It's Halloween eve, the trick or treaters are just starting to knock, and I'm downstairs waiting & wandering around in flickrland. Just happened across this one by IrenaS, and it seems appropriate for tonight. Her photostream is superb and worth taking a look. She posts high res originals, so you can really appreciate the beauty of her work in detail.
31 October 2006
30 October 2006
marikina 8 1006 copy, by myklmabalay
My favorite of the 500 Flickr Interestingness images for 28 October 2006. I don't have anything else to say about this that the image doesn't say already.
29 October 2006
untitled, by a_v_anna
Another favorite - a powerful image also worth looking at large. Captured by a young Russian photographer from Moscow.
086, by AvaScripts
I was going through my Flickr favorites from the past few weeks, and found this one. It's worth looking at large.
The Observatory (aka: The Dialogue), by panic-embryo
This is the kind of alchemy that renews my faith in photomanipulation. The bell jar, goldfish, moth, rusty pipes, scratches, watermarks, sepia-toning - all these elements combine to create a strange and wonderfully emotional image. (The only thing I would have done different is remove or mute the dust specks on the fish, a very minor complaint.)
28 October 2006
The Narcissist, by Tom McFarlane
I love the contrasts between soft and hard textures, the girl and her dress and the cracks in the wall and the dried flowers. Her expression is somewhere between these two opposites, between fantasy and reality.
26 October 2006
20 October 2006
The Dying BIases Against Photomanipulation and Digital Tools
I see so many teenage artists producing astonishing photomanipulations such as this. And it gives me hope that the digital cameras, scanners, and inkjet printers they use (with such seeming ease) will inevitably be accepted as legitimate tools of artistic creation. My suspicion is that this has already happened, despite the howlings of the old guard. (Throughout history, artists have taken advantage of the latest technology, and I don't see why digital tools should be an exception. I also suspect there are a lot of traditional artists out there who are closet Photoshop users.) I believe that someday, hopefully within my lifetime, people will not think it unusual at all to walk into a studio and see a paint-splattered optical mouse sitting right next to a jar of paintbrushes.
18 October 2006
women and self-portraits
I've noticed a large number of self-portraits by women on flickr.com, and I am amazed at their beauty and authenticity. They're human and real and display a wide range of complex emotions, not the empty stares of models with flawlessly Photoshopped skin. Maybe these self-portraits are partly a reaction to the way women are portrayed and objectified in a sex & porn-obsessed, male-dominated world; a way of saying "hey, look, this is me! This is who I really am." I would truly appreciate a female perspective on this topic....
The Narcissist, by Tom McFarlane
I laughed and almost inhaled my breakfast taco when I saw this one. I tend to gravitate to the dark and moody; but, once in a while an image like this pops me right out of my "Type O Negative" interior soundtrack.
17 October 2006
I'll take your place, by Lara Swift
Another in this series. Haunting, etherial. I wish the copyright watermark wasn't so distracting.
I'll take your place II, by Lara Swift
Exquisite texture and color. The beautiful porcelain face is the main focal point, but it's the secondary one that holds my attention - the necklace. The tertiary element, the bird, I wasn't certain about. But after looking at the image for a while and hiding the bird with my finger, I've decided it works better with than without. It echoes the shape of the necklace and seems necessary to balance the composition.
16 October 2006
BREAKING THE LINE, by kwerfeldein
desolate, minimal, strangely hypnotic, a portal to a different time and place. there's something very familiar about it. an archetype? "the tree exists in three worlds: the earthly, the underworld, and its branches soar into the infinite heavens, the domain of god" themystica.com
a moment, then it's gone, by *Shakti*
A wonderful study in contrasts - between hard (tattoos, creased forehead, eyes that look as if they've been crying for hours, strong side lighting, heavy shadow across cheek) and soft (delicate ribbon and translucent slip, diffuse light on her right shoulder, lips and rouge, hair swept gently to the side, dimpled chin, midtones on chest). It's a beautifully balanced composition of high and low key elements.
15 October 2006
photos I didn't shoot this morning...
red waxberries clinging to cyclone wire; a white porcelian toilet in a plumber's window (cut-away section exposes the tank); long grass waving in the first cold winds of autumn; a sanitation worker wearing a faded Superman t-shirt; shards of glass on the ground, worn dull by time; a ring of empty Corona bottles on a table in the back yard of an auto body shop; the black wall of a cold front clashing with blue sky; a weird light covering the world.
14 October 2006
JStar's Dramatic Exit, by Tom McFarlane
This is an example of how gravity can make the difference between an interesting photo and an image of sublime brilliance. Like knocking over a glass of water, McFarlane simply rotated his image clockwise.
13 October 2006
Imagine Pageant, photo set by *becky
http://www.flickr.com/photos/idio/sets/72157594243488220/detail/
This entire set of portraits by *becky is amazing. They look like a silent movie star's stills from 90 years ago.
This entire set of portraits by *becky is amazing. They look like a silent movie star's stills from 90 years ago.
Cracked Actor, by De Ambershay
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambershay/260218834/
The cracked forehead is an abrupt contrast to the lower half of the image, an unveiling of the hidden self with all of its scars and imperfections. The forehead is mask-like, calcified armor constructed from the accretion of life's abuses and traumas. I love the upward-curving eyebrow painted over the hollow eye socket. Lots of trinities and religious allusions here: the seductive veil, lips, and necklace (Magdalen); the three tied ends resembling crosses (Golgatha); the three diagonal goudges on the forehead (presumably from a crown of thorns); the arched "bridge" separating heaven from hell, outer beauty from inner despair and emptiness.
The cracked forehead is an abrupt contrast to the lower half of the image, an unveiling of the hidden self with all of its scars and imperfections. The forehead is mask-like, calcified armor constructed from the accretion of life's abuses and traumas. I love the upward-curving eyebrow painted over the hollow eye socket. Lots of trinities and religious allusions here: the seductive veil, lips, and necklace (Magdalen); the three tied ends resembling crosses (Golgatha); the three diagonal goudges on the forehead (presumably from a crown of thorns); the arched "bridge" separating heaven from hell, outer beauty from inner despair and emptiness.
numbers 1 - 3
- Art is manipulation. The manipulation of tools, materials, ideas. Doesn't matter if it's clay, paint, or pixels. Only thing that matters is the image.
- Life is manipulation. We change things, others, ourselves. We don't have a choice - the simple act of breathing changes the world.
- The only constant is change. World is context, and context is always in flux. Therefore, the image is never static.
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