Photography

Frame and Highlight

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These didn’t make it to the final cut either; but they are images that I quite like and will eventually use in another project sometime. Why wouldn’t an image I like not make the cut? Usually because something formal in the image makes it contrast with others, or loads a sequence with a type of emotional impact that could be considered manipulative in the context of the work I am making here.
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The extreme symmetry making the eye tunnel into bits and pieces of boats, continually chopped up by the architectural object in the foreground. As much as the photograph pleases a certain appetite for symmetry; it presents it with a boldness and deliberateness that contrasts with the kind of rational distance I want to maintain in order to remain true to the “new topographic” aesthetic.

Trout River NL, 2009

Trout River NL, 2009

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Making engaging photographs in the absence of light is a favourite challenge of many photographers. The ability to play with exposure and slowly, gently; light becoming a thick fluid that you allow to come into contact with the light sensitive surface. It is seductive, but ultimately quite dramatic in a very superficial way. I could not see how these could be at home with the body of work that has become “Plant”.

Steel I - Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel I – Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel II - Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel II – Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel III - Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel III – Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel IV - Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Steel IV – Isle Aux Morts NL, 2009

Da Whirl She is a-Roun’

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Horizon IV

Horizon IV :: Bay Robert’s NL, 02012

Using tools for purposes that were not necessarily considered during the design phase.

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Se servir d’un outil pour des buts imprévus par le stade du design.

Horizon III

Horizon III :: Bay Robert’s NL, 02012

Yeah, tools get designed.

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Ouais, les outils sont conçus.

Horizon II

Horizon II :: Bay Robert’s NL, 02012

There is actually a human being or a group of human beings that decide for the common masses how certain tools are handled and operated.

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De toute évidence, il y a une personne ou un groupe qui font la décision de comment la masse se servira d’un outil.

Horizon I

Horizon I :: Bay Robert’s NL, 02012

Hence the need for shift-thinkers to invent left-handed can openers and… hacking; repurposing for the gentler minded.

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Voirement, les ouvres-boîtes pour les gauchers et… les pirates; ou bien d’la récupe pour les moins agressifs.

Eye Scream

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Eye Scream

Eye Scream :: St. Petersburg FL, 02012

The election ran on forever; the potential elected carved of the same cheap Italian marble as so much tchotchke that collects minuscule flakes of dead flesh all over the world. Nope,nothing original here. But it begs the question: Would we really expect change? Could we deal with it?

Change is much like choice; it is always just over there beyond reach; a rock as Sisyphus would say. Nothing seems to come without some level of tumult, a friction of signals. This is the period of unrest, anxious manoeuvring knowing a direction should be taken but the signage is weathered, paint long since faded by the sun. Every path looks just about as unkept. Any choice will change things, but every choice offers brambles, deadfall and general muck.

     This all has very little with why I took and decided to use these photographs. I can still call them photographs can’t I? There were thunderstorms all around, a strange stereo of thunder off in various distances mixed with that interesting sound and smell of tires on wet-warm pavement. The moment called for the contrast of mixing the flash with natural light (fairly warm and dim). I knew the flag would pop like crazy, as would the ice cream cone. It was possible to get a bit of information from the sign and maintain the “glowiness” of the neon, again, the flash was useful for that.

     The images capture a certain Canadian vanity I may have that always wants to treat America as “the simulacrum“; not just Canadian I guess as I am just now recalling a text by Umberto Eco (Travel’s in Hyper Reality) that explores this idea quite eloquently. But the image are are really very tongue-in-cheek since I am very aware of this strange kind of transverse orientalism; it is more me-looking-at-myself-being-condescending-and-aloof than anything else. I always wonder how much of this come through and how much gets lost in the translation.

Home Made

Home Made :: ST. Petersburg FL, 02012