Dirk Rösler's 'Merry House' Photobook

[tim atherton]

I haven't seen any reference to this on here? but list member Dirk Rösler (he of the Megaperls site which makes weird Japanese photo stuff available) has a funky book he's put out.

Not LF, but cool anyway.

From the Online Photographer (http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2007/09/merry-house.html)

and also http://www.unicircuits.com/?cat=13

[Tim Hyde]

Hey, Tim--I have bought a lot of Velvia 5x7 from Dirk on this site, and I guess my wife would agree that it's "weird Japanese stuff," but I've tried to persuade her otherwise.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

So is it cool because it has ordinary pictures....figures you would say that.....

[Greg Lockrey]

WOW...these remind me of an art class assignment in college where we had to sling our cameras over our shoulders and randomly press the shutter without looking at the subject. Some really cool images came out of doing this. :)

[Dirk Rösler]

Hey, thanks for mentioning Tim and for looking all others. Yes, it's me and my 'first book'. Wouldn't have thought it gets that much attention, but who am I to complain.

Next one will be a large format book, hopefully. Working on it at the moment. As it stands now it will not feature grand landscapes in fine LF detail and extended tonality.

Interesting to hear the attribute 'ordinary pictures'. What makes you say that? Have you been to Japan to be able to judge or is it because I said so myself in the text? Also, why associate the pics with randomness? These are all carefully composed, actually. Just curious what makes people say that. It's all just a game, you know.

[tim atherton]

Funny, I can stay away from your threads, you can't seem to stay away from mine....haven't you learned by now that what you think, your opinon or what you deem as your eciclopedic knowledge of photography and all things under the universe is one of the million things I don't give a shit about?.....


So is it cool because it has ordinary pictures....figures you would say that.....

Ha ha ha - apparently you can't and you do...:rolleyes:

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Ha ha ha - apparently you can't and you do...:rolleyes:

tit for tat....moron..

[Dirk Rösler]

Hey Jorge, you better lighten up a little bit. Just checking your site, I see journal entries called "Soulless photography", "Mediocrity, the goal of digital photgraphy" and "Photoshop, the death of photography as we knew it".

How about thinking about something positive once in a while? Makes life more fun, y'know :)

[tim atherton]

tit for tat....moron..

ahh - that's so adult of you

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

ahh - that's so adult of you

glad you think so... ;)

[Oren Grad]

It's very clever mimicry of a genre that's well represented on the Japanese photographic scene - definitely brought a smile. Kudos, Dirk... :)

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Hey Jorge, you better lighten up a little bit. Just checking your site, I see journal entries called "Soulless photography", "Mediocrity, the goal of digital photgraphy" and "Photoshop, the death of photography as we knew it".

How about thinking about something positive once in a while? Makes life more fun, y'know :)

What makes you think I am not having fun?....

[davidb]

This is pretty sad.

[tim atherton]

Hey, Tim--I have bought a lot of Velvia 5x7 from Dirk on this site, and I guess my wife would agree that it's "weird Japanese stuff," but I've tried to persuade her otherwise.

actually, I was thinking more of the "pantyhose" film dryer... :)

http://www.unicircuits.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=35

[Greg Lockrey]

Also, why associate the pics with randomness? These are all carefully composed, actually. Just curious what makes people say that. It's all just a game, you know.

I am sure they are very carefully composed, but what is wrong with randomness? I was merely telling of an experiment that we did in college that was taught by an artist who felt that all images made by a camera were somehow "composed" automatically due to the framing by the film format itself. Your images are very similar to that result. I like your series, btw. A lot of art for me is about how to fill the page and not so much what's on it.

[Dirk Rösler]

Thanks Greg. There is absolutely nothing wrong with randomness. Quite the contrary. Or shall we rather say allowing room for positive surprises to enter the photographic process. At the moment I am trying to figure out what this means for my LF photography where a lot of the process just by practical nature is very rigid and formal (but probably doesn't have to, let's see).

But there seems quite a bit of fear around randomness because some great artists or their egos would feel rather uncomfortable to admit that their pictures are created with the help of randomness. So they work technique to the max and argue that a great merit of their work is they're in total control, of the creative process, the craft, materials, the composition, the tonality, colours etc. So part of the challenge, as photographer and person, is letting go of control in some form or another - at the right time and place and leverage the power of the unknown.

[Greg Lockrey]

I'm an artist with no ego :rolleyes: or shame either. It is about the game, isn't it? One of my more successful pieces happens to be a macro photo of my watercolor palate. Talk about randomness, but again it's more about how the page was filled rather than what filled it. And the ladies seem to like it too.;)

[Marko]

Hey Jorge, you better lighten up a little bit. Just checking your site, I see journal entries called "Soulless photography", "Mediocrity, the goal of digital photgraphy" and "Photoshop, the death of photography as we knew it".

How about thinking about something positive once in a while? Makes life more fun, y'know :)

Dirk,

Don't lose any sleep over it - some people become big by making others feel better, petty people can feel big only when they make others feel smaller. It works great for the former, but it only makes the latter smaller still. And louder as a result.

I like your photos and I am going to buy the book. That should make both of us smile, at least a bit more than before. :)

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

It works great for the former, but it only makes the latter smaller still. And louder as a result.

And some people are too small to beguin with....

[tim atherton]

Hey Jorge, you better lighten up a little bit. Just checking your site, I see journal entries called "Soulless photography", "Mediocrity, the goal of digital photgraphy"

I think you'll find those are the galleries Dirk... ;)

[Tim Hyde]

"I think you'll find those are the galleries Dirk..."

Not particularly nice, Tim, but gut-splitting funny.

[tim atherton]

nah - it's pretty mild compared to the usual personal vitriol he gleefully directs towards people's work... just wait and see :)

[paulr]

Thanks Greg. There is absolutely nothing wrong with randomness. Quite the contrary. Or shall we rather say allowing room for positive surprises to enter the photographic process ... So part of the challenge, as photographer and person, is letting go of control in some form or another - at the right time and place and leverage the power of the unknown.

"I only wanted Uncle Vern standing by his new car (a Hudson) on a clear day. I got him and the car. I also got a bit of Aunt Mary’s laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on a fence, and a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and seventy-eight trees and a million pebbles in the driveway and more. It’s a generous medium, photography."

--Lee Friedlander

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

I think you'll find those are the galleries Dirk... ;)

Thanks Tim! this is a compliment when it comes from someone whose talent for bullshit is greater than that for photography.

[tim atherton]

actually, a little while ago I realised that Jorge is either a holgoram, or the software side of an android that QT is developing in his research lab and he's using us as his testing ground

It's actually quite easy to study how it will react in certain circumstance - especially if you use particular keywords.

The problem is, like all programmers, the creator was a little lazy, so he repeated code that seemed to work - which is why you get only slight variations of the same oft repeated response to widely differing questions

Also, it's adaptive, but occasionally not quickly enough - it becomes involved in a set of responses back and forth that move it outside the parameters that the programmer never envisioned, so eventually it's replies/responses become more and more nonsensical until they figure they have to shut it down, tweak the software a bit and re-boot.

Maybe one day they'll get it right... though Jorge MKIV will never be quite up to to being Lt. Data

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Still better than one who creates multiple users to argue with himself and provide "support" to his BS,

[tim atherton]

aha - absolutely predictable.

I could come up with a list of what his code will prompt him to say and do next...

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

aha - absolutely predictable.

I could come up with a list of what his code will prompt him to say and do next...

You are not that smart.....

[tim atherton]

hmm - possibly - that was number 2 on the list, not number 1

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

hmm - possibly - that was number 2 on the list, not number 1

Hmmm...so if you are not that smart is number two, what is number one? that you are a schmuck... ;)

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Ahhh...no, sorry, numebr one must be you are a wannabe photographer....yeah...that must be it...

[Miguel Curbelo]

Tim please do not get drawn into this any further.

[davidb]

Take it somewhere else you guys.

Tim, your intentions were good but...