Askew
This weekend we spent with Richard and Jacquie on the Vineyard. We left sunny Acton and arrived in Falmouth at the ferry in otherworldly thick fog. The boat carefully inched its way out of the harbor, sped across the water, and then slowed to a crawl as the captain dodged pleasure craft and fishing boats near Edgartown. Saturday was overcast – we speculated we inhabited the only cloudy patch of land in all of New England – but that was fine because it forced Diane to abandon her water-walking, and instead we toured the art district.
I eavesdropped as Alison Shaw, an artist whose love of color may exceed my own, talked with a visitor to her gallery about horizons. Adam long ago noted my inattention to that simple rule of thumb, but I’ve since then noticed many photographers, and painters for that matter, with cocked horizons. I pointed to one of Alison’s photos and asked her under what circumstances she decides not to level hers. “If you do it,†she said, “you have to mean it.â€
Maybe I buy the intentional tilt postulate, maybe not, but there were a whole lotta others at the seashore that were neither level nor meaningful. Purist about “as taken”? Doubt it, given willful oversaturation. Pragmatist? Even if she shoots film, it ends up in Photoshop, where level is but a click or two away. Which leaves other character traits to posit …
But her abstracts are quite after my own heart, however much they use Michael’s colors. I, for one, count among the better images Mike’s closing layered stair, though.
Looks like a calm, unharried weekend. Yin to our yang.
Comment by adam — September 24, 2007 @ 7:33 am
In her colorful days, which she told me are now gone by, she used Velvia film which is notorious for its saturated colors and therefore favored by nature photographers. Anyway, she way predates Photoshop doesn’t use it to level her art.
I liked that stairway shot, too, but it does remind me of something you might have captured. And, given that we’d stumbled into an artist’s opening in that gallery, with fancily dressed folks and two official photographers, it was the only picture I had the courage to snap from inside.
Comment by michael — September 24, 2007 @ 8:17 am
I remember Velvia … And that’s one more interior shot than I would have dared, most likely …
Love many of the works in this last link, especialy that lead-in flower painting by the uniquely named Traeger diPietro.
Comment by adam — September 24, 2007 @ 8:43 am
What was level in the photo was the wee one’s hat and bucket. So from her view, she was level.
Comment by Jen — September 24, 2007 @ 11:31 am
Too much color–I’m blinded! 😉 Seriously, that artist’s studio is worth some close scrutiny for the artistic arrangement of plants, coke machines, boots, stones, etc.
I love it.
Comment by rakkity — September 24, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
“I liked that stairway shot, too, but it does remind me of something you might have captured.”
This seems like an odd thing for the photographer himself to say.
Comment by Jennifer — September 27, 2007 @ 4:13 am
But I’m an odd photographer.
I’m aware that I have a certain style and sometimes I try to veer from it, but I’m always pulled back to the same old saturated close ups, lately of people. Adam has an ability to clear humans from any scene and has always focused on light play. That’s what I think. FierceBaby can look at a hundred hundred photos and know which ones are mine and which are Adams.
Comment by michael — September 27, 2007 @ 8:14 am