An article from Mike Le Fevre on the irony of two photos, with some musing in-between:

It’s funny how things change, a few years ago I generally had a low impression of artists- through the nature of them being embedded in various small minded cliques and scenes. But over time I’ve come to appreciate the idea of individual artistic expression, the individual pursuit of photographic satisfaction. Which comes down to us, when we press that shutter button after making choices and feeling motivation. The light/latent image at that moment is captured. Making art is action.

Like Mugs/Jes’ shot here:

daydream by mugley.

About three months ago I went into the city by myself on a photowalk. I wanted to see if I could do something different with the composition of what I call building upskirt shots – what I didn’t know. Here in Melbourne we have some masters of this genre like Mugs/Jes and Ziz etc… I took along a Rolleicord Vb for the detail in the large neg, and some Kodak 400VC for some vivid colour. I started by looking up and soon noticed all the poles and street lights and wires that festoon the urban sky. The interactions they formed with buildings was interesting. For instance some street lights composed on the diagonal were like piers in the sky. My best shot from that day was this one:

Deco 2 by silvermiketrate.

Note – the 400VC didn’t turn out that punchy. As soon as you introduce a scanner into the imaging pathway, the difference between films isn’t as great as I used to think- scanning technique is more important. I’m not good at scanning.

Art is also about results. I think getting good results involves preparation and focus and making opportunities i.e. placing yourself at the possible decisive moments with the tools/experience/mindset necessary to be successful. It doesn’t always work out, but it definitely won’t if you’re not proactive- unless you’ve got a group of model friends.

Lucian recently pointed out to me the importance of the other people that influence/get us there: “Re art group / individual. Yes, the art object itself is distinct from the group interaction, but I certainly would not say separate. In many salons and movements the art is fueled by the group interaction and/or the social circumstances (eg. Der Blau Rider). Also, words, interrelations, are not nothing, not uncreative. They produce a dynamic, an atmosphere, a medium of communication, a way of looking at the world.”

I didn’t entirely agree with her at the time. I had been thinking about some group dynamic effects though, like one related to not taking shots i.e. we all take a proportion of crappy shots, and sometimes we have an inkling when we’re about to take a shot, that it’s not going to be a good one – that they’re aren’t enough artistic possibilities in the shot. When that inkling happens I’ve started considering- would this end up in an Unsensored exhibition or would one of my friend’s hang it on a wall? The answer is usually no, so I haven’t taken the shot.

I like images that evoke something- a memory or a story telling moment. Sometimes they can be accidents of mood that we didn’t aim for when composing, that have come about through the film and lens choice we used. But I think it’s an unrealistic expectation that a good shot must engender an emotional reaction. Evoking is possible, emoting is very rare – especially as we have become desensitised living in an image saturated world.

The other day I got a notification on my home page because I had commented on one of Matt’s photos nine months ago:

On by fotodudenz.

It was an ironic moment. I had no conscious recollection of Matt’s shot. I wonder how many images from our contacts six months ago we do remember? In my quest to be different I’d ended up being similar – like many an alternative.