• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Homage: Our Own Pictures Inspired by a Work of Art The Germans

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
As discussed in that thread, sometimes out own photographs are inspired by another work of art. In my case, the following picture

6904527456_82f23ab943_b.jpg

was inspired by Williams Eggleston:

619645R1WNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

But "inspired" does not mean one simply copies another artist. In that case, the image of that toy has been strongly inspired by the iconic image of the tricycle, but it is not the only image I took on that day. I was deeply impressed by Eggleston work beyond that image. I was deeply impressed by the way he took photographs, seemingly snapshots, but in truth witnesses of a time and a place. Except for that iconic picture, I did not try to copy the pictures but to emulate the process.

I was not quite ready to post these, but I decided to post these pictures now because of the other thread. I am not yet quite sure about what "process" I am trying to emulate. So please consider that this is a work in progress and these are just a quick selection of unfinished pictures. For example, Eggleston took great care of the color palette in his pictures and I am not decided on that yet. But this is "Riskit!" where unfinished works can be presented.

I am interested in your feelings: do the pictures allow you to imagine how it can be to live in (south) Germany? do you feel the mood of the place?

Last but not least: this is not about me, this is about being inspired by someone else. Do you have had that experience as well, where you read a book or visit an exhibition and realize that this is something that you want to do as well? You don't want to make the pictures of the same things, you want to make the kind of picture that artist could have done of a subject which is closer to you?
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
I suppose I could have a book printed, yes. Today one can have books printed by the unit (Blurb, etc...).

Why is it the wrong section?
 

Mark Hampton

New member
I suppose I could have a book printed, yes. Today one can have books printed by the unit (Blurb, etc...).

Why is it the wrong section?

when you look at these works - do you print them out ?

as with most of your work there is a consideration of focus - a unity in the colour and tonal range .. small units of time burned out and stretched - it would be interesting to look at the image sizes and provisional layouts.

for me there is a dynamic in reading between some of them.

there are a few works here that act more as fillers for me than some of the strong images - but for me that is ok as every narrative needs space within it consider where we are and where we may be going to it helps build the themes.

in relation to the pallet - well those 1st 4 images contain a orange/red areas that link between them - start there I guess. Its not my best area as I try to limit colour.

I keep looking at franks black white and things when looking at longer narratives - but then thats old hat !

keep em coming Jerome !

what are germans btw?
 

Sam Hames

New member
I do get a sense of the location from the series - some of the differences to my local norm are very interesting to me.

Looking through the series the beer bottles/glasses seem out of place - perhaps there needs to be more around it for it to make sense and consistent with the rest of the pictures.

Looking forard to seeing more, and the final order you intend them to appear.
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
As I wrote earlier, this is certainly not a finished project and I have not decided yet on the final form. I plan to take more pictures and will then hopefully have a better idea on how they will fit together. The idea of this thread was more to start a discussion on the concept of imitation.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I do get a sense of the location from the series - some of the differences to my local norm are very interesting to me.

Looking through the series the beer bottles/glasses seem out of place - perhaps there needs to be more around it for it to make sense and consistent with the rest of the pictures.

Looking forard to seeing more, and the final order you intend them to appear.


Sam,

Think of this as a look, but at a neutral distance, just patiently observing, but with often, (but not always), a key symbolic element in the foreground.


"was inspired by Williams Eggleston:"

619645R1WNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


So now look at the picture of the empty beer glasses again. If I'm correct in my interpretation, paradoxically, Jerome is not looking at the beer glasses and accidentally having folk in the b.g. OOF. Rather his subject is the social life of the people there, with more beer glasses ready to be filled. That's the especially interesting presentation Jerome has chosen.


7054585027_d086e962b9_b.jpg



Now go back to Eggleston's horse.


619645R1WNL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


It speaks not just about the horse, but perhaps also about the lives of the people in the mass-produced homes the b.g.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief


6908490370_b3fddfb18f_b.jpg

Once again a dominant foreground figure, a man has stopped his bicycle ride to look at the scene of people looking at the scene of people. There's a need for human connection, even without talking to the others here. When we stop and look through Jerome's picture, we join this social gathering too. BTW, don't think of cropping away the right hand untidiness of the man and the girl at the edge of the frame. Look back at the man in the foreground and realize that he's looking over there and to make sense, they need to be there!

Asher
 

Mark Hampton

New member
ok - here are some links - not for jerome - but others who can't search !

http://www.egglestontrust.com/

the above has some interesting reading and some images - also some essays on the artist

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/william-eggleston#_

intresting interview above

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2004/08/william_eggleston/

some quotes



and a metalist in DP review talking about WE approach


there are loads of interesting things about this work - how do you feel he has influenced your approach (if he has) or you ascetic sense (if it does)?

cheers
 

Sam Hames

New member
Sam,
...
So now look at the picture of the empty beer glasses again. If I'm correct in my interpretation, paradoxically, Jerome is not looking at the beer glasses and accidentally having folk in the b.g. OOF. Rather his subject is the social life of the people there, with more beer glasses ready to be filled. That's the especially interesting presentation Jerome has chosen.
...
Asher

Now that I've had more sleep I understand a lot better, and I agree with your reading of the photo.

However, I think this particularly photo still stands out by itself from the other images, and I wonder if that might detract from the overall narrative when presented as a series.

I think the pattern matching part of me dislikes that the foreground-background separation is significantly stronger in that particular image than all the other image - the degree of blur is significantly stronger and there's no mid ground to connect the foreground/background together. I think it affects the readability of the image (not that the elements aren't there!), they just don't tie together for me.



PS - No one has said "Nice Bokeh!". It's nice to be able to seriously engage here on OPF.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
.....

I think the pattern matching part of me dislikes that the foreground-background separation is significantly stronger in that particular image than all the other image - the degree of blur is significantly stronger and there's no mid ground to connect the foreground/background together. I think it affects the readability of the image (not that the elements aren't there!), they just don't tie together for me.

Sam,

Once an art project takes off, one has to recognize that the art being produced gets to influence what one does if one is open and honest at the same time. So it's natural for Jerome to explore ways in which foreground and background subjects are weighted. Why not make the dog more important than the master! That's what he's done to the beer glasses. After all, when you come to think of it, it's the beer that makes a beer garden successful. There's something about the communal glue that drinking together provides that elevates the glass itself to having social importance.

I find that in reading other people's work, once I've like one or two pictures, as I have with Jerome's work, I loosen up my demands for things being the same. I want to see how he allows his own project to grow within the constant evolution of the motif that they have in common. If we're not, ourselves accepting, then we will lose out on being able to travel with the artist to their next twist or turn as they come up with their next image.

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Thanks for the comments. I agree that the picture with the beer jugs and bottles does not quite fit with the series. Even it is uses the same device of limited depth of field, the colors and construction are different. I may make more in that style in the future, however. As I said, I am not decided yet.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jerome,


It's interesting how we choose pictures and what order they are sequenced. Of 6 pictures, there's one color in common, save the last picture. Here, it seems that you preferred to start with pictures having the largest areas of light blue-aquamarine

First in the laundry on the line:
7054580375_732e29a2be_b.jpg



Then the large garage doors:
6908489498_7e2455dab7_b.jpg


Now just in one figure near the center of the picture
7054583747_4cff811356_b.jpg


and again in the top of this beer glass picture:
7054585027_d086e962b9_b.jpg


and finally in some flip-flop sandles to the right of the bench
6908493114_96402dfcae_b.jpg



It seems that once the first choices were made, then the others seemed to have this unexpected motif too, as if the very first choice influences all those that followed. To me that's very interesting. So Jerome was this an accident or by intent?

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
This was not intended. I just tried to put the pictures so that they would not clash next to one other, that may be the reason.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This was not intended. I just tried to put the pictures so that they would not clash next to one other, that may be the reason.


Jerome,

I thought so. It means that how we enjoy pictures is effected by the neighborhood. You allow us to transition well. That's a greg skill. It's part of presentation and you have it aced!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
"...I am interested in your feelings....."

Jerome, remember the photos you posted from the Octoberfest? I felt a part of the happening.
I could feel the vibes.

You have asked the reader if he/she could feel what it would be like to live in this part of Southern Germany?

What I see from these images is a person passing through town and taking pictures of various parts of the town and its people...from a distance.

I felt the ' spirit '(!!! ) of the Octoberfest. There I was a part of the community. Here I am an outsider looking in... surreptiously.

Hope that makes sense.
 

Mark Hampton

New member
I have thought about this work for a while and came back to look at it again last night to compare it to my memory of it.

Jerome - for me the images that have no people in them work - they held - the stillness and colour really kept coming back.

you don't need advice from me on anything - so its just some feedback - its important work i think - i hope you have continued it.

cheers
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Pictures with no people work so well. But why/

First in the laundry on the line:
7054580375_732e29a2be_b.jpg



Then the large garage doors:
6908489498_7e2455dab7_b.jpg



These images that have no people, but still have very strong human stories attached to them. It's not like we're looking at a pristine mountain. The drying clothes means a family, with schedules, needs and wants and someone doing the laundry. The garages testify that the folk can afford cars and one can wonder who they are and where they go.

That's the great thing about good art. There's room for us to ponder what's not there. The artist gives us a starting point and that, as here in the first two, is enough.

Our guest artist, Michael A. Smith, considers that the success of a composition is "content-neutral". Can that be true in all cases? I wonder if that applies here. what would one do, replace the known structures with square or circles and see if it blanches and has some innate rhythm that accounts for the picture's success.

Thanks Jerome!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jerome,

I've brashly tried to go further to attempt to ask whether or not the washing left out to dry makes the picture, because of the knowledge and sentiment about the washing, or if it would work if a similar image had some general structure of sufficient strength to take its place.


7054580375_732e29a2be_b.jpg


According to Michael A. Smith, the picture should work by tapping into our innate sensibilities by its rhythm and this is independent of its content. This really seems wrong to me but perhaps I have more to learn. This seems an ideal opportunity to do a simple test.


7054580375_732e29a2be_bAK.jpg



To me, the composition still works, so it may be that Michael A. Smith is correct in this instance, that the success is content independent. Do you agree?

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
I am flattered that you chose my picture for the demonstration, but I am not really sure on what you seek to demonstrate. We know that composition can be created without content since the times of abstract painters e.g. like Piet Mondrian. We also know that a picture can have a content of which we would be emotionally close, but be poorly composed (think, for example, of the many people who take poor snapshots of their kids).

A direct consequence of that reasoning is that the two elements in a picture, content and composition, can be chosen largely independently of each other.

But what does it prove? Isn't the consequence simply that successful pictures will combine a strong, aesthetic composition with content to which the viewer is emotionally sensitive?
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jerome,

I am just pleased to see structure and content working so well together. We not only get the stimulation from the underlying rhythm of your composition, but, in addition have the human elements encoded in the details of the "laundry" in a space in the picture that is fundamentally in balance with the rest of the picture too. This to me is very satisfying.

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Quite frankly, I don't know what to answer. On that day, I went out to take pictures of something completely different. Then I came across what is actually, I believe, a set of buildings constructed in the 50s for the workers of the BMW factory. I was baffled about the differences between that site and buildings that are constructed today.

These buildings were constructed to satisfy the inhabitants. Today, buildings are constructed to satisfy the architects.

I took quite a few pictures on that day, but I never consciously thought of structure, rhythm or composition. Well... composition, probably yes: composition has always been important to me. But all I do is walk around the subject till it feels right in my viewfinder.
 
Top