Enhancing OPF: Introducing the Interactive Artist Showcase

[Asher Kelman]

I wrote "Artist Showcase", (not artists' showcase), as it's the intention to have focus on each guest artist's own way of building an image that gets our buy-in and entices us to bond with it. So this is a personal experience of many years of work that will be shared.

For us here, from now on, there are no hard and fast set of rules, so for this section, throw out such notions. There is now no ideal light or time of day, no prohibition on centering an image nor of having a posts line up with a head in a portrait, LOL! Rather, there's the lone photographer with a choice of what must be in the picture and what would ruin it and how it's to be built successfully. There will be commonalities in the work presented. Our first guest photographers, Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee will help us discover or rediscover these principles and guides. But we'll also celebrate the individual approaches that define each guest artist's own photographs. Although this is directed to making "art" or "ART", the experience here should help all manner of photography, as all pictures have to be built decisively. Random work might be "harvested" to make art, but that's not the domain of this forum. For such undeniably creative work, look here.

As we meet our guest artist's works, there's an invitation to discuss photographs freely and to ask questions.

Out of this could come for all of us, however accomplished we might be, an enhanced way of seeing and making images that capture the hearts of others, in the way we wish.

Asher

[Jean Henderson]

Thanks, Asher! This sounds exciting. I am looking forward to learning from it.

Jean

[fahim mohammed]

Could you please explain/say it in simple 101 English for me please. I am a bit slow and getting slower by the second.

Much appreciated and thank you.

[Jean Henderson]

Fahim,

I'm certainly not Asher so he will have to clarify, but what I get is that some really top photographers are going to share their shooting experience with us -- how they approach things, how they work, etc.

Michael A. Smith's website leads to the site the two share:

http://www.michaelasmith.com/

They are both REALLY large format photographers who, apparently, know how to help the rest of us (they have some workshops outlined on their combined site).

Jean

[fahim mohammed]

Jean, thank you for that simple and succinct explanation.

Much appreciated madam. I shall look forward to what follows.

Thank you.

p.s. I wish people could write as clearly as you!

[Asher Kelman]

Fahim,

My apologies! I had already described the plan for this here, but it's worth updating:

"In an effort to bring to people the sort of photographs people buy, those we we see at exhibitions, museums and private collections, we're introducing new photographs on a regular basis, at least every two weeks. The artists chosen meet the criteria of being collected by institutions and who are expert at conceiving and producing the photographs they they sell.

There's no requirement for any type of photography, style or medium of capture or processing. What counts here is the purposely conceived and delivered picture. It's so well built, that it has an ability to draw us in and lock a bond between itself and the viewer. The experience here with out guest photographers should help us in all manner of photography, not just art or even ART!

The first two guest artists are Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee, who's work is in each case, widely collected and also fits these criteria. I have personally gone through some hundreds of prints before the invitations were made.

New pictures will be introduced at least every two weeks and comments are encouraged. So that discussion is ours. The guests are not expected to respond to our comments. Questions, however, will be answered!

Asher