Impressionist photographer?

[John Kasaian]

I don't get to see many exhibitions so I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the exhibition entitled Impressionists on the Water at The Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park is San Francisco today. I really enjoy this stuff by Monet and his contemporaries, and I was impressed by the sheer number of truly classic examples of the genre, but was astounded to find two amazing photographs---albumin silver prints actually--- by Gustave Le Gray! The Brig (1856) and The Breeching Wave (1857)
I'm no expert on albumin silver, nor the pictorial genre but it struck me that what I was seeing this afternoon, that whatever it was, was done right! Incredibly beautiful yet intriguingly so. How the sun light was captured glowing on the water is memorable.
The exhibition is comprised of painting and drawings and etchings and lithography with a few wooden models of the watercraft of the time, but only two photographs. It is certainly well worth seeing even without the photographs, it really is, but the two Le Gray pieces were an unexpected, totally delightful surprise!

http://impressionists.famsf.org/

The exhibition runs through October 13th.

[Drew Wiley]

It does sound interesting, John... I am esp fond of the great impressionist painters... but don't know if I'll have time to get over there. Getting ready for a trip or two. And most of my days off are spent in training, keeping in shape with a big pack, and bagging some nice 8x10 negs in the process. I'm over in Marin quite a bit, which seems to have it all, and is quick for me to access from home. Hope you mend and can get back to your own excursions into the hills again. My wife works in Frisco,
so doesn't typically want to head over there on weekends too, when ironically the traffic across the bridge can be much worse than even weekdays. But not long ago I went over there with her so she could complete a tidbit of paperwork, and afterwards beachcombed Ocean Beach for the afternoon, and was surprised to find
quite a few pebbles of Jadeite, just like up along certain beaches at Pt Reyes. Then I figured out the outcrop it was weathering from. Getting a good jewelry-quality piece is rare, but the ordinary bits of it still look lovely green when they're wet.

[jp]

I'd consider Heinrich Kühn's photography (particularly the autochrome stuff) pretty heavy duty impressionist.

There is impressionist style in some of the earlier pictorial stuff too (coburn, day, stieglitz, steichen)

[Emil Schildt]

we have a thread regarding sharing and discussing pictorialistic images...

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...rialism-Images

[Alan Gales]

I love Monet and impressionist paintings. I also love pictorialistic photographs.

I have attempted each of them and for me I found both a bit trying. They are definitely an art!

Wish I could see the exhibit.

[jp]

Alan, you speak of attempted as a past tense thing. Keep at it; pictorialist photography isn't easy to do well.

[Drew Wiley]

Impressionism and pictorialism aren't the same thing at all. Maybe one could get a Seurat pointillistic wannabee effect with conspicuous color film grain or a Fautxtoshop equivalent - but impressionism allows one to rearrange and recolor the subject in a way only painting can. Merely going soft focus and ethereal is not
anything but aping a painterly look. But in all such camps there was everything from genius quality work to mountain heaps of trash. It takes more than a soft focus
lens to create a Clarence White, and more than a set of pigments and brushed to produce a Manet, Monet, or Renoir. But if you're still in Frisco, John, you might
want to also take in the current Rothko/Klee etc exhibit at the Jewish Museum.

[john_6267]

I have fooled around with photos I have taken and then applied adobe photoshop filters to get an impressionist effect. It's not exactly art but it is fun. You can use Adobe's selection tools and you can also vary the strength of the filter's effect.

[Stephen Willard]

It is my belief the expressive images of AA’s work is the photographic version of impressionistic painting. Both disciplines are about recording an experience by creating images of what the artist witnessed and what his emotional reaction was to what he witnessed. Both medias accurately portray the elements of the original scene. Both medias capture the emotional state of the artists by altering the mood of the original scene by changing the light contrast and color contrast of the scene. The mood of the scene and the emotional reactions of the artist become synonymous and are merged into single statement of being.

The only difference, other then one is done by brush and the other is done by camera, is the painter can use brush strokes to add texture to further amplify his emotional state of being. The photographer, on the other hand, can exploit the optical characteristics of his lenses to create optical compositions that are distinctly unique from what most painters create and can further amplify his emotional state of being. The only painter I know of that has come close to these kinds of optical compositions created by lenses is O’keeffe who most likely was influence by Stiglitz. Examples of optical compositions are achieved by using extreme wide angle lenses. closeup lenses, or extreme telephoto lenses.

The photographer who practices pictorial or nature photography creates images that precisely replicate the original scene and instruct the viewer. They are literal interpretation of actual scene and lack any emotional content that is either expressive or impressionistic in nature. I do not consider this type of photography to be fine art because it lacks either emotional or intellectual (conceptual) content.

In particular, I consider myself to be an expressive plein air photographer. I do create expressive images of what I saw and FELT by altering the light contrast and color contrast scene to change the mood of the scene. I do NOT alter the elements of the scene. And I create my art in the field in the same manner as a plein air painter.

[SergeiR]

It is my belief the expressive images of AA’s work is the photographic version of impressionistic painting.

Sorry. No. a big, fat no.

noun
noun: Impressionism
1.
a style or movement in painting originating in France in the 1860s, characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, esp. in terms of the shifting effect of light and color.
a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.



AA & Co was denouncing pictoralists who were going after this , and not doing "accurate depiction"..