laurentlacoste

Beautiful, may I add my voice to the club ?

I love all your series, Drew. Very creative, both formally and intrinsically. The whole scope of life, the fundamental loneliness of every human being as well as what makes us share this world together. Mom, Dad, wife, husband, children, friends, nature, city, objects, the mundane and the mysterious, your photographs show it all. The evidence of life and its mystery. What we see and what lays beyond the surface of things.

Man Ray follows Mondrian. Beautiful, Jack !

Remove those straight lines that belong to Mondrian and you'll get a Miro.

Bravo, Jack !

Check this out :

http://www.artabsolument.com/fr/default/exhibition/detail/837/Joan-Miro-peintre-poete.html

What strikes me here is the delicate movement of the little girl's dress, her attitude and the expression on her face. You really caught that 'instant decisif'. A little 19th-Century Alice in Wonderland chased by a 21st-Century monster. That fantasy-like quality is a strong point to me.

Another winning combination. Your title says it all. A beauty of a picture for those who like indulging into this kind of artwork. It's great pleasure to see your work again. 

Long time no see, Jack ! very nice color palette here, and as your title put it, great assemblage of lines and spaces. A true winner !

Jack, great hearing from you after such a long absence. It's been quite a while and I can see that the people we liked sharing our thoughts with haven't logged in for ages. Have you had any news from Linda, Kent, Laurent or Jeff recently ? I can see that Markku, Drew and a few others are still posting but what about our other friends ? Where have they gone ?

About photography, I felt less motivated and thought I had less to say. Besides, my favorite camera broke down and I stayed without a decent one for quite a while until I made up my mind and purchased the used DSLR I've been using for about a month now. I must say I'm glad to have a camera in hands again.

Thank you very much. Hope all is well on your side and I'm sure the great pixels are with you. It is always a pleasure to pay you a visit on your portfolio and see the marvels you unfold for us to see.

Happy New Year,

Laurent

Pnina, thank you. I wish you all the best too. Have a Happy New Year.

Hello, Jack. Thanks for your message. I wish you too a Merry Christmas and a very good year. I'll get back to you soon.

A beautiful picture in great light. The B&W treatment makes it a classic. Meaningful in its simplicity, but because it is also quite complex. A Photographer's photograph.

Jeff, I wish you a Happy New Year. All the best to you and loved ones for 2011.

Beautiful. I hadn't visited for quite a while but felt like leaving a few words for the old friends. I wish you a Happy New Year, Jack. All the best for 2011!

Love this one. Sober, neat, effective. The light and subdued colours support the composition in a suiting manner.

Long time no see, Jack. This is a real eye-catcher and a fine picture. Stieglitz was such a genius. What struck me was the fact that he gave up photography when he felt he had nothing more to say.

Thanks so much for the kind comments. As you can tell from the side notes, this series has been made with the Mamiya C220 square format film camera using Kodak Portra 120 film. I'd been wanting to go back to analog for quite a while but kept looking at my old cameras that stayed on a shelf at my place.  For this series I used 5 rolls of film, which as you know amount to 60 pictures in the 120 format, and was quite pleased with most of them (at least to my own standards). It's such pleasure to take all the time needed to compose, focus, measure light, DOF all manually and go to the next exposure. The slower pace middle format cameras make you adopt allows you to carefully compose your images and try not to waste film.  These are rough scans without any cropping or further PS adjustments, except for contrast.

Yes, Marrku, indeed. I've been to Berlin a couple of times so I'm quite familiar with the Buddy Bears. Funny they've travelled to Helsinki! Anyway, This Elmeri bear also seems to be a nice character that your pic presented in a flattering way. 

Jack, thank you. I just can't help being attracted to that kind of images that go unnoticed most of the time. I was seduced by this particular scene for all the reasons you've stated here, and I also liked the part of the tablecloth at the bottom of the picture that was blown by the wind.

Linda, I was immediately attracted to this pic when seeing the thumbnails on your page. I must say that I agree with Jeff a hundred per cent, but well, you already know how much I like your work, because you have that unique ability to offer a fresh view on composition and colour and tell meaningful stories that touch the mind and the soul of the viewer at the same time. The more off-balance from you, the more I like it. This image is an instant classic in the way it depicts the scene, the approach is so right in his documentary dimension that it gives great value and meaning to the image. But then again, there is your unique approach of composition, light and color that elevates your images to the status of such fine artwork .

About composing square in camera, I recently went back to analog with square format Mamiya and Rolleis that had been sleeping for too long on a shelf at my place. I'm sure you would perform wonders with these, Linda.

Linda, it is very hard to leave a comment after reading your answer to Jack's comment about the pain and sorrow your friends are enduring, but this picture really has a special quality, an accent of truth. 

Have you been scuba-diving, Amal? A beauty that is a gorgeous feast of color.

A very successful documentary image, Amal. The light, tones and colours are beautiful and the instant is just perfectly caught.