Ahae - Through my window

[cps]

I stumbled across this exhibit at Grand Central Terminal in New York last week and thought I'd share:

http://www.newessentialgreenliving.com/2011/08/ahaes-through-my-window-shows-how-photo.html

What caught my eye is that the artist is claimed to have shot the better part of a million (yes, six zeros) images in two years - all mostly shot through a single window in his house in Korea.

Sounds antithetical to the spirit of the work of folks who habit these forums, right? Yes, but I found his inspiration for this work oddly familiar: the patient dedicated study of a subject that others might pass by, a tremendous focus on detail, a care for his surroundings and documenting them, revealing the passage of time, etc. I found it interesting to think that the things that traditionally motivate LF photographers to slow down and study a scene for hours on the ground glass and expose perhaps just a choice few sheets of film also motivated Ahae. He just takes that motivation and runs in exactly the opposite technical direction.

Personally I found the images themselves weren't particularly compelling, as if they really are just plucked from a stream of images taken at the rate of hundreds per hour. But, it certainly takes an extreme dedication (that few of us are likely to ever muster for anything) to do what he did.

Chris

[dperez]

It seems improbable, but I can believe it. A couple weeks ago I was setting up my 4x5 near North Lake outside of Bishop, CA. This older gentleman came and stood next to me, planted his tripod legs down, took grip of his camera, focused finely, then locked his ball head down. Then for the next five minutes I heard in rapid succession:

"click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click......"

At first I thought, "Okay he's bracketing," then I figured, "Ahh, one of those HDR extremists," but as he kept on and on, I just wondered what the hell he was doing. I never did ask him.

[John Kasaian]

It seems improbable, but I can believe it. A couple weeks ago I was setting up my 4x5 near North Lake outside of Bishop, CA. This older gentleman came and stood next to me, planted his tripod legs down, took grip of his camera, focused finely, then locked his ball head down. Then for the next five minutes I heard in rapid succession:

"click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click......"

At first I thought, "Okay he's bracketing," then I figured, "Ahh, one of those HDR extremists," but as he kept on and on, I just wondered what the hell he was doing. I never did ask him.

making a motion picture?

[Tom J McDonald]

It seems improbable, but I can believe it. A couple weeks ago I was setting up my 4x5 near North Lake outside of Bishop, CA. This older gentleman came and stood next to me, planted his tripod legs down, took grip of his camera, focused finely, then locked his ball head down. Then for the next five minutes I heard in rapid succession:

"click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click......"

At first I thought, "Okay he's bracketing," then I figured, "Ahh, one of those HDR extremists," but as he kept on and on, I just wondered what the hell he was doing. I never did ask him.

Coulda been his teeth chattering.

[Kerik Kouklis]

Time lapse?

[Harley Goldman]

Time lapse?

Brain lapse photography?

[Robert Oliver]

that's funny!


Brain lapse photography?

[Drew Wiley]

You should have converted him to 8x10. With that style of shooting, a single customer
could double the world damand for both sheet film and holders.

[ROL]

This older gentleman came and stood next to me, planted his tripod legs down, took grip of his camera...

I don't get it. Why, given the circumstance, do you refer to him as a "gentleman"?

[dperez]

Yes, but could he keep up the same frame rate?


You should have converted him to 8x10. With that style of shooting, a single customer
could double the world damand for both sheet film and holders.

[r_a_feldman]

Eugene Smith shot almost 17,000 images in his Pittsburgh project and about 40,000 images from 1957 to 1965 in and out of his New York loft at 821 Sixth Avenue. Some classic images came from those projects. For him, it was not "spray and pray" shooting, but an obsessive drive to get images that protrayed a truth about the subject.

[Richard M. Coda]

Not only that, looks like he printed them WAY too large. And some face mounted on plexi, too... that must have cost a fortune.

[ghostcount]

...What caught my eye is that the artist is claimed to have shot the better part of a million (yes, six zeros) images in two years - all mostly shot through a single window in his house in Korea...

60 secs x 60 min x 24 hours x 365 days x 2 years = 63,072,000 seconds

63,072,000 seconds / 1,000,000 pictures = 63.072 seconds per picture

So without sleep, and he clicks a picture a minutes for 2 years - I think its do-able :rolleyes: (hahaha....)

Click, click, click, click,....

[Alan Gales]

An average of 2000 to 4000 images a day. Huh?

[E. von Hoegh]

I wonder if that was all on one camera?