cyanatic

Lovely light and decay here. Certainly deserves more views.... but that seems to be the way of things. Cheers!

Daniel & Jack -- Thank you for your comments. I had no idea this was selected. I received an email notice related to Jack's comment. Jack -- I do miss talking to you and a number of others on here. I will try to continue to participate. Like you, I won't bemoan the current state of things. I will just try to adjust and figure out a way to get through this website more easily. I think you commented several weeks ago on another photo (don't know if it was mine our yours, Jack) regarding having discussions. I thought I commented that I was in agreement, but I may have had to log off to attend to something else. Anyway, hope to discuss more with you, Daniel, and others.

[*sigh* -- This site is so clunky. Why not have an area right underneath the photo, like the old PN, to leave and see comments. Rather than this stupid box off to the side, floating in space....sorry, rant over.]

 

This made me think, "Jack McRitchie with a dash of Stephen Shore and a soupcon of Lee Friedlander. Something about the way this is framed, and the angle, that gives life, prominence, and significance to that painted over sign. And it stands in relationship to the white building in the right background. And the shadow of the upper, unseen, part of the power pole. You've always had a gift of somehow giving life to inanimate objects -- or finding the right way to present the life to the viewer.

 

[it was very good to hear from you, I saw your comments, thank you. I am mostly active on Instagram these days. I am going to try to be more active here again -- I even posted a brief comment in a forum yesterday -- but it just seemed so much easier to move around in the old site. What troubles me here is that everything seems isolated. No sense of community or central gathering place. And, as you said, most people want to sing and not listen, but in some ways there has always been some of that here, and on other photo sharing sites as well. I'm not going to lament popular, plebeian taste...it is what it is. Regardless, it is nice to make contact with you again. You are definitely a draw for me to come here, a kindred spirit. Stay well, Jack, see you around.]

Good Lord, it is hard to get around this site anymore! I like this a lot, Jack, as well as a number of others that I have been able to view. I am so happy that you are still active, my friend!

Hi Jack -- I only recently (8/23/17) came back to PN to see if I could figure out how to upload, but more importantly, to find some of my favorite photographer friends. I got a notice that you commented. And, like you, I find this site tricky to navigate since the changeover. I miss the old days of commenting and exchange of ideas -- this new setup does not lend itself well to that anymore, unfortunately. I hope you are well. I actually spend most of my time these days on Instagram (there are a number of very good photographers on there, you just have to find them amongst all the junk) where I am stevegubinphoto. I can't even figure out anymore how to email you on this site. I will check my old emails, maybe we exchanged emails at some point. I hope you are doing well and it would be great to land at the same spot sometime and continue our dialogue and enjoying your view of the world. I am also on Facebook, though I don't put up photos there as much as I used to. Hope you are well and hope to hear from you somehow!

Marie, Jack, and Wouter  -- Thank you.  Wouter -- I actually had to look up "pluviophile"!  You are correct, though, I do strongly dislike snow and cold, but snowstorms and rainstorms can make for some interesting and different photographs.  The most mundane scenes can take on a completely different character.  I may also be a nyctophile.  ;-)

"It may be a sin to bore others but the greater sin is to bore yourself."  Classic and pithy, Jack.  I will be using this, with proper attribution, of course!  I greatly enjoyed the Winogrand talk and also came across a few others (probably the same that you have seen of him in action on the street, a bundle of nervous, fidgeting energy).  He makes more sense to me all the time.  Some people have criticized him for sounding too cryptic or simplistic, but I think he was being quite genuine.  Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas, Jack!

have you been busy lately or is it just that I am too busy dumping my crap into my portfolio and leaving without taking the time to look at the work of my friends?  You're on a hell of an impressive roll, Jack. 

Very, very nice, I think, Jack.  I don't often remark upon composition, but this is composition used masterfully, with a purpose other than for the sake of composition itself.   It is the perfect placement to tell the tale of this explorer's journey.  I really like this.  A lot. 

weird...I suddenly felt as if I am seeing an egg, close to gestation, in the center of this cluster. 

Of course this grabbed my attention. 

 

I get Carlos' suggestion (and agree that it is good to be able to feel free to make suggestions) and see it as one of those subjective decisions.  My only hesitation is that such strict framing almost points up the doll head too much.  But does that make it more powerful?  Or claustrophobic as has been said?

Ha!  Quite a lot.  Interesting English words on his sweatshirt.  "the street. And.  transmitting a..spread."  So odd.  The ephemeral human arrangements which appear for a nanosecond and are gone forever, never to be repeated.

So many lovely elements. Even someone as color-illiterate as I can see the juxtaposition and geometric pattern created by the complementary/opposing red and blue.  More surreality.  I like Lannie's reference to Eggleston.

Wow!  Powerful, striking, unusual.  And the woman behind the woman facing us!  A near perfect 90 degree angle, a vacant look, a trance.  Surreal.  Well done, Jack.

Thank you, Jack!  This is under the El tracks and I probably boosted the shadows too much.  Brings up an interesting thought regarding what we (or I) choose to share and not to share.  If I'm honest about it, I have grown tired of these hip shots while crossing a street.  This is just some people crossing the street and there is very little of interest here.  So I took it with a 21mm and was very close...so what?  So why did I post it?  I have numerous shots like this and most of them I don't bother putting up.  It's interesting that you zeroed in on this one.  I don't feel as if I'm in a slump, but I have started to become more selective and am moving toward choosing a suitable location or individuals of interest and raising the camera to my eye more.  The shots I have been truly pleased with over the last two months or so are extremely few. 

Fascinating.  A sliced up street panorama of a slice of life. The person in fur at right seems to connect us to the figure receding at left.

A fractured Stephen Shore.  This is like something I would see in a gallery.  I like your fracturing, re-piecing and experimentation Drew!

A dyptic of quantum mechanics indeed! 

Drew, Jack, and Carlos --  I did not properly finish my first thought in the post above.  My initial point was that, along with some other PN members, you guys are definitely among those with whom is would be great to converse.

Drew, Jack, and Carlos -- Sometimes you come across people on the internet that you truly truly wish you could sit down and talk with, or wander the streets with, photographing and chatting together, and then sit down in a coffeehouse with and just converse.  I am exhausted and sick of the nattering and commentary and simple-minded memes and seeking after explanations, and the arguing among those who are theoretically even on the same side. 

 

"Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think." I have seen so many variations of this quote, attributed to everyone from Walpole and Moliere, to Shakespeare and Racine.  And that is how I feel, and think, about the recent election of Donald Trump.  So many strange and unexpected things have happened that who knows what will occur between now (11/25/16) and the time he actually occupies the White House.  Still, as shocked as I may feel, I sometimes find myself laughing at the absurdity of it all.  Though he comes down on the side of a fence largely opposite to where I stand, I am amazed at the giant "Fuck you!" that has been said here. 

So while I am looking at your "new world", I meander through your portfolio and, four years later, my appreciation of this image is undiminished.

"My new world..."  Ah, yes.  Infant joy and the joy of a soul that has traveled much, seen much, been battered much, has triumphed much, yet is reduced to gaping awe and wonder, much like a child, at this miracle of our existence. 

 

I also like the way the child is clear, sharp and colorful, not seen as a reflection or through prism of a window.  And the proud older man, reflected, distorted, not quite as colorful and sharp, yet even with his mouth hidden by the camera, the eyes and cheeks alone convey the absolute unfeigned happiness of all of this.

I must assume that congratulations are in order, so, congratulations my friend and fellow life traveler!

Uniquely your work, but vaguely reminiscent of Lee Friedlander.  Nice work.

I don't know why this impacts me so powerfully, but it does.  From the moment I saw the thumbnail I felt like I have seen it before, like an iconic photograph by some master, hanging in a museum, in a famous book in a library or on a coffee table. 

 

Now comes the hard part.  Why?  What elements are at play here that cause me to think and feel that?  I think you know me well enough to know that I'm not just saying that.  It's...iconic, sad, powerful.  The tones and balance of elements as well. 

I don't know if it appears this way to anyone else (and it may be more noticeable in color) but when I first looked at this photo, it looked like a pasted collage, as if the background, the bridge girders, and the people, were all cut out from out from other photos and pasted in place.  Maybe it is the harshness of the light but it just looked very odd and fake to me even though it is the way the camera captured the scene.