Finding “Lotus”: Part I–Exploring a New Tool

Part 1 in a series of 5 weekly posts about discovery and the creative process

_______________________________________________________________

“For technical data – the camera was faithfully used”

                                                                                  -Minor White

There are so many technical innovations affecting our world and within the field of photography they just seem to be endless. Of course, one of the most pervasive and prolific of these innovations, as to current image making, is the smart phone and the use of the photo app.

Waiting for mom. iPhone/Hipstamatic

When I got my iPhone4, with its improved camera, one of the most popular apps available was the Hipstamatic.  I don’t remember whether it was before or after I bought it that I saw on the New York Times website where a photographer had used this app to shoot a story. It turned out that its use for this application raised quite a firestorm of comments under the photo essay.  Many considered it inappropriate to use to cover such a story.  Personally, I thought it was pretty cool and since it was more editorial than journalistic, didn’t see what the issue was.  (I had used a Holga to shoot for The Atlantic and finished the images with some very distinct computer work back in 2000.)

Could I get more Banal? iPhone/Hipstamatic App

About the same time, I was seeing more and more images posted on Facebook, and elsewhere using these apps.  Most of these would have been pretty insuffereable if it were not for the “transformation” that the selected app, often the Hipstamatic, had applied to the image. Coincidentally, I was also hearing several suggest that while the apps could make a bad photograph look better they were inappropriate for creating serious work.

Maybe?.....testing lots of contrast. iPhone/Hipstamatic

Obviously, what the apps do is apply various effects to a photograph to make them look like the output of some camera and/or process from the past—or just something the programmer thought was cool.  But the question remained “could this tool actually be used in a serious and/or creative way?”. I thought I had already seen that it could, but the question still intrigued me–especially as a tool for more personal artistic expression.  I began to semi-seriously explore its potential.

My own thought is that it really doesn’t matter what camera you use but how you see and that you use a piece of equipment in a way that exploits what it does best.  That is what determines the quality of the work done.

Bacon is always good......iPhone/Hipstamatic

At 1st, I would pull out my iPhone when I was out and maybe waiting for someone, then just shoot what I saw where I was standing. I would also make images while walking my dog in our neighborhood park.  Looking over the images I was making—and they were about as banal as those I referred to above—I discovered a couple of things about its use that I liked.  There was a unique quality to the images but there was also something more intangible about using this device that struck a chord within me.

_____________________________

Part 2 will be posted on January 30th, 2012

_____________________________

 

Ordinary Places – The Cranberry Bogs of West Virginia

West Virginia Diorama

Summer vacation plans were made to visit family back in DC but instead of flying we decided to use half of the time we had allotted to wander the backroads on the way there.

While driving through West Virginia, a detour was taken to search for the cranberry bogs.  A visitor center was found with some trails which we assumed would lead to the bogs.  Instead, these trails were apparently designed to just take one through the forest that surrounded the area.

Walking along, I came upon the scene above.  Maybe it was the way the trees were positioned and the foreground/background atmospheric change, but there was something different about this scene.   There was a quality to it that somehow reminded me of the dioramas I had seen in natural history museums in earlier years and was looking forward to seeing again when in DC.  The same quiet, contemplative mood I remembered existed here and the only thing missing was a few taxidermied animals or maybe some prehistoric people and their village.  Even the way the trail widened suggested a window display had been set for our education and enjoyment.

But when I did visit the Natural History Museum in DC, those expected quiet and contemplative dioramas had given way to what seemed a more frenetic, interactive type of exhibit.  I thought back to this place and was glad to have had the opportunity to experience it.

More Ordinary Places can be seen by clicking here.

all rights reserved © 2011 John Acurso

 

Ordinary Places–Part I

For several years now, I have been interested in examining the ordinary places around our country and have recently added a section on my website to highlight some of what I have found.

One town I discovered here in Texas, Marfa, has become a favorite detour when I am in the area.  It is home to Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation and it seems like most of the town was owned or still is by Judd or the foundation.  Although the town shrunk dramatically after the army base closed in 1945, it is still a quiet town but also has become quite popular with its relatively moderate climate and artistic community.  I always try to find time to stop and just walk around to see what I might discover.

The image above was made while just roaming the streets there.  I had just walked by this closed store and when I turned to look back saw this odd juxtaposition of the post and the stark white building, as if it were a pointer or balance to this abandoned structure.  It was one of those easy photographs to make.

all rights reserved © 2011 John Acurso

 

UNKNOWNED

This past weekend I celebrated my Birthday, it wasn’t my 29^th, but close enough I suppose.   As you would expect any photographer to do, I spent the weekend–through Tuesday–photographing.  I was working on a project but also testing some lenses–and roaming around aimlessly as I am prone to do once I get out of the city.

Over the years, one of the things I have found interesting is visiting pioneer cemeteries.  I can spend hours just reading the headstones and wondering about the lives these people must have lived and how it must have been before electricity, plumbing and, in Texas, air conditioning..  Sometimes, I find a run of infant deaths all within a short period of time and once, a whole family it seemed, 5 children, who passed sequentially about every 6 months to a year over a 3 year period and then were followed by the mother just a few months after the last one.  In this case, I couldn’t help but feel a certain sadness inside and don’t think I could ever really understand the agony that mother must have gone through.

Over the weekend, I really wasn’t interested in visiting any cemeteries although I passed one it seemed every 15-20 minutes or so.  Maybe I have gotten over the cemetery thing or maybe, with another birthday, I just feel close enough to one as it is.  Most of the names of these places I passed have left my mind, except one called Baby Head Cemetery.  I did turn around to go read the historical marker there, I mean the name was just too odd to not discover the origins.  The story seemed incomplete with Indians having killed a child on the local mountain and left the remains there—that doesn’t rate “Baby Head” in my opinion.  Maybe the tale was too gruesome to be repeated in polite society back in those days and was watered down but something just doesn’t seem right–details, I want the bloody details.  I will wait for the movie I guess.

Speaking of historical markers, I generally don’t stop to read these things when I am out like this, but on Monday I saw one regarding some war game that was played out on Texas soil in 1952.  With concerns about the cold war and nuclear attacks, apparently the government got easements to stage a massive maneuver in central Texas, Operation Longhorn—over 115,000 troops were involved.  I only read this one because it was where I had stopped to photograph.  Having never heard of this, I started to take notice of other markers I drove by to see if there was more information.   Generally, I just slowed down when I saw a sign saying there was a marker ahead and would scan the heading as I passed by, none ever said any more about the war games.  But I did follow a sign to one of these markers and was led into a cemetery that was back off the road a ways.  The cemetery appeared to still be in use but I could see those tell tale older headstones and monuments in the back and decided to go have a look since I was there.

As I walked around checking things out, I came across several headstones of a type I hadn’t seen before, those for the unknown.  At the time, I was more amused than anything with the way the headstones were inscribed.  In every way these were just sort of telling.   The image here shows 1 of 3 N’s backwards while another had 2 of 3.  My guess is that they were probably from about 1890 as they seemed to be made in a similar process to one with that date on it.  The one that was made for a client didn’t have the backward letters or alignment issues and so I do wonder if an apprentice was left to his own devices for these.

After awhile, I did start to ponder this whole “Unknown” thing.  These particular stones were placed right there along with the more magnificent sculptural headstones and not off in some corner by themselves.  It made me think that they were included in the community here and yet no one knew them.  Who were they and where did people know them? These were questions that crossed my mind–did they just drop into town and die?

While a birthday can make one wonder about their own mortality, I think I just started thinking about connections and relationships and such.  A theme that has sort of dominated my personal photography for the last several years, but this made me think in terms more personal.  Just about how important it is to have good friends and family around you.  It was great to have all those birthday wishes waiting for me when I got home.

 

circa 1890

all rights reserved © 2010 John Acurso

 

 

The Committee Solution

One of the great joys of traveling around is coming across little oddities, misfires and, well,  just crazy stuff.  These come in all forms from roadside attractions to strangely placed or designed structures to just ordinary things that leave you scratching your head.

Anyway, this summer while wandering back to DC, we (well, let’s just say someone did) decided we needed to go visit Natural Bridges Resort State Park in Kentucky.  My apologies to the states, but rarely is a State Park, centered around some natural feature, much to see really.  Let’s face it, if it was it would be a National Park, Monument, Historic Site or Scenic Area or something like that.  In fact, just to emphasize just how impressive this “natural bridge” is, the website for the park doesn’t even feature a photo of it on its main page.  (I think the tell tale indication is that word “Resort”  stuck into the title of the place)

When we got there, finally, and started towards the “Skylift” to go see the bridge, we couldn’t help but notice the speed limit sign.  Immediately, my days in corporate America flashed into my mind and those “committees” that are created to “solve” a problem. (sorry, I am in a quotation mark mode today!)  I could just feel the tension in that room where on one side the 20 mph folks and on the other the 25 mph folks sat glaring at each other and debating just how quick their kids actually were or weren’t.  Fortunately, it would seem, the 15 mph folks were off helping those other states.  Facing a deadlock that might keep them from their fried bologna sandwich luncheon (a story for later), they made the proverbial compromise and then, like all good math students, rounded up to the nearest whole number.  Now, I am sure there was a little debate as to whether the rounding should go up or down, but in the end, convention prevailed.

Without one of those digital readout speedometers, I am not sure that anyone could really know that they were doing 23 mph, however, I settled in between 20-25 and figured that was good enough–there weren’t any cops hiding behind trees to ticket those of us that did slip up to 25 now and then, so all was good.  Besides, why do they need speeding ticket revenue when they have the Skylift waiting for you at the end of the road?

 

all rights reserved © 2010 John Acurso