I'm affraid it won't be long

[rdenney]

And even if you use software to simulate real tintypes, it takes some command of the process to achieve whatever artistic objectives one might have in simulating a tintype in the first place.

My beef with these is that the artist is claiming credit for the software's artistry, given that the artist exercises no control or decision over the software, other than simply choosing to use it.

Artists who have no concern with the technology of their medium sometimes make big mistakes. The painter Albert Ryder often covered slow-drying paints with fast-drying paints or varnishes, with the result that the surface cracked and the underlying paints bled through. That was certainly not his intentions, but I'll bet there are software simulations of the result somewhere. Yes, his artistry overcame that, but it would be nice if people could see the paintings today (or in many cases even while he was still alive) as they looked when he painted them.



Some, like this one, he might have tried to fix himself years after he painted it.



Compare these with, say, Rembrandt, whose paintings are a quarter-millenium older than Ryder's, and reflect the artist's original intentions far more closely, despite the effects of aging.



Rembrandt, of course, was deeply concerned with craft, such that his technique has become a standard of learning for painters, even those who choose to go in much different aesthetic directions.

Rick "wondering if the hipster aesthetic extends beyond 'wow, that's cool.'" Denney

[BrianShaw]

Wow, that's cool... realllly kewl!

[BrianShaw]

p.s. In real life I'm the farthest (or is that, furthest) from being a hipster than almost anyone on the face of the earth. If my wife wasn't dressing me I'd likely wear wing-tips with my plaid Bermuda shorts. But I play a hipster on the internet! ( AKA )

[Bernice Loui]

Physics Professor Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel prize in Physics for Feynman diagrams had no artistic training during his youth. One day while wandering on a beach he met an artist who was flying kite. This was the beginning of a long friendship where Physicist taught Artist physics and Artist taught Physicist Art (drawing). Both learned much from each other.

There is much that can be learned by strictly Art folks from the strictly Technical folks. Both have much to offer each other in so many ways if they listen to what each has to offer instead of reactively dig into their place of comfort.

For those who are curious about Richard Feynman's art...

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=380

Creativity and intellect can be expressed in many ways..


Bernice

[BrianShaw]

There is much that can be learned by strictly Art folks from the strictly Technical folks. Both have much to offer each other in so many ways if they listen to what each has to offer instead of reactively dig into their place of comfort.

Amen!

[John NYC]

My beef with these is that the artist is claiming credit for the software's artistry, given that the artist exercises no control or decision over the software, other than simply choosing to use it.

Rick "wondering if the hipster aesthetic extends beyond 'wow, that's cool.'" Denney

This lament by some has been hashed to DEATH as a concept in art culminating with ready mades... Many decades ago.

[Brian C. Miller]

And even if you use software to simulate real tintypes, it takes some command of the process to achieve whatever artistic objectives one might have in simulating a tintype in the first place.

My beef with these is that the artist is claiming credit for the software's artistry, given that the artist exercises no control or decision over the software, other than simply choosing to use it

.... (blah off on a tangent blah blah Albert Ryder blah blah Rembrandt blah blah) ...

Rick "wondering if the hipster aesthetic extends beyond 'wow, that's cool.'" Denney

The hipster cellphone artisté is using the equipment just as much as anybody using a digital camera which has a bunch of presets built into it. Image + filter = send to friends. Then the news media picks it up like it's the biggest thing evah. If there was a Cubist filter, they'd be using that, too. It's not about personal "vision," it's about adding a patina of originality on sharing the banality of their lives.

This past Sunday my landlord bought me dinner after I helped him with a couple of things. He photographed what he was eating, and sent it to his girlfriend. Technology enabling instant personal communication of the banal. Quentin Crisp, in The Naked Civil Servant (I have the record album), talked about literacy. Of course British and American children don't read. The first words they are taught are, "the cat sat on the mat." How droll and banal! However, in Argentina, the first words in the primer are, "I love Evita!" So of course the Argentinian children are inspired to read, because they are reading about someone who was petitioned for sainthood upon her death.

This morning I showed a couple of my coworkers the results of my 4x5 LF camera. I brought in a slide of the view outside the office kitchen window, which happens to include the Space Needle and Queen Anne neighborhood. They were awestruck. One said, "I have got to get one of these cameras for myself. I don't know what I'd do with it, but I've got to get one." Another said, "What's the point with all of the new cameras, when an old camera can do this? Is the color supposed to be better?"

People don't see excellence, so they don't know that it exists, so they don't strive for it.

[Chris Strobel]

I'm affraid it won't be long before I leave my treasured 4x5 at home on my trips to Yosemite. My digital has so much more resolution and sharpness that I don't see the need in lugging around 25-30 pounds of camera gear anymore.When I make 16x20's from my digital files there every bit as good if not better than my 4x5 negs.I'm going to Yosemite in May and will bring my 4x5 but I'm only bringing aroung 6-7 holders instead of my usual 12-15 holders.It's sad but it's the new reality.I'll miss composing the image on the ground glass and setting the fstop,shutter speed and I miss pressing the cable release.About the only thing I won't miss is people asking me "what kind of camera is that".I wonder if the digital age was around in the mid fifties would Ansel Adams had left his 8x10 at home?

Why even bother bringing a dslr to Yosemite, an iPhone and a few stitches and you've exceeded the sharpness and resolution of your T1i

[Drew Wiley]

I just get annoyed when some new media or technique is artisfied simply due to its novelty. Like back when Cibachrome was
first put on the market, everybody starting shooting subjects with bright red in them because of the way red looked on the
paper. I don't think I every printed more than three images in my entire life with a dominant red, and at one time, even
refused to participate in a group show because it was media-themed. Nowadays the digtal gadgetry itself is being promoted
as an artistic novelty, and cute tricks which are very trendy at the moment will inevitably look very passe once some new
tweak arrives. It's adolescent self-consciousness, artistically. But at the same time, there are people who have some maturity to their vision to understand that tools are just tools, and understand the importance of restraint, and don't go hog
wild every time some new toy turns up on the market.

[BrianShaw]

I get annoyed when some new media or technique is villified simply due to its novelty.