Camera Consciousness… Tilt / Pan / Shift

From the prolific posting over on Conscientious – I managed to catch a glimpse of work by Jan Stradtmann - which is quite nice.

From the series “Sprotta” by Jan Stradtmann

In particular I was drawn to the series “Sprotta”. It is refreshing (and yet perhaps too much explanation) to read the artists statement:

“I stayed for four months in the East German village Sprotta. A world that seems full of harmony and domestic activity was questioned on a subtle way by me, the photographer. I was stimulated by the theme of a world that seems very much in a proper state, where everyone has his or her place and duty. The shown pictures appeal to the fantasy of the observer and leave enough space for the imagination. So there is the analytic moment in the foreground. I get in contact with the world, organize it and formulate the result in a picture. As an author I hold myself back and report about people. This is the result of an own fiction, a construction about life which I tried to display with its human abyss. With a small distracting moment the pictures become a surreal tilt that initiates thinking about it. I move between the line of documentation and construction in this way of photographic presentation. The protagonists act unreal and like a freeze image in a movie. Sprotta pauses for a moment and becomes in the verification of its own existence a symbol of a country that manifests itself in its non representation of anxieties, dreams and wishes.”

I say it is refreshing because the artist clearly lays out the consciousness of the photographs. Too much explanation can however can kill the experience of discovery when looking… it is a delicate balance.

Still – very beautiful subtle images.

Images from “To Combine Things Together” by Jan Stradtmann.

The other series that is ongoing that caught my eye is simply “To Combine things Together” which I find very subtle and rich – I come away with a heighten awareness of timing and position… wishing I could see the next event, or shift my feet a bit to see a little more – nice and titillating. The manipulation of space and time – shifting and compression in the photograph is something that is very wonderful to compare.

…examining the threshold at which ordinary visibility ends and perception begins ….

A visit to River Mile 146.1 along the Columbia River

The Columbia River and Gorge, a dam and a fish…

Fish, Bonneville Dam, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon – Matt Niebuhr

I have to admit – I’m a big fan of most renewable energy resources – the trick is to find the balance – is it really a question of offsets?

…examining the threshold at which ordinary visibility ends and perception begins ….

Understanding the "mental model"….

I came across this first image below from Gallery Hopper - regarding some work and an interview with Paolo Ventura over on FSTOP online – and a comparison came to mind thinking about how different artists approach the topic of “reality” or “ir-reality” in the nature of photographs. Both artist depict (illustrate?) staged events and fabricated models.

“The home of the poet GV”

Paolo Ventura/ HASTED HUNT Gallery NYC

Ventura - is “first an image-maker” in the sense that he creates sets or “models” that he apparently personally fabricates to a great level of detail, then carefully selects a viewpoint and “color of the air” in order to fabricate an image – the end product is a photograph depicting a scene. The work has a certain cinematic feel – very rich in detail and mood.

Police SWAT, camouflage.

“Terror Town”, Playas Training Center, NM.

Paul Shambroom

Compare this to some of the work of Paul Shambroom, in his SECURITY SERIES. Here a sort of inverse situation is presented in comparison to Ventura’s images. Particularly, the staged government training of “first responders” in staged emergency situations is interesting to consider. Both are all very real, on the one hand – yet also staged at a completely different scale. Shambroom, rather than creating a “ir-reality” finds one that actually exists – already. I find it interesting though that in the “real world” of prints – Shambroom chooses to present the images almost to full size scale printed on canvas which tampers with the surface of the photo – almost as if it is a painting and with color tones and surfaces treated more like a painting might be treated with color and even with a varnished finish. For me, this keeps the question of “is it real or not” all the more interesting…. One chooses to fabricate images based upon a personal mental model, and the other finds a kind of fictional model that exists already – both of which present images that are quite powerful and unusual in a tricky sort of way.

This leaves me thinking that the fruitful question is not whether or a photograph is “staged” – all photographs are already staged to a greater or lesser degree – but what matters more importantly is in my opinion the “content” of the image. Is it strong enough to trigger a response from the viewer?

More discussion / thoughts / viewpoints on this – as well as many other examples can be found here, here… and here….

…examining the threshold at which ordinary visibility ends and perception begins ….