Pictorialism

After over three decades, I finally have a word for what kind of photographer I am. A pictorialist.

Pictorialism: an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.
- Encyclopædia Britannica

Some teachers and writers of photography tells us that the single most important thing the photographer has to decide is what he wants to photograph. I've long protested against that. Some of the greatest artists in photography: H. Cartier-Bressson, André Kertész, Bill Brandt, seem to not have cared very much what they happened to have in front of the camera that day, they all had a large range of subjects; whatever lent itself to an interesting picture.

Nudity in life, media, and art

What is it about nudity?, article.
"Perhaps the concern, for some, is based upon fear of the erotic. But let’s remember that modesty is learned in childhood. Likewise, shame of our bodies and discomfort with our desires. Nudity is a natural state; sexuality is a necessary one."

BigLittleWolf (a woman) has written a very insightful article there, I think, and with many excellent examples of nudity in art and photography.

VIW 3 (Various Images from the Web)

Phobic pig

A pig that's afraid of mud? That's like a Scotsman who's afraid of gold. :-)
(Warning, the video has loud music.)

Bella West photography

Found via the British Journal of Photography, I think that Bella West is a really outstanding portrait photographer.

We've been talking about composition, and here is one of the rare photographers who not only thinks and feels deliberately for compositions, but is also fabulously good at it.
Just see the black-and-white (slightly sepia) portrait of the girl here. It's deceptively simple: you might think it was like: just put a girl in front of a wall, and click the shutter. But no, it's not like that. I'll bet you lunch at the Ritz that Bella considered the outline of the form of the girl (again deceptively simple), and she considered her position in relationship to the subtle features of the wall (it's a beautiful wall too). And she considered carefully her position in relationship to the frame itself. You'll notice that she is almost centered, but not exactly, her personal space is bigger in front of her. And there is quite a lot of headroom above her, a bold choice but it makes it a completely different picture than if the frame had been tight around the subject. The girl owns the space around her, it is part of her.
It's an amazing picture.



Update: Tommy said:
Eolake, I figured it out. I've watched her slideshows several times now and it's humbling. I've taken what I have called good pictures (actually my camera takes good pictures). But, after looking at Bella's pictures I realize the difference is that I take a picture of what is in front of me and sometimes it comes out looking good. But, it's nothing that I have ever planned to capture or staged specifically or composed.
I'm beginning to understand the term a little bit more now and I have a lot to learn.
Thanks, again for sharing this photographer with us.
-

Canon EF Lens Technology

This is unfortunately not a documentary, merely a promotional fluff piece made by Canon, but if you're interested in lenses, you might find it interesting anyway.
(Many, if not most, of the amazing technologies they talk about are also to be found in lenses from other makers.)

Ladies' room

[Thanks to Terry.]

In a Chicago hospital, a gentleman had made several attempts to get into the men's restroom, but it had always been occupied.

A nurse noticed his predicament.

Sir, she said " You may use the ladies room if you promise not to touch any of the
buttons on the wall."

He did what he needed to, and as he sat there he noticed the buttons he had promised not to touch.

Each button was identified by letters: WW, WA, PP, and a red one labeled ATR.

Who would know if he touched them?

He couldn't resist.. He pushed WW. warm water was sprayed gently upon his bottom.

What a nice feeling, he thought. Men's restrooms don't have nice things like this.

Anticipating greater pleasure, he pushed the WA button. Warm air replaced the warm water, gently drying his underside.

When this stopped, he pushed the PP button. A large powder puff caressed his bottom adding a fragile scent of spring flower to this unbelievable pleasure.. The ladies restroom was more than a restroom, it is tender loving pleasure.

When the powder puff completed its pleasure, he couldn't wait to push the ATR button which he did with haste.

Next thing he knew he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital bed, and a nurse was staring down at him.

"What happened?" he exclaimed. The last thing I remember was pushing the ATR button.

"The button ATR is an Automatic Tampon Remover.. Your penis is under your pillow."

Another good camera deal

Here is another camera deal with many of the same qualities of the Canon 500D thing I just wrote about. A Panasonic G1 with two lenses. It's very compact, cutting edge technology, and high quality. And if the deal is still up (it was down for a few days), it's a really good one too. (I'm guessing the deal is so good because most people will want the GH1 model instead, which has video, but for many that's not important.)

gayness

It seems these days that being gay is a mainstream and open thing. But I think really not. Because, look at Hollywood. How many actors do we know who are openly gay? I can't think of any at all. And yet by the laws of statistics there must surely be hundreds.

I'm guessing that the belief and feeling (rightly or wrongly) in Hollywood is that the anti-gay feelings in the country are still so strong that coming out as gay is very likely to ruin your career.

The PEN story

Neutralday pointed me to this cool stop-motion commercial.

Science fiction, Canon A1000

I guess people born after 1980 take Moore's law as a given. That everything electronic gets both a lot better and a lot cheaper year after year is just a fact like there's food in the fridge and the sun rises. But I keep getting amazed.

Recently I bought a friend a Canon A1000 for an anniversary. He was very happy, and still is. He is now busy snapping all those sights he'd seen before and wished he'd had a camera.

He is really pleased with the camera, and you can't say anything to that: a few years ago, a ten-megapixel zoom-camera with image stabilization would have been pure science fiction at any price and size. Now you can buy one in pocket size for $200! It's insane.

Hell, most of the greatest photographs in history were taken with cameras with less image quality and almost none of the capabilities of this little thing. I mean, if I was not a camera fetishist and have more money than sense, this camera would be all I ever needed myself.

Campfire jump

[Thanks to Ray for the pic.] I remember the first girl I kissed. She jumped over the camp fire, so I must have done all right.