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#1189. Week Links of Photography (09 Apr 2022)
By pascaljappy | News
This week’s newsletter is published later than usual. My apologies, I’ve not been feeling so well and am having difficulties focusing. Plus the US Masters are on and Tiger Woods is making a bold comeback, so sitting idly in front of this is more in line with my current IQ and stamina than scouring the interwebs to find interesting & intelligent things to report 😉 Nonetheless, onwards!
Ah, the joys of April Fools day …
We all love making them, and reader comments on the one published on DS filled me with joy. But falling for them is another problem. When the truth becomes evident, you feel so silly 😉 😉 Well, kudos to Hugh Brownstone, author of what is the most fun and believable joke video that I viewed this year. Few probably fell for it, but I wanted to believe it so badly, partly to feature it in this newsletter along with the title Canon Gets It! that my goodsense took a leave of absence. Ah, biases … 😉
DISCLAIMER: I haven’t had the time or focus to view any of the following posts and videos. But they all revolve around the concept of colour management. So there must be some gems in there. If you see anything cool, can you mention it for others in the comments?
And a little extra:
There’s so much to read into /r/place. So much elated creativity on one side, yet so much residual animal nature on the other. As streamers, online influencers and their communities coordinated to turn a blank page into a wall of collaborative pixel art, what we could see emerge from nothingness was a mosaic of cultures, living side by side. Along with national initiatives, such as France’s slightly cringeworthy flag, tower and heroes, attacked by Spanish troops seeking strategic alliances throughout the world with no intent of actually creating anything but only pissing on France’s work. Ego-driven destructive dick-swinging, albeit presumably light-hearted, leading to war. Sound familiar?
This reinforces my view that regional cultures are bonding agents that can coexist happily, whereas frontiers are unnatural constructs that create their own need for defense and vent the aggressivity of the more feeble-minded among our ranks.
I hesitated to share this here, and think that the videos somewhat defeat the point of the mandala-inspired beauty of the whole project. Towards the end, the only colour participants could chose was white. Noone was forced to add more pixels, yet the whole board was soon erased by a sea of white, starting from the pathetic Franco-Spanish feud bottom left corner. This shows how well the organizers understand human nature and highlights why Reddit is now the number one website on the planet.
Kudos guys, amazing work!
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War is something I will never understand. It seems to be the outcome of people whose brains boiled over when they drank too much. It’s destructive, not constructive. It’s anti, not pro. It causes pollution. Its legacy is inevitably short-lived – eventually, if not immediately. It encourages whole countries, whole races, to be nasty to each other – instead of nice. BEURK !!
Now that you’re into picking yourself up of the floor, after Brownstone’s satirical contribution – have you thought of going to see a doctor, f you’re not feeling well and having difficulty focusing? I love the idea of giving yourself a couple of bunches of flowers, but that’s palliative care, at best. Much better to get a doctor to tell you “the answer” – none of the rest of us is qualified to make such decisions. And staring at racks of wine bottles is an even worse solution.? I love the idea of giving yourself a couple of bunches of flowers, but that’s palliative care, at best. Much better to get a doctor to tell you “the answer” – none of the rest of us is qualified to make such decisions. And staring at racks of wine bottles is an even worse solution.
I’ll be back later – I’m too upset at the thought of you feeling poorly, to continue right now.
My wife’s a doctor. That side of life is pretty well covered 😉 Ah, we all get a bit ill now and then, it’s no biggie 😉 Thanks for your concern, though 🙂
Hello Pascal
First of all I hope you are feeling better. Thank you for all the links to so many subjects. I always look forward to your posts and guest photographers.
Best
Dave
Thank you so much, Dave, that’s lovely to hear 🙂 Yes, feeling much better, thank you 🙂
Great post, take care.
Having spent a great deal of my childhood playing in & around wineries, all over the place in South Australia, I am fascinated by the image you’ve captioned “Vine by me”. Where is it? And what on earth is that magnificent looking building?
I found Evan Ranft’s clip interesting – very insightful into “life in America”. Creativity that comes via that car radio antenna that he speaks about can end up being plagiarism – something new that you do, borrowed from outside? – of course trying to be “new” all the time is rather daunting anyway, I just try to be “me”, and hope that that helps to push me in new directions. I found myself wondering if Evan’s description of life in the fast line in America isn’t half the cause of his “problem” – I find it’s helpful to chill out – meditate, if you want to call it that, although I “think” pretty well continuously, except when I’m asleep.
The central problem is easy to identify – with 7.8 billion people on the planet, and lord alone knows how many of them – 2 billion, maybe? – taking photos all the time, how the hell do you ever take any that are “original”? It’s like “inventions” – Bell was actually the first to “patent” the telephone, but he certainly wasn’t the first to “invent” it – Meucci did, in Italy. Does that mean Bell copied it? – no of course it doesn’t. It’s rubbish to think it’s impossible for two people who’ve never heard of each other to have the same idea at roughly the same time – actually it’s remarkable how often that DOES happen. And as photographers, we have to live with that.
Of course none of that stops us from taking “good” photos.
I did find your recent comment on Macro interesting. Yes, to a very high degree Macro photography is about “technique” – not “creativity”. And yet . . . I’m pretty certain this guy called Pascal Jappy has posted Macro images which were “creative” on the pages of Dear Susan – yes, during “COVID lockdown” – in article “#989. (Con)fine art challenge results !” Oh – so did a lot of others – Paul Barclay, Philippe Berend, Bob Kruger, Jean-Claude Louis, Pascal Ollier (he does it regularly!), and several more.
So yes – most of the time, “technique” – tinged with imagination but perhaps in the end not fit to be tagged as “creative”. However, there are plenty of Macro shots which are truly creative, reflecting and displaying the skills of the photographers who have given them to us.
Hi Pete, thanks for the kind words. You’re right technique + imagination often result in interesting photographs.
I think the only way to be original in a world photograhed inside out is to know ourselves. Photograph what is really meaningful to us.
The building in “Vine by me” is Antinori, a huge winery in Tuscany. It really is a site to behold and also sells some gorgeous reds. A stunning place for photographers and wine lovers.
I rather fancied the results of the hyperrealism and took myself off for a walk in the village this afternoon for a hyperrealistic walk – quite enjoyed it and the results – but then again i am a supersaturated colour junkie – much to the chagrin of my editor at times.