Category: Criticism

How Groups Grow

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, art biz, Criticism, dye transfer2 Comments

learning means doing.

Two groups; both about dye transfer, imbibition printing — that stuff value formed from mythic difficulty, and quite a bit of obscurity.

One group supports each other.

The other group gossips.

  • the new group. smaller. more engaged
  • the old group. hoping for recovery

The older group is the one inherited from the Jim Browning Yahoo group. At one time it held possible growth. There were fans, fanatics and some accomplished practitioners. It was steeped in conservative aesthetics. that of an industrial age. steeped in Kodakery. Over time, it ossified; became pedantic or pedestrian. And died. No hope. It was revived, but not revitalized by an earnest but ineffective dabbler. He fell into the same trap as all fall. Aiming to get it all. He hasn’t gotten anything. Okay, he has Ctein’s newsletter as a regular post. This consists of “what I’m selling this month” to eat.

The other group is much smaller but has criteria for membership. You must be printing. You must not be boring. You are probably younger and practicing wider imagery. If anything, this was always the way imbibition printing was grown in the last century. Kodak never understood that. Frank and crew were too slow to learn that the Klutes had the clue.

A Book to Have Written

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, art school, coursenotes, Criticism, morning wood

We have books, on shelves and within.

Everyone who thinks does some writing, some part of writing. Everyone who has taught has written or talked enough to have written. Maybe speech to text could have done the job better.

I don’t teach; didn’t teach for long enough to become a teacher. I do talk to myself or dogs when they are around.

Because I read and pick what to read by following authors, there are a continual stream of books — small, big — deep, less so. An author/curator of currency mentioned a book, so I picked up a copy. And considering the time difference, the different decades of perspective and history, this book seems familiar. An easy going first year book of ideas, with enough annotation to keep the student moving.

It makes me feel as though I could have, or should have written it.

i wrote about process and specific photographs. That was an age that saw great separation between theory and application. I’m glad that gap has been crossed.

Photography; the Key Concepts. David Bate

His key concepts include reference material as well as interpretations. It is an example of a fine text supplement to studio principle course.

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Bare’s book has a beginning middle and end — The other text depicted is a compilation “The Education of a Photographer” Charles Traub.. Classic writings — and available as an eBook.

A small sample of the Bate’s he refactors Fired’s “Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before into:

GenreArtist
“History” PaintingJeff Wall, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Thoms Ruff
LandscapeAndreas Gursky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas Ruff, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Thomas Demand
Luc Delahaye, Stephen Shore, Candida Hofer, Jean-Marc Bustamante
PortraitureThomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Beat Streuli, Philip-Lorca diCorsa, Cindy Sherman, Rineke Dijkstra,
Luc Delahaye, Hiroshi Sugimoto
Still LifeThomas Demand, Wolfgang Tillmns, Jeff Wall
Academy Painters Photographers