Re: [Leica] Bokeh Nokeh

[Mikiro <arbos@silva.net>]

on 26/8/00 6:03 PM, Dan Post at dpost@triad.rr.com wrote:

> I am sure that ere must be a cultural aspect to bokeh; the Japanese- in a
> land where even police officers are trained, not only in police techniques,
> but even in the ancient art of flower arranging, that there must be a
> cultural artifact that became important when photography was taken up by the
> Japanese!
> In fact, the whole oriental concept of Yin-Yang, no doubt must be a part of
> even photography! The positive and the negative- not just in the literal
> meaning, but in a photograph, I am sure there is a negative aspect that
> balances the 'positive'- that is the infocus and the out of focus must be in
> balance, and so to keep the out of focus portion quantifiable, then they
> come up with the concept of BOKEH! Is that too simplistic?
> I don't know- I don't discount bokeh- it just doesn't figure in the 'zen' of
> my photography, but it is an interesting concept to know about if you want
> to understand the ideas behind some other photographer's images. I usually
> don't disparage an image, even if it grates on my persaonal sensabilities- I
> rather try to place it in the context of what the artist was trying to
> express- what he saw in the picture (or, her as it might be!)
> Sure- for me bokeh is something like hokum- I don't think about it, unless I
> am looking as someone else's work, and it helps me see what they wanted me
> to see!
snip

Dan- I have a surprising book.  The title is "Physiognomy of Lenses" perhaps
impossible to translate it into English).  The authour is a famous
professional photographer with much influence in Japan.  He evaluates
various vintage lenses (many of them are Leica lenses) in terms of  many
aspects of image characters.  Bokeh is only one of them (unfortunately I do
not have time to elaborate on them).  His evaluations are subjective and
qualitative but based on his 50-year-long experience as a professional
photographer.  This book is a nonsense to some of you but is enjoyable to
me.  The authour says that lens characters are just like those of paints,
brushes, and canvas for painters (Painters do select their equipment
depending on their aims).  This "art" must be cultural, because I have never
seen such a review of lenses in the Occident.

MIKIRO
http://arbos.silva.net