safe haven for tiny formats

[Tin Can]

anthropomorphism, a nose and mouth, in a wry mood created by slanted light

but i see lots of things others don't

i was just reading about cognitive perception and shamanism

Historic Boston, May 2019

This is not a Large Format image so I am posting it in this thread, but it connects to a discussion about emotions in Your Best Photograph from the Previous Month - Critique and Discussion Encouraged

There are well-known emotions like love, fear, joy, despair - and there are sensations - which are harder to convey in words. They can be subtle and subjective.

Sometimes we sense something in the subject (or our interpretation) and wonder if it will appear in the final print and whether others will appreciate it.

Here's one of those: I dunno if I even like it. I just sensed something, you might say, and decided to experiment and see how things... developed

[Pieter]

"why is the mail slot so low on the door?"

So the mail delivery person wouldn't have to walk all the way up the steps to deliver the mail.

[Bernice Loui]

Beginnings....

Photography is much about light, shape, patterns and the great human gift of interpreting patterns into emotions and more.


Bernice

Historic Boston, May 2019

This is not a Large Format image so I am posting it in this thread, but it connects to a discussion about emotions in Your Best Photograph from the Previous Month - Critique and Discussion Encouraged

There are well-known emotions like love, fear, joy, despair - and there are sensations - which are harder to convey in words. They can be subtle and subjective.

Sometimes we sense something in the subject (or our interpretation) and wonder if it will appear in the final print and whether others will appreciate it.

Here's one of those: I dunno if I even like it. I just sensed something, you might say, and decided to experiment and see how things... developed

[Tin Can]

Right now watching PBS 'Civilizations The Second moment of Civilization. Examine the formative role of the creative imagination in the forming of humanity itself.'

'A cognitive revolution, from 30K years ago or more', their words. I suspect for 100K years we sat around a similar campfire, but now ours is a screen of light.

and a pic I just took with a cell phone and binoculars

psCell Bino by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Historic Boston, May 2019

This is not a Large Format image so I am posting it in this thread, but it connects to a discussion about emotions in Your Best Photograph from the Previous Month - Critique and Discussion Encouraged

There are well-known emotions like love, fear, joy, despair - and there are sensations - which are harder to convey in words. They can be subtle and subjective.

Sometimes we sense something in the subject (or our interpretation) and wonder if it will appear in the final print and whether others will appreciate it.

Here's one of those: I dunno if I even like it. I just sensed something, you might say, and decided to experiment and see how things... developed

I like the write up. I also like the image, it says something, but it doesn't. Reminds me of the 20's with the flappers, brothels, etc.

[Ken Lee]

Historic Boston, May 2019

"Reminds me of the 20's with the flappers, brothels, etc."



In North America most of the buildings are fairly new compared to the rest of the world so the older parts of Boston and new England which started in the 1600's have intriguing historical layers of architecture and building materials, visible in small details like doorways, lamp posts, store fronts etc.

People who live in the the "old world" are probably accustomed to these layers but for this gringo it can be exciting: one minute you're seeing something new and high-tech, the next minute you're sensing impressions of a by-gone era.

"One puts the images out there and people are free to read them anyway they want, and if they do actually read them there is communication."

[Peter Lewin]

Ken, Continuing with the discussion from the LF thread, and your "doorway #34," there were actually two themes being explored: intent and emotion. What I see in a number of your images is a distinct "intent," even if the image does not grab me emotionally. You often have prints which show a formal geometric organization, the interplay of light and dark, and above all texture and a precision of shades of grey. While neither of the last two prints you have posted in this thread appeal to me emotionally, I immediately recognize them as your work, and appreciate them as being extremely "photographic," i.e. emphasizing characteristics unique to our medium. Your attraction to displaying nuances of texture remind me of many of the sculptural works at the Naguchi Museum, where much of his work is specifically about texture, rather than form, but is successful precisely because of that.

[Ken Lee]

Ken, Continuing with the discussion from the LF thread, and your "doorway #34," there were actually two themes being explored: intent and emotion. What I see in a number of your images is a distinct "intent," even if the image does not grab me emotionally. You often have prints which show a formal geometric organization, the interplay of light and dark, and above all texture and a precision of shades of grey. While neither of the last two prints you have posted in this thread appeal to me emotionally, I immediately recognize them as your work, and appreciate them as being extremely "photographic," i.e. emphasizing characteristics unique to our medium. Your attraction to displaying nuances of texture remind me of many of the sculptural works at the Naguchi Museum, where much of his work is specifically about texture, rather than form, but is successful precisely because of that.

Thank you for insights, which are very instructive !

[paulbarden]

Made with my Nikon F and Micro-Nikkor lens. TMY at 250 ASA, processed in Xtol 1:1, Exposure information not recorded.

Magnolia virginiana

[Ken Lee]

Ken, Continuing with the discussion from the LF thread, and your "doorway #34," there were actually two themes being explored: intent and emotion. What I see in a number of your images is a distinct "intent," even if the image does not grab me emotionally. You often have prints which show a formal geometric organization, the interplay of light and dark, and above all texture and a precision of shades of grey. While neither of the last two prints you have posted in this thread appeal to me emotionally, I immediately recognize them as your work, and appreciate them as being extremely "photographic," i.e. emphasizing characteristics unique to our medium. Your attraction to displaying nuances of texture remind me of many of the sculptural works at the Naguchi Museum, where much of his work is specifically about texture, rather than form, but is successful precisely because of that.

Mirror Lake, Mount Watkins
Ansel Adams, 1925

At one end of the spectrum we find the majority of photographers, who search for an outstanding and recognizable subject and attempt to make a competent representation from the best vantage point. I consider much of Ansel Adam's work in this category: fairly objective renditions of extraordinary scenery. When it works, the photograph is like a transparent glass: we gaze through it onto the subject and savor it.

Harlan, Kentucky
Aaron Siskand, 1951

At the other end of the spectrum are photographers like Aaron Siskind whose subjects are often unrecognizable and of secondary importance at best. Instead, the elements of design are highlighted to the point where the photo takes on a beauty of it's own, in spite of the subject as it were. When this approach succeeds, we look past the subject and savor the sheer musical play of composition, textures, forms, tones, etc.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Hollywood
Edward Weston, 1939

Personally I admire photographs which function at the intersection of these two approaches, like this one by Edward Weston.

I was unfamiliar with Naguchi's work but looking online I find it a bit sterile at times (but then much of contemporary design is sterile and getting more sterile every day).

I suspect that when our own photos don't work it's often because we've been so taken by one extreme that we overlook the other: the result is that they don't appeal, as you said... "emotionally".