"Reveling in the auratic propensity of monochrome photographic thinking is perhaps not an unreconstructed Modernist impulse any longer..." ~ Charlotte Cotton
ummm... could somebody translate that into English for me?
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"Reveling in the auratic propensity of monochrome photographic thinking is perhaps not an unreconstructed Modernist impulse any longer..." ~ Charlotte Cotton
ummm... could somebody translate that into English for me?
"Doctor, my brain hurts!" (said in my best Monty Python voice). I was developing negs until 2 this morning, then rode home the 10 miles on my bicycle. Then off to work at 9am. I thought that perhaps it was just my tired brain that made it impossible for me to penetrate the art-talk of Ms. Cotton and pull out a clear statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer
The quotation above is a beautiful sentence. Basically, I think it means that it is now okay, even if you are a Modernist, to enjoy the quality of black and white photography.
Vaughn
Edited to add...my appologies for my previous negative statement about art historians. I think I was reacting to feelings of inadaquacies from not understanding what Ms Cotton had written. That, and a past experience of having an art historian as a boss.
Actually, in my ignorance, I looked up "auratic" in the online Cambridge, Merriam-Webster's, Encarta, and American Heritage dictionaries. None had an entry...
The way I understand her, she is basically saying that fashion goes through brief cycles and that every once in a while the old comes back with a twist and becomes new again, because inventing new things so often is sooo tiresome.
Of course, she does it in many more words to prove that she really is the sophisticate she fancies herself to be. And to prove that she really belongs to such a refined position she holds... ;)
The problem is, I don't quite see any of us here as being fashionable, so her point is more or less obsucred by all the fluff. Much less fashionistas or, God forbid, socialites for whom the apearance is of utmost importance and substance of none. I kid you not, those two ...words, for a want of better description... are frequently used in the "social" press.
Sometimes I think that parallel worlds do indeed exist, most of them in this country.
:D
What I don't get about this thread is why someone thinks that Ms. Cotton's essay is worth reading. I have read her piece twice now, and her command of the language, or rather lack of it, is trully embarrassing. She desperately needs an editor who can turn her ideas, whatever they are, into something approximating English.
A lot of words and a lot of names thrown in. I wonder if she knows any of those photographers deeply enough to know why they do what they do or if she is just speculating? The idea of the color of photography being the color of memory is pretty neat, but the rest I found confusing, especially the part about finding a "fresh" way of making photographs---it sounds contrived in light of what a photograph is as I see it---a time and place and maybe a thing taken "out" of time, crudely preserved on a fragile bit of film, glass or paper, exisitng for what purpose? Perhaps part of collective memory that is only realized post facto (Atget's stuff, as old as dirt but it is still "fresh" to my eyes!)
What a fantastic mystery! Instead we just get a list of names. Perhaps if she gave some examples then I could understand it better.
You know:"...a picture is worth a thousand..."
I am assuming the base is "aura". Why would someone use "quotidian" instead of the instead of "common" or "every-day". Art-speak. I think she likes to read her own wordage a bit too much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer
The website has potential. Its goal: "Tip of the Tongue is a project that will evolve over the course of 2007. Its aim is to find the words that explain emergent issues for photography." It looks like they will be inviting people to contribute esseys...hopefully future contributors will write not just for the art historian/SPE crowd.
Vaughn
Well, speaking in terms of what's being collected... black and white's hayday is over for now. The new trend is largescale color photographs... the old, 8 x 10 small black and white collectors have all but dissappeared.Quote:
Originally Posted by tim atherton
well - that was predictable
I wonder how do you know about that?Quote:
Originally Posted by FocusMag
BTW Anyone had ever seen "old, 8 x 10 small black and white collectors"?:confused:
truly surprised with emptiness of meaningless statements
-Mark C