make their Provia 400 in sheet. I have made a search of

the forums and google groups and it appears that most people are

satisified with a 1-2 stop push of Provia 100F.

I have also noticed that many astro photographers are comfortable with

its long exposure response in both 100 and 400 35mm/120 roll-film

varients.

However, what I don't know is what happens if I combine both ie. push

Provia 100F sheet to ISO 400 and then long expose for several hours.

Has anyone tried this and what was your experience ie. contrast, color

shifting, filtering advice etc?

Cheers...John.

March 14, 2006

Tasha,

Unfortunately, I think your question is so general that it pre-supposes that

advertising, fashion and even artistry itself are somehow mutually exclusive

things--black and white taxonomies. In truth it can be, if that's how you choose

to see it. So, if according to your own interpretation you feel that neither

fashion or advertising conform to artistry then that is valid--for you.

However, if this issue has truly been "lingerin in [your] mind for

quite sometime" and you would like to test your assumptions then it would

help to know why YOU think that advertising photography and fashion is or isn't

artistry?

Looking forward to reading your views on this.

Cheers...John.

March 11, 2006

Hi Stephen,

I also had trouble understanding how the plane of focus transitioned with

tilt and subsequently made my own diagram (relatively accurate) so I could see

the effect for a 1 in 2 gradient for a 90mm lens (below)

However, I think that the best visual demonstration of this is

<a href="http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/ViewCam3.mov">Harold Merklinger's

QuickTime Movie demonstrating base tilt</a> (34kb). You can view other QuickTime

Movie demonstrations by Harold

<a href="http://www.trenholm.org/hmmerk/HMArtls.html">here</a>.

Hope this helps either you or someone else.

Cheers...John.

March 9, 2006

Hi Grant,

This simple answer would be to refer you to the father of cubism himself

<a href="http://www.wildframe.net/2006/03/05/711/">Picasso and his cracked

camera</a>.

Cheers...John.

March 8, 2006

New York Times Article by Andy Grundberg

<a

href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/arts/design/08parks.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/arts/design/08parks.html</a>

March 4, 2006

One of my previous posts in this thread titled "Who influenced whom"

references an essay that talks to amongst other things, the cubist influences on

the photographers Alfred Steiglitz and Paul Strand.

Although I have seen ready recognition of the influence of African sculpture

in Picasso's work I have never seen any mention specifically made of

<a href="http://www.detroitmona.com/picasso's_camera.htm">Picasso's Camera</a>

with it's cracked lens given to him by the Italian futurist Gino Severini around

1905.

"The box cameraﾒs cracked lens caused the facial plane in Picassoﾒs

photo-portraits to be broken themselves, and raised slightly on one side.

Attributes he would soon utilize and transpose to his early sketches and

preparatory drawings for the seminal LES DEMOISELLES DﾒAVIGNON."

Edward Steichen viewed the photos on a studio visit and sent several to

Alfred Steiglitz, two of which were published in Cameraworks. Steichen would

later say: "The images were like the meeting of a shepherd and a mermaid on

the trunk of a Buick.ﾔ

Cheers...John.

March 1, 2006

There is an interesting article over at findarticles.com titled:

Adams and Stieglitz: a friendship: when Ansel Adams met Alfred Steiglitz in

1933, the two photographers embarked on an enduring personal relationship that

was the most important of Adams's artistic life</a> by Sandra S. Phillips.

Sandra's writing is interesting because it talks to the influences of cubism

upon the then friends Alfred Steiglitz and Paul Strand circa. 1915.

A second article titled:

The Family of Stieglitz and Steichen - Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen's

legacy - Critical Essay</a> by Jonathan Weinberg goes to the heart of that

influence through its inference that Edward Steichen introduced Alfred Steiglitz

to modernism including the cubism of Picasso on his return from studying in

Paris to live with Stieglitz.

Sandra Phillips writes Paul Strand "...and Stieglitz were actively engaged

in applying Cubist principles to photography. As Strand stated, they employed

the camera's "complete uniqueness of means," and produced the first consciously

modern photographs, using the frame as an abstracting element..."

According to Sandra Phillips article it was this experience demonstrated by

Paul Strand's work that convinced Ansel Adams to cast off the "characteristic

of Pictorialism and become a modern photographer" along with his mentors

Strand and Stieglitz.

However, for me there's too much of the un-peopled landscape present in

Ansel's work to convince me that he ever fully cast off his pictorialist roots

in contrast to the more cultural influences present in Strand and Stieglitz.

I felt there was some added value in referencing the above articles here as a tie-in to Gary's good article.

Cheers...John.

February 28, 2006

Site's back online.

Cheers..John

February 28, 2006

My apologies but my hosting provider suffered a catastrophic hardware failure around 18hrs ago and is in the process of migrating to new hardware.

It appears that I will be off-line for another 6-12 hrs while they manage this.

I'll post here again when it's back up and running.

Cheers...John.

February 26, 2006

I had one and it was spectacular. I wrote some notes up about it here:

http://www.wildframe.net/2005/06/18/353/</a>

Cheers..John.

February 26, 2006

<a href="http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html">Online DOF Calculator</a>

If you want to get specific with regard to print size and crop ratio:

<a href="http://home.online.no/~gjon/mdof993s.xls">Not Just Another DoF

Calculator!</a> (excel spreadsheet)

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