Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/12

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Photos and Art
From: George Huczek <ghuczek@sk.sympatico.ca>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 11:39:51 -0600

At 12:45 PM 12/04/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Here is a description of photographic art currently on display at The Light
>Factory in Charlotte, NC:>
>"Interested in making visible that which is audible, Erik Hanson creates
>photographic re-recordings of David Bowie albums, made by focusing the lens
>of his camera on the spot where the sound from two speakers converge and
>leaving the shutter open while playing each album from start to finish."

Good one.  Sounds like art to me.  Enough bafflegab here to con a few
gullable souls.

Here's another.  You'd have to look on p. 19 of the Mar/Apr issue of
American Photo to see the actual result. (Some great _photographs_ in the
issue, by the way, outlining the history of women photographers).  Anyway,
the one in question may have been done something like this.  Start with
daylight film and use tungsten lighting (not inherently bad, just
different). Move in really close for a tight head shot of a person.  Focus,
then rack the lens way out of focus.  Use a very slow shutter speed and
shake the camera like hell when exposing the film, and voila ... you have
art!  Looks like one of my rejects that immediately gets tossed. And this
is in the same issue as timeless classics like "Migrant Mother, Nipomo,
California" by Dorothea Lange, "American girl in Italy" by Ruth Orkin,
"Beatrice" by Julia Margaret Cameron, or "Wind tunnel construction, Fort
Peck Dam, Montana" by Margaret Bourke-White.  The artsy stuff just doesn't
cut it when you compare it to really good photographs.  Put them
side-by-side and the really good photographs just blow the other stuff away.

- -GH