On Recognition - artlyst (Sat 27 Dec 2014)

Untitled - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
artlyst (*) writes on Recognition (*) and Vivian Maier (*):

After a lifetime in domestic servitude, secretly documenting the streets of America through 100,000 photographs, Maier had died in great old-age, and in poverty - just on the edge of global recognition - never to know that her work would even receive a glimmer of praise, or understanding.

via Vivian Maier: The Secret Photographer Gets A Retrospective In Amsterdam (*) by artlyst (*).

On Persistence and Vincent van Gogh - Timothy Standring / NY Times (Sun 28 Oct 2012)

Vincent van Gogh - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Timothy Standring on Vincent van Gogh and Persistence:

We all think he’s a genius, but he placed a lot of value on craftsmanship. When he started, he had no talent for drawing. If you look at his early drawings, they’re horrible. So how did he develop?”

The answer, Mr. Van Tilborgh said, was persistence. “If he couldn’t do it, he tried it 50 more times. He was one of those rare artists who had the energy to work through the fear of failure.

Via The Genius in us All (*) from New York Times (*).

Follow Your Own Path - David Brooks / NYT (Wed 27 Jun 2012)

"Black Abstraction" Abstraction - Georgia O'Keefe - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2012)
David Brooks makes some interesting observations (*) about growing up, locality and following your own path:

Don't try to be everyman. Don't pretend you're a member of every community you visit. Don't try to be citizens of some artificial globalized community. Go deeper into your own tradition. Call more upon the geography of your own past. Be distinct and credible. People will come.

On Black Abstraction (*) - I had known of Georgia O'Keefe through her relationship with Alfred_Stieglitz (*) (I have a book on his life, but can't remember it's title or where it is now). When I walked into the Gallery Hall with her paintings, I knew I would spend some time there. There were many colourful paintings of abstract views of flowers, desert scenes and buffalo skulls. Black Abstraction caught my gaze and I just stood in front of it and thought of many things. Maybe I thought the dark painting reflected how I felt after recent experiences.

Becoming a little abstract and self absorbed (as i do this time of the year). The path through the painting represented my journey since Jenny left us and I had become stuck (*) in this place (I had known this for some time). The little bright white dot gave me hope that there was something still inside me and all it would take was a small sign to get me on my way again. Funnily enough, it would come two days later on a Subway Train. It was such a tiny gesture (*) by a complete stranger.

Maybe the importance to me of such a tiny and simple gesture, indicated how low I had sunk in my journey in life without Jenny there beside me. I don't know really, like most things. Anyway I did like the painting and I am glad this post gave me the opportunity to put the photo here and to research it's background a little more.

To finish, I love this quote by Georgia O'Keefe on Abstraction:

Abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint.

Maybe I could say the same thing except apply it to photography, as my words seem totally inadequate to describe where I have been, what I have felt and where I think I am heading.

The Met - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Blue and Orange - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2012)

Blue - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Orange - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
The guy in the orange jumper was also on the steps of The Met (see earlier photos - follow The Met Label below).

Simple photos based on simple ideas. My kind of photography.

Hands and Gestures (3 of 3) - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Hands and Gestures (3 of 3) - The Full Frame Photo - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Note to self - get a little bit closer in scenes like this.

Hands and Gestures (2 of 3) - Detail (2 of 2) - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Hands and Gestures (2 of 3) - Detail (2 of 2) - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Not quite as compelling as the earlier photo detail (*), though it does demonstrate a lot going on with the hands and even a kiss.

The full-sized photo to follow.

Hands and Gestures (1 of 3) - Detail (1 of 2) - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Hands and Gestures (1 of 3) - Detail (1 of 2) - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Yesterday's post (*) about the Eric Kim (*) cue on gestures and hands, reminded me to look at some of my recent, yet easily forgotten, photos, in a different light.

This photo is a detail crop of a nicely framed full size photo I took on the steps of The Met (*).

I really love the lady on the left - her hands and facial expression, they make it for me. It is the center of the photo for me and there are many other compelling elements to explore nice you force yourself from her gaze.

To follow is another detail crop and the original full-size photo from which both were drawn.

I also realised that I had posted (*) about this before through a Joel Meyerowitz (*) quote, which I will repeat here ..

So the idea is to walk and watch what is happening in any crowd and see if there is an interaction.

A gesture or a hug or kiss or goodbye.

Something that is a significant gesture that makes it interesting for people to look at in a photograph.

Blurry Red - The Met / 5th Ave / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Blurry - The Met / 5th Ave / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
The following quote by Eric Kim (*) made me think of quite a few photos I took while I was away (*). They are all flawed in some way, but they have kept my attention. The above photo - taken just outside The Met (*) is just one example. Here's the quote ..

when it comes to street photograph, image quality isn’t important. If anything, having a raw and grittier image is more favorable. [Eric Kim (*)]

Might put a few more here at some stage.

The Met - 5th Ave / New York (Apr 1994 / Aug 2011)

The Met - 5th Ave / New York (Apr 1994)
The Met - 5th Ave / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
When I took this photo on my recent trip to New York, I had the top photo in mind. Cropped it to get the panorama effect.

Two Photos - New York (Aug 2011)

First Republic Bank - Red/Yellow/Green (*) - New York (Tue 16 Aug 2011)
Red and Yellow (1 of 2) (*) - 5th Ave - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Have started to print a few photos from the recent trip to New York (*) and have put them on the floor to look at and shuffle around. These two seem to talk to each other in way I had not connected until printing them.

The intersection photo is one of my favourites and it reminds me of Trent Parke's (*) famous intersection photo (*).

Fun to start relating the photos like this and will put a few more here.

Alice in Wonderland - Central Park / New York (Apr 1994/Aug 2011)

Alice in Wonderland - Central Park / New York (Apr 1994)
The above was taken on a disposable panorama format (*) 35mm Kodak camera on my last trip to New York way back in 1994.

Made sure to photograph 'Alice' on my next trip to New York, 17 years later using my little Canon S95 digital camera. Who would have thought 17 years ago that cameras would record photographs in bits and bytes and stored electronically, rather than film.

Alice in Wonderland - Central Park / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Lots of things have changed in New York and our lives, but some things will always remain the same. These two photos taken 17 years apart are proof of this for sure.

I wonder what future holds for us, particularly with regard to technology. I remember reading a computer magazine on my return flight back to Sydney in 1994, where I read for the first time about and Internet web browser called Mosaic (*), Netscape's predecessor. At the time I was a member of Compuserve, but had never ventured onto the Internet and the world wide web.

I hope it is not another 17 years before I get back New York.

An Embrace - 5th Ave / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

An Embrace - 5th Ave / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Headless (2 of 2) - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Headless (2 of 2) - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Headless (1 of 2) - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Headless (1 of 2) - The Met / New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Red and Yellow (1 of 2) - 5th Ave - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

Red and Yellow (1 of 2) - 5th Ave - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
She just stood out from the crowd and the other red handbag does not even compete.

Stepped sideways to the right just a little to get the orange and white safety pole across the intersection. Maybe it is a bit like this (*) or this (*) a couple of hours later. Definitely, one of my favourite photos from the trip - a very typical New York Street photo.

The Met - Mao (2 of 2) - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Mao (2 of 2) - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Mao (1 of 2) - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Mao (1 of 2) - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Just noticed my yellow cardiganed muse is in frame. She again compliments the portrait - this time Mao's yellow face. She also gives a sense of scale to the portrait. As always, I enjoy the late afternoon shadows of the glass topped pavilion projecting onto the scene.

The Met - Jackson Pollock - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Jackson Pollock - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Van Gogh/Yellow - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)

The Met - Van Gogh/Yellow - New York (Mon 15 Aug 2011)