This is a great example of how I use bad photos. The sandal strap photos turned out
too purple, made the skin look deathly. But when you put them against the slate green
color of the Cezanne painting the purple becomes a perfect color IMHO.
This week I am going to show you an early series of mine, one of the first where I
collaged photos onto other material. I had been focusing on photographing physical
memories that showed up on one’s body and I had done a series on tanlines earlier.
Now I focused on body impressions. These were photos I took of parts of the body
having been pressed by something. Maybe a bracelet, or a bra strap or underwear
elastic. Something that left an impression. I then had the idea of collaging those
photos on top of Impressionist paintings. The play on the idea of impressions on
bodies vs. impressions of light in paint appealed to me.
I took it to the point of making the images a collaboration between the original
impressionist artist and myself, titling the works so they included part of the
original title with my new addition and dating the work from the inception of the
original back in the 1800’s to the time I added my photos on top in the 1980s and
90s. Some fellow artists and gallery directors etc. thought that was a bit
pretentious of me, assuming I was equal to the impressionists. But I know this
much….the impressionists themselves would have enjoyed both the fun play on art and
the resulting images.
This page was filled with questions that I answered by using letter press letters (the
old fashion way, before digital, of graphic designing text with fonts). The model and
I were at the beach in Santa Cruz, California and I took close ups of her against a
cliff to collage. These were from the proof sheet that was made of the shots.
This is the fourth of a week long series on my take on photography. Go to Monday’s posting to see the series from the beginning.
Actually, I say stand too far away or too close… or too low or too high. The demon
of creativity is often the eye level shot and the ‘just right’ distant shot. Break the
plane of your own eye level, of the model/photographer comfort zone and the resulting
‘well composed’ but boring shot. If you are worrying about what someone will think,
the model or an onlooker or whoever, then go back to your house and sell your camera
because you are only going to create something that looks like someone elses work,
since you are allowing someone else to decide what you do while in the act of creating
an image.
This is the third in a week-long series on my take on Photography. Go to Monday’s posting to see it from the beginning.
The rule is to get the whole face in the frame, the whole person, everything perfect.
But my rule is that that rule sucks. Are their times to do that? Sure. But for
Christ’s sake (and everyone else’s) don’t be a slave to the perfect shot. Try
getting the persons face just partially in the frame with most of the image being a
background or something else. Try working with angles and composition in an abstract
way instead of worrying so much about the subject matter being perfectly upright.
Here is the important thing though. Don’t think every experiment is just so cute and
precious that you just have to show it to the world. Remember, chances are every
experiment you are attempting a lot of other people have tried it as well. So go look
around, see what other people have done. Be self-critical but NOT self-condemning.
There is a BIG difference. Being Self-critical means you evaluate and look honestly
wat what you have done in context of your own work and others. Self-condemning means
you deride yourself for not being perfect or more like someone else, etc. It is
boring and selfish and oh so last century to wallow in that. Get over it.
This is the second in a week long series on my take on photography. Go to Monday’s posting to see the series from the beginning.
Whatever you do, LEARN what your camera can do! Do not brag about ‘Oh, I don’t know
how to do that’ or ‘Yea, I don’t read manuals’. Both are excuses masking laziness or
fear. Read, practice, goof off, experiment. But for God’s sake (and anyone else’s)
don’t put a stop sign in your head just because you are afraid. And don’t think that
taking bad photos is something to avoid. Take the photo, dag nabbit! How else will you
know what is good or not? Do dancers wait until they are perfect to dance? No, they
practice knowing they are going to make mistakes and fail. Do the same.
Every day this week I am going to post a page from this book. I found it back in the
80s. It is a hobby book for young children, helping them learn how to take photos.
At the time I wasn’t a big believer in all the ‘rules’ of photography (I am still
not)and appropriated it by putting my own ‘bad’ photographs over the photos in the
book. It was my way of playing with the ideas of ‘good photography. Come back every day all week to learn my way of taking a good photo!
This book was exhibited in an exhibition entitled ‘children’s toys’ at the Young Gallery in Saratoga, California in the early 90s.