Still-Life Images, 2015

[Ken Lee]

This looks more like a close up to me !

You are right. Sorry it took me a while to figure out

I will post my close-ups in a different thread.

[Peter Lewin]

P. Yeti: Thanks for your comment, if not for the distance between us, and the extravagant cost of Laffite-Rothschild, I would love to share a bottle with you while we discuss photography!

Pali: Thanks, although I don't know if I agree with your "ranking" of lightbulb photographs. I liked your first (the high key exercise) a lot, and what I would have done differently in your second is adjust the framing so that you didn't cut off the base, but rather allowed some of your background to show at the bottom of the frame so that the subject "floated" a little in the frame, similar to what you did in the first picture. And personally, I thought Ken cropped too closely in his version, I liked a little more surrounding space (which isn't to say that either of us is right or wrong, merely that just about everyone has a slightly different aesthetic.)

In general, IMHO, most of our still life images are not fine art, they are closer to being exercises in lighting, framing, and the technical use of the view camera. At least that is the way I view my own. And on that basis I think you are doing as well as any of us.

[Christo.Stankulov]

Espelette
Sinar P2
Heliar 300/4.5
Moersch Tanol

[hendrik faure]

photogravure (scanned in 2 parts, sorry)

[Peter Yeti]

P. Yeti: Thanks for your comment, if not for the distance between us, and the extravagant cost of Laffite-Rothschild, I would love to share a bottle with you while we discuss photography!

...

In general, IMHO, most of our still life images are not fine art, they are closer to being exercises in lighting, framing, and the technical use of the view camera. At least that is the way I view my own. And on that basis I think you are doing as well as any of us.

Peter, I'd love to share a bottle with you and talk about photography. Actually, a less extraordinary one would do and I'll keep the Chateau Laffite in my dreams. But even more I'd love to go out shooting pictures, which I feel not doing enough lately. Btw, I come to NJ about twice a year on average and always have a Hasselblad with me.

I think you have a good point about the still life images, at least where I'm concerned. But I generally call my stuff photography rather than fine art anyway. Taking still lifes is a great way of learning seeing, arranging, lighting, framing, balancing, forming an aesthetic image. This might be the area of photography closest to painting. Most painters made tons of studies before painting a masterpiece. But they didn't post their studies on the internet like we do. Or, as Thomas Hoepker said: Two good photographs per year is a very good rate.

Peter

[Peter Yeti]

This one is amazing, Hendrik, but also a bit unsettling. That's one of the rare images to brood over.

Peter

[ndg]

photogravure (scanned in 2 parts, sorry)

Hendrik, very well-made photogravure print. It seems to be full of meaning too. To me, it seems to show a man who does not like what he sees in the mirror. Much like looking at one's life and not being happy with how it's been lived. Well done!

[Peter Lewin]

Peter, I'd love to share a bottle with you and talk about photography. Actually, a less extraordinary one would do and I'll keep the Chateau Laffite in my dreams. But even more I'd love to go out shooting pictures, which I feel not doing enough lately. Btw, I come to NJ about twice a year on average and always have a Hasselblad with me.

I think you have a good point about the still life images, at least where I'm concerned. But I generally call my stuff photography rather than fine art anyway. Taking still lifes is a great way of learning seeing, arranging, lighting, framing, balancing, forming an aesthetic image. This might be the area of photography closest to painting. Most painters made tons of studies before painting a masterpiece. But they didn't post their studies on the internet like we do. Or, as Thomas Hoepker said: Two good photographs per year is a very good rate.

Peter

Peter: First, the next time you are coming to NJ, send me a PM. My wife and I would love to have you (and a significant other or whatever) over for dinner (and wine, even if not a Lafitte), and I could even set up some sort of photo outing, I could use my Rollei 2006 if we want to both be using medium format. I lived in the UK for about 6 years, my wife worked for the French government tourist office in NY, so we could even sound "European."

But I really wanted to expand a little on my view that most still life images are closer to technical exercises than they are to art. Even when I typed that the first time, I thought that you were actually one of the exceptions, and Hendrik Faure's image just above is another. Let's step away from the concept of "art," since I also think of my own images as "photographs," I leave "art" to my daughter who majored in Art. I would say still life images fall into two groups: those which are in the tradition of the Dutch still life masters (and I put your work, Tri Tran, Mr. Faure and several others in that group) and those which are essentially studies of a singular object (my images of bottles, or a climbing hammer, some of Ken Lee's images of typewriter keyboards or rotary telephones, for example) as more in the vein of technique practice. I would have trouble articulating clearly what is going on in my own head, but it has something to do with complexity of thought, of ambiguity and meaning. In the more complex compositions, there is more room for the viewer to interpret, or add meaning to, the image. In the more simplistic, such as my image of the Lafitte Rothschild bottle, there is no such layering, just an attempt to make a pleasing image out of an object that has some meaning for me alone. So I didn't mean in any way to denigrate still life photographs. The comment was very much geared towards Pali, who posted several images of light bulbs and was looking for feedback. Since I put those in the "technical study" category, I thought that his images were very competent technical exercises. Without meaning to make you blush, your more complex set-ups come much closer to being "art."

[tangyimail]

Excellent!

Deardorff - Cooke PS945 - HP5+ 5x7" - XTOL 1:1

[plaubel]

First contactprint of a 30x40cm (12x16") negative, shot with my Reisekamera.
Russian thin layer film at 1,5 Iso, Heliar 360 wide open.
Sorry, less sharp here, but I really want to show...
Critiques are welcome.