Angels and Demons

I can not believe it has been almost three months since I last made a post. So Happy Belated New Year, to you my 12 followers. I hope the new year has been good to you thus far. Spring is just around the corner, and it is only a week until we spring ahead our clocks.

I have to admit the year has been off to a rough start for me in some aspects. I have enjoyed the mild winter we experienced, but the lack of sun has certainly created a bit of a funk for me. I did head out with camera in hand a few times, but found I was coming home without taking a single shot. I guess the walk and fresh air was a benefit, but I seemed to lack inspiration.

Not to say I haven't used my camera at all. I have used it quite a bit for work reasons. I work for a designer who owns a shop in the Summerhill district of Toronto and I have been busy taking all the photos for the business postcards, facebook pages, and some for the website. Mostly commercial images of products. I don't mind doing it, and I hope to develop some skills with interior lighting, and I still have a wide angle lens on my wish list for interior shots.

I recently watched the movie Angels and Demons with Tom Hanks for the second time. I also have the movie soundtrack on my i Pod. The movie inspired me to head out and take more photos with the intent of turning them into black and whites that I could then print and frame and feature in the store I work in. Did I mention that I have been selling my photos in the store? Well, now you know. Mostly black and whites framed in a simple black wooden frame. Anyways, I decided to play the soundtrack to the movie, and it seemed to naturally lead me to the many churches downtown. It wasn't long before I was feeling good about the shoot, and felt back in my game. Once again, history, architecture, and in this case music helped bring me out of my rut, and feel good about my hobby. I have asked Hugh to include a selected piece from the soundtrack to get you in the same state of mind I was in while you look at these photos....

Notes: The sound clip starts off softly and then builds in volume. You can see the entire set of photos on my facebook page. And the shop I work in is called "Jamie Alexander". There is also a page on facebook for that.

Enjoy!!

iPhone images..

It was not too long ago when I was doing research for the play I was collaborating on that I read that the iPhone had become the number one source of images being downloaded on flickr. After doing a little more research into the many, many thousands(?) of applications one can use on their phone to create interesting images I have to admit I was a little more then curious.

Lucky me, I received a new iPhone for my birthday shortly after this discovery. Now....as my friends know, I rarely use the phone for its intended purposes, but I have come to love the few camera applications I have had the time to explore. If for no other reason, they are fun to experiment with. Granted, I am still guilty of trying to maintain good composition, but the alterations you can make are endless. Remember when I said I wanted to keep my images as natural as possible? Well, with my Nikon, I still do. So I'm not a total sell out. Am I?

Anyways, here are some random photos I have taken on my iPhone and then altered through one program or another.

Enjoy.

"The Drama of Objects"

 (I confess I am playing catch up with some of my posts!)

 

 

In August of 2011, I attended the Art Gallery of Ontario's exhibition "Abstract Expressionism" and while I knew there would be painting and sculpture to view, I was not prepared to see photography. I don't think one thinks of photography when they think of the Abstract Expressionism period.

Needless to say, I was stopped in my tracks when I came across the works of Aaron Siskind. (1903-1991) Siskind, like myself began his foray into photography at a later age. He was given a camera in 1930 as a wedding gift, and began taking photos on his honeymoon.

In the early 1940's he increasingly started creating abstract photos of forgotten and discarded items, facades, graffiti,and isolated figures. Like myself, he was drawn to the things that are abstract in our environment, lines, shapes and texture.

 

A major difference of course is that he was using black and white film, where as today I am using a digital camera. In his 1945 essay "The Drama of Objects" he asked the viewer when looking at his work to "Move on objects with your eye straight on, to the left, around to the right. Watch them grow large as you approach, group and regroup themselves as you shift your position. Relationships gradually emerge and sometimes assume themselves with finality. And that's your picture."

I was inspired to once again go back to my earliest group of photographs that were taken at a time when I had done little research or exposure to any of the 'greats' and was just learning the ins and outs of my camera. I then took it one step further, and keeping in mind his quote from the essay, removed all the colour from my images so that it is only the texture, lines, and patterns that you now see.

I was immediately taken back by how much the colour had played into my original emotional reading of the photograph, and now I have to re look, re think about these images taken from the streets of Toronto. At first glance, one might overlook them and write them off as boring. But if you do as Siskind asks and approach the images from different viewing points, you may find that the image becomes more layered in emotions.

Finally, I want to end these notes with another quote from the Abstract Expressionist painter Adolph Gottlier:

" I frequently hear the question "What do these pictures mean?" That is simply the wrong question. Visual images do not have to conform to either verbal thinking, or optical facts. A better question would be "Do these images convey any emotional truth?"

 

***The last three abstract photos are Siskands.***

Still Life photos...

I have always loved images of Still Life. I remember one particular framed image of a a still life in my Grandparents home. It was a print of a bowl of apples. It was very simple with some of the apples in the bowl and a couple sitting outside of it. I am sure most of you have, or at least remember a home that had a still life image in it somewhere.

What I like most about them will come to no surprise to most of you. If you look at the examples I have posted of some well known still life paintings, they all speak to my love of dark, rich, moody colours. The joy about still lifes are that they appear simple but yet are complex in the way they are telling a story. Often they play with senses...items that bring forth memories of smells, or tastes. Or they play with your emotions, not only through the item being depicted, but in the way they are represented through light. Plain backgrounds allow the items to stand, and speak for themselves.

Fast forward to today, and still lifes are still alive and well and have been given a new outlet in the form of photography. A friend of mine who lives in France just had his first gallery showing of his still life work. His work is simply put...Stunning. I have decided to explore this aspect of photography myself, and hope some day I can come close to his talent.

For now, I will just share some of my favorite still lifes I have taken thus far. I'm sure this will be a lesson in before and after, so stay tuned.