Helpful Hints/D.I.Y.: I have no idea how to ask this question..

All I know is I have a bug.. Something inside me that wants to wander a little from the normal, flat, 1 dimentional photograph, to using that same photograph and create something more.. I'm not a journalist, so my photographs really don't have to say anything. To me, a good photograph is one that makes you feel something.. it's a replication of someplace or an occurance that was captured, but doesn't need to actually 'say' something - if it's pleasing to the eye, it's "Art" ....

What I'm getting at is that I'd like to improve on a simple photograph, giving it some appropriate space and texture. How the hell do you provide texture, spacing, continunity, and even going as far as including an addiational 'sense' as tools to view a different kind of 'art'.. - based on a photograph? I'm not really even sure I'm explaining this appropriately..

My wife said that I should take some art classes over at the College - A little research revealed that most are "Art Theory; Commercial Art; Digital Photography; or Painting 101".. None that I would imagine would help in my mind ......... Boise State University has some interesting classes, but are 125 miles away..

Too small of a community to have resources to teach things like this.... I dont' know how to use various photo-collage methods; different media + substrates; adding a variety of complementary materials, ephemera, paints and inks to produce a textural, evocative image combination - just another step away from a nice, framed print like we all have on our walls. Should I just clear away an area in my basement, and once equipped, sit down and puruse YouTube for instruction?

Suggestions??

thanks,

r

Could you give us some examples of photographs made by others which correspond to what you have in mind?

Rick,

You're not alone in questioning the direction and goals of your photography. We all have to do that in order to have goals and standards to reach! Just here, you framing of the question uses terms that, to me at least, are personal to you and not understandable readill by others.

Rick Otto said:

All I know is I have a bug.. Something inside me that wants to wander a little from the normal, flat, 1 dimentional photograph, to using that same photograph and create something more.. .........................

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Rick,

What is the "Normal one dimensional photograph"? I really have no idea what that might be. My guessing would not come anywhere near what you are referring to and already have in mind. So give examples of this.

Rick Otto said:

What I'm getting at is that I'd like to improve on a simple photograph, giving it some appropriate space and texture.

Click to expand...

So what is this space you are talking about. Do you know any work of art such as a painting or photograph or collage that has the characteristics you so admire and yearn to emulate

Rick Otto said:

Too small of a community to have resources to teach things like this....

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We're really very well endowed with all the expertise you seek, an more, but we don't have any formal courses as yet and no students. That's because, Nicolas Claris and I decided from the outset that OPF should share the experience of photography and watch out for each other on our individual journeys. So we share but son't teach. Still if you are stuck, guidance will come in most all cases. Other places make their money by selling DVD's that will make you a "Master" of whatever you wish. however, we decided to be colleagues. It's in a way harder but it's honest and convivial!

Rick Otto said:

I dont' know how to use various photo-collage methods;

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That's easy. Just google!

Rick Otto said:

Should I just clear away an area in my basement, and once equipped, sit down and puruse YouTube for instruction?

Click to expand...

Only allow yourself one tutorial after to solve some issue that's blocking you in one picture you are making. Only take a course when you have already produced 100 nice pictures and of that have 4-6 you really are proud of. Otherwise, you become a study junky.

One of my mottos is "Don't think! TRY!" Photography involves starting with the brain and then choosing the time, place, lighting and position for the shot. The other half is preparing that latent image for presentation in a way that makes it the child of your original intent and musing rather than of the engineer in Japan or Germany who designed the camera!

So start with what is this one dimensional picture you want to move from and then show us an example in any media of what qualities you would like a photograph to possess.

Asher

Hi,

I don't know how this could apply to photos, but it might let your brain wander a little.....

The link below shows some images by DC artist Alexa Meade, who paints real people and surroundings so they look like paintings - certainly something more than a 1-dimensional painting:

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/04/real_people_painted_to_look_li.php

Incredible to look at even on the web, and would be even more interesting to see in real-life.

Perhaps this may help inspire you to think differently about you could develop own work.....


Regards,
Andrew.

Andrew Stannard said:

Hi,

I don't know how this could apply to photos, but it might let your brain wander a little.....

The link below shows some images by DC artist Alexa Meade, who paints real people and surroundings so they look like paintings - certainly something more than a 1-dimensional painting:

Click to expand...

Can I take it, then, Andrew, that you understand what a one dimensional photograph is, in the first place? That's where I'm stuck. I'm not able to go further as you have to deal with the question raised as I for one do not understand the question although I have a gestalt possibility: "How do I make a more impressive photograph?"

Asher

To me, I'm interpreting 1-dimensionality as the fact that photos initially challenge only our visuals senses - perhaps we can excite our other senses as well.

Should I exhibit my winter Lake District images complete with a blast of fresh mountain air, a glass of peaty malt whisky and a sound track featuring the guttural call of a solitary Raven soaring over the fells?

How could we create an image that invites the viewer to reach out and touch, to feel our work and to immerse their senses into our own vision?


Andrew.

Andrew Stannard said:

To me, I'm interpreting 1-dimensionality as the fact that photos initially challenge only our visuals senses - perhaps we can excite our other senses as well.

Should I exhibit my winter Lake District images complete with a blast of fresh mountain air, a glass of peaty malt whisky and a sound track featuring the guttural call of a solitary Raven soaring over the fells?

How could we create an image that invites the viewer to reach out and touch, to feel our work and to immerse their senses into our own vision?


Andrew.

Click to expand...

Andrew,

As long as the brain of the human viewing any picture works, no picture can just be "visual" as the senses will automatically check previous visual libraries and then an eruption of associations occur. It's impossible to have a picture devoid of recruited sensations. So I don't accept the idea of anything being one dimensional. It's not possible for a person even if intoxicated, LOL!

Asher

You are of course correct Asher (although some particularly bad actors might be described as 1-dimensional!), but perhaps there is scope for adding extra dimensions to our work, or enhancing the dimensions that already exist.

Rick - can you provide us with more?

Wander through some of the pages in my site. [BLINK]Warning;[/BLINK] you can't accomplish it in photoshop.

1925 KODAK 8X10 camera with Pinkham & Smith 13.25" Series IV no. 2b lens

Jim Galli said:

bird in flight, 1934 hispano suiza​

Wander through some of the pages in my site. [BLINK]Warning;[/BLINK] you can't accomplish it in photoshop.

1925 KODAK 8X10 camera with Pinkham & Smith 13.25" Series IV no. 2b lens

Click to expand...

Rick,

Is this what you want to make? Here's a photograph that commands and defines it's space and that around it and has projections of time, space and all kinds of stories! If that's what you seek, we have a lot in common!


Jim,

What a gift and a surprise as I check in from Paris at 5:10 am with the Seine below my window, 5 stories down, just starting to wake up.

I always learn from you! The preacher who gives a good sermon has already spent 11 hours preparing for that 20 minutes of inspiration! This picture is one of those works that has so much behind it before the shutter was released to let light reach the film. At that point, it was mostly done.

The P&S lens is the right tool for the job, providing providing mystical "waking-up-from-sleep"l softness to allow the car brilliant form to project to the foreground at great speed. Even then, it's the hunter's work of finding the right angle of attack with the right light that allows this awesome result. Photoshop cannot match this result! The result is not only brilliant, (that anyone can see), but it also provides a playground for the mind to imagine stories around your wonderful car. That's magic and that addition makes the photograph a photograph!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Jim,

At last a photograph that commands and defines it's space and that around it!

What a gift and a surprise as I check in from Paris at 5:10 am with the Seine below my window, 5 stories down, just starting to wake up.

I always learn from you! The preacher who gives a good sermon has already spent 11 hours preparing for that 20 minutes of inspiration! This picture is one of those works that has so much behind it before the shutter was released to let light reach the film. At that point, it was mostly done.

The P&S lens is the right tool for the job, providing mystical "waking-up-from-sleep" softness to allow the car brilliant form to project to the foreground at great speed. Even then, it's the hunter's work of finding the right angle of attack with the right light that allows this awesome result. Photoshop cannot match this result! The result is not only brilliant, (that anyone can see), but it also provides a playground for the mind to imagine stories around your wonderful car. That's magic and that addition makes the photograph a photograph!

Asher

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Kind words, as always. Thank you.

The rest are here. It was a good afternoon. 7 left to soup.

Asher Kelman said:

Rick,

Is this what you want to make? Here's a photograph that commands and defines it's space and that around it and has projections of time, space and all kinds of stories! If that's what you seek, we have a lot in common!

Asher

Click to expand...

What a beautiful photograph !! - need I say it's a "Fine Art" image? - however ............ and I haven't been ignoring this thread, but thinking how to answer the question regarding a 1 dimentional image .... I think I mispoke, and will change my thoughts to a "Two" dimentional image .. A 2 dimentional image shows height and width - the physical constraints of a photograph on paper, hanging on a wall... How many times have you seen a wall of framed photographs, where people just walk by - almost ignoring that fact that there's a piece of art there - if they'd just take a quick notice.. I want to take a photogrpah and turn it into a 3 dimentional piece of art - I also want to demonstrate "Depth" and/or texture..

One example would be of this picture of a flower petal that I took recently - I'd like to see this printed on a piece of irridensent silk - hung so that it moves at the smallest breeze... (Showing texture and depth)..


Also, another example would be of these two pieces of art I found doing a Google search for "Mixed Media Art" .. I'm not just talking about composits, but building a piece of art highlighting a photograph..


It's difficult to provide you exact images of what I'm talking about, as each would be different - prompted by the subject, but I hope you now understand what kind of Art I'd like to attempt.. Perhaps it's just a folly, and I wouldn't be any good at it, but I'd like to attempt it. Again, the problem is that I don't know how - meaning the techniques used..

Have I explained a little better? - Communication with written words has never been my strong point..

thanks,

Rick

Rick Otto said:

I want to take a photogrpah and turn it into a 3 dimentional piece of art - I also want to demonstrate "Depth" and/or texture..

One example would be of this picture of a flower petal that I took recently - I'd like to see this printed on a piece of irridensent silk - hung so that it moves at the smallest breeze... (Showing texture and depth)..

Click to expand...

Rick,

Excellent thinking. In art, especially Western Art shown in Museums, starts, from my own personal point of view, with an imagined set of experiences anchored in some form. One needs, then, to export such imagined ideas, even as they change, into a physical form to see how that result plays on your mind. If it evokes the feelings and ideas you had hoped for, then that art will get your approval and get air in it's nostrils and become alive. So here, it seems you want a tactile experience in some way, either direct or imagined, from your work.

So your idea on printing on silk is a good start. Do it and then experiment further. It's a wonderful and valuable project that's worthy of much effort and devotion. Make this your passion and goal and just do it! My motto, "Don't think!; TRY!" is apt here. Now it's time for execution if this is indeed going to be a realized dream!

Asher

Rick Otto said:

the problem is that I don't know how - meaning the techniques used

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You can of course experiment on your own. For example, printing on silk (or rather a fine fabric) is readily available from some labs. But, on the other hand, you don't necessary need to reinvent the wheel: go to a modern art museum, and have a look at the collages there. Try to enroll for a course or simply pay a visit at your local art school. Try to find some local artists who use similar techniques and ask a few questions. You will be pleasantly surprised: most artists or school teachers are ready to explain how things are done if you show real interest. They won't give you a full course, obviously, but they will get you started.

Pictures made out of light sensitive materials have long been able to access the third dimension.

The original and now deeply explored technique is selective focus, alias depth of field management, alias the pursuit of bokeh. The fact that things at different distances can be described by different renditions of sharpness communicates three dimensionality very convincingly.

There is stereoscopic photography, a fad in the 19th century, a curiosity now, that offers spectacular three dimensional perspective from a fixed viewpoint. I reckon the expressive and artistic possibilities of 3D photography have been overlooked in favour of sensation and novelty. There is plently of visual territory to explore here.

Holography goes further than 3D and offers multi-viewpoint three dimensional views. Again much holography has been presented as a clever trick and the field lies open for a visual genius to step in and take command.