[Yoyo]

I got the impression that the author was railing against photographers who think they’re too good to make a living running a business and who look down upon the more commercial professional photographers. In a way, photography is like any other form of art (or artistic expression) from the classics like oil painting and sculpture to the more modern like industrial and graphic design. How many “chairs” have you seen designed/produced/manufactured by some university senior in an architecture program that look uncomfortable and unsittable even if they are edgy and ground breaking. Now compare that process, product, and purpose to some industrial engineer with sheetmetal and manufacturing experience who designs a metal folding chair for mass production. One guy does it for “art’s sake” and the other does purely for commercial reasons.

Compare the Venus de Milo to a die cast concrete cherub. One is now high art and the other tacky yard art. (Tackiness is in the eye of the beholder.) When the Venus was first carved out of marble however, perhaps she was just a commercial object? Maybe the temple priests who commissioned her had their eye toward increasing the number of visitors and their financial contributions? Maybe their reasons were entirely altruistic and they were only seeking to glorify god? We may never know. But that sort of thing is what I think author here was getting at.

Some very good work, professional work (and this link is from “Professional Photographer” magazine), is being denigrated because it’s too commercial and some photographers find that demeaning (and on the flip side some armature work is being elevated/promoted/popularized only because it is imitative of an artist photo school’s style). Now when the part of the medium that pays the bills gets thrown by the wayside, since it’s not academic enough, or cool enough if you will, I feel that a divorce of the artist and technician into two separate realms is the only logical progression, and photography will end up like the chair makers producing things that are either impractical (from the art side of things) or uninspired (from the technical side). We may very well be witness to photographic equivalent of the demise of the Shakers, who chairs (among other furniture) was both artistic and utilitarian.

For example, compare Yousuf Karsh and Matti Klatt, etc. in terms of their photography. Both are professionals and take amazing portraits, but one is ultimately more commercial than the other. Look what’s happening in commercial portraiture presently. (And I don’t mean gonzo.) There are plenty of people hanging out a shingle and willing to snap some pics for money, and there is a counter movement by the old-school professionals where they’re really stepping up their business game (like high school graduation portrait portfolios that would be unheard of 20 years ago) in order to maintain or even advance what some consider an outdated business model. The professionals, in order to differentiate themselves from the amateurs, are paving new ground in photography, doing things with portraits that hadn’t been done before, moving away from the technical (and let’s not kid ourselves, modern digital cameras are automated enough to take a good portrait shot for 8″x10″ prints) and wholly embracing the art.

[Yoyo]

+1, I’ve always got flowers here.

+1
There are still roses blooming in Kosovo, and it’s been freezing overnight occasionally for a month now. I loved Hawaii, even the trees have flowers there.

[Yoyo]

I have been told that I am learning the family cooking traditions this year :/ I would rather be watching football.

Just light the stove on fire once. That should ban you from the kitchen for at least a year.

[Yoyo]

I like Farktography because it forces me to reexamine my photos.

I dislike Farktography because I don’t have time to go out and shoot photos specifically for it. Er, maybe that should be I dislike my job because it doesn’t afford me the time to go out and take photos, and Farktography reminds me of this.

Edit: Perhaps I should have used “permission” instead of “time” above. I manage my work well enough that I can find the time for almost anything.

[Yoyo]

Who needs photo recon to blow up a bridge when you have a squadron of F/A-18’s and a bunch of maverick missiles?

Doctrinally speaking, ground reconnaissance is always best. And in the current operating environment, aircraft are never there when you need them, and always there when it’s too late. We could take this to the pub forum if you’ld like to continue.

Who needs to go out and take pictures of government buildings or memorials in DC to remember vacation, when you have Google maps and a bunch of photos taken by other people? The kids are probably too young to remember it anyway. Why even visit DC next summer, just download some stock photos of tourist spots, ‘shop the kids into them, print them (this step is not needed), and tell the kids they actually went to the Smithsonian a few years later.

Just because you can do something (and get away with it being marginally successful) doesn’t mean you should when there are better options.

[Yoyo]

It could be worse, like the Philippines.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/92475/photographers-snap-at-rizal-park-execs-for-%E2%80%98no-shoot%E2%80%99-rule
(maybe not the best article, but it was easy to find)

[Yoyo]

Disguising a bomb as a camera is not exactly the same as having a terrorist taking pictures of a bridge with a dslr in order to determine how to blow it up, which is the reasoning that’s been used to stop people like us from practicing photography in perfectly legal ways.

Now you’re talking my language. I would totally do a photo recon of a bridge before demolition. Of course, part of my job is blowing up bridges. Not that I’ve ever gotten to do that part. It almost came my way once in Afghanistan, but the 168th Company got stuck with that mission. I kept my platoon plenty busy expanding the airbase we were at. The bridge in questions was already destroyed, and my battalion got the job of completing the demolition so new piers could be constructed.

Anyway, I’m going to archive dive from my trip to Spain earlier this year for this one. Everything old in Spain is a government building. The birthplace of King Felipe II is the water department for the city of Valladolid. How awesome is that? Way more awesome that military construction ca. 1999, that’s how awesome. I’ve also got some shots of the 15 May movement marching past the national bank building in Madrid the day before they decamped.

[Yoyo]

I’d like to give a big thanks to my TF sponsor ArmednHammered for allowing to almost have the boobies this week. Is it fair to enter an image that almost has boobies, literally? Goodnight, everyone, and good luck!

[Yoyo]

“An instant classic!” raved Holga World magazine.
“This lomographer is going place we’ve never seen before,” said reviewer from http://www.lamo-lomo.net.
“I’d buy that for a dollar!” state hipsters everywhere.

Just kidding. Neat project. Glad it turned out workable. I was imagining you would get a wider field of view.

[Yoyo]

I love being on the Big Island and looking out toward the ocean and seeing the cloud layer at a lower altitude. The sunsets from Pohakuloa were amazing. I’ve got a great silhouette of a deuce-and-a-half with the clouds and sunset and ocean behind it from when I was there for training in ’98.

[Yoyo]

Actually, to double-check, what time *is* live posting for TFers? For me as a liter it was always midnight EST (5 a.m. GMT). Is it 3 hours before (so 9 EST)?

The time difference gets screwy with standard time vs. summer time. I think you only need to stay up until 1 am in Britain. I only started back with Farktography this past summer, so it’s always been EDT for me (once I figured it all out). I wish the US would just get rid of DST once and for all. Think of the AC costs it would save.

[Yoyo]

The .pdf fluffybunny linked makes a great point about how photography hasn’t been involved in any modern terrorism acts, nor would it have helped them, and with the proliferation of high quality cell phone cameras anyone who did want to take photos of something for nefarious purposes would be unlikely to drag around the attention grabbing DSLR and 400mm L glass.

Shah Massoud (aka Shir Panjshir) would disagree about the photography/terrorism link if two Al Qaida operatives didn’t assassinate him on 9/9/01 with a bomb disguised as a video-camera while they pretended to be journalists seeking an interview.

Regarding law enforcement type personnel, they probably don’t know that they’re not allowed to confiscate images or videos. And we’ve got the guns. (I was investigating officer into an incident where a US soldier received a video tape from a local TV station cameraman.)

[Yoyo]

Where the heck are you that the thread goes up at 2am?!? In San Diego it should be 5pm, PST.

Central Europe Standard Time. Anywhere from Spain to Serbia, and a few points beyond in both directions. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m in Kosovo this year, and hopefully Romania next year if I can get my personnel section to straighten out my paperwork. I’m not sure where Rav is located.

[Yoyo]

So, yesterday I asked a woman I work with whose regular job is photography, and her advice was to just ask people you know. She’s also (a rather artsy) make-up artist. I know it’s not very helpful advice.

[Yoyo]

Kosovo presently. I might be moving to Constanta, Romania next year. What part of Europe is San Diego, Ca? Spain? Italy? 🙂

[Author]

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