tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131844.post6971501775384737104..comments2024-02-28T19:37:14.696+01:00Comments on moments of perfect clarity: a modern take on the church frescojulochkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884096685015570257noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131844.post-45220495125501091292020-09-17T00:23:05.184+02:002020-09-17T00:23:05.184+02:00Allow me to take an entirely different view of the...Allow me to take an entirely different view of the church photos.<br /><br />First, you noted, the photographer lives his interpretation of a Viking lifestyle while also practicing a Viking religion. Christians considered Vikings to be pagans and it was civilization and Christianity that did-in the Vikings.<br /><br />Is it a religious irony he did these photos or is it something else? Is he, the neo-Viking, creating embellished Pictorialism-istic images, essentially making mockery of Christianity while also thumbing his nose at the church that hung his photos? <br /><br />I also find it curious, despite using modern models and being cute with inclusions of faddish tats and a cell phone, just as all western religions have re-written history and mirrored themselves into their illustrations of their-god images, his Jesus and the followers are all lily white - there’s not an olive or dark-skinned person in site. I know, a Nordic Jesus, that’s playing it safe, mirroring the viewers. Kitsch-Kumbaya art.<br /><br />His one difference with the Pictorialism of the 1800s is, his images are perfectly sharp instead of the commonly used soft focus, dreamy style of the old days<br /><br />Construction of the photos, as well as the style in which they are framed, smack of the worst sort of Pictorialism. In many ways, the church photos carry on the tradition of Pictorialism’s view that photography’s main purpose should be to make photos appear as if they are paintings with the imprint of the artist’s style and beliefs. <br />Pictorialism lasted decades (approx. 1880-1915) and there were thousands of saccharin images of people dressed in what they thought were the clothes/robes of early Greek, Roman and Christian myths & moments. And, there were endless - and horrid - photos featuring pretentious whites doing their adaptions of, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” or Pan running around in forests or sobbing people at the feet of Jesus. Google Julia Margaret Cameron or Adolph de Meyer for reference material.<br /><br />Thank god, in the early 1900s and through to the 1930s, modern photography sprung to life. Group f/64 burst upon the scene and put an end to decades of photo tripe pretending to be paintings. Or, so we thought.<br /><br />Currently, social media encourages photography and so-called art photography swamps throughout Facebook, et al. Snapshots are honest in what they are and they’re totally acceptable. However, most social media “art” photos are trite and/or derivative rehashes of someone else’s images. But the floodgates are open and bad art flows freely within the ether. Pictorialism’s worst has made a comeback.<br /><br />On the other hand, there are fantastic contemporary artists, such as Kehinde Wiley and Richard T. Scott, painting in different styles, they’ve done an outstanding smack down on the excesses of 19th century portraiture.<br /><br />As for the anti-Photoshop nonsense, dude, Mr. Viking, deal with it, post-production applications are simply part of the photographic flow. Good and great photographers have always manipulated images, whether it’s the type of camera, the lens, a filter, a smear of petroleum jelly, a piece of panty hose, rented props or chemicals in the darkroom, photographers manipulate the photographic process so they get the photos initially imagined. As an example, look at how many versions Ansel Adams did of his best-loved, Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico. Ansel was a human Photoshop app.<br /><br />Photoshop or Affinity are digital tools. If he wants to stay in the 19th and early 20th century - or simply pretend he's a Viking, that's fine - but don’t soapbox photo purity, there is no such thing.willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15590217997145761582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131844.post-42157257745504524112020-09-13T15:46:42.425+02:002020-09-13T15:46:42.425+02:00And it's me, Molly - I must've been signed...And it's me, Molly - I must've been signed out of Google :-)Mollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09678300547613778858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131844.post-19307115757730823452020-09-13T15:45:26.642+02:002020-09-13T15:45:26.642+02:00These are amazing. Thank you for sharing them here...These are amazing. Thank you for sharing them here.<br />So thought-provoking.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15254185457466919009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131844.post-65925186872937926892020-09-04T18:19:18.025+02:002020-09-04T18:19:18.025+02:00tanks Julie
tanks Julie<br />ART+Weisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00205895360289319076noreply@blogger.com