Check out these George Clooney images:
Question: Why Are Movie Characters So Often Cardboard-Thin?
Image by monojussi
This is one of the few high concept shots I have ever taken concious of the concept. Most of the time the concepts (if any) are born after the fact as a result of a weird association.
This time, I actually saw the cardboard cut-outs at a movie theatre in the building where I work (I usually take a shortcut to the metro station through their lobby) and the title came to my mind and only then did I start shooting.
Demonstration in Madrid III
Image by cronopio1979
I love this city.
The original SimonB
Excellent perspective on the subject (both definitions of that sentence).
This is of course how we will make early UBS gigs look like they sold out…
emmaporium
Brillaint.
Is this "rent a crowd" for UBS?
emmaporium
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called usebothsides fan club, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
monojussi
That is the only way we can get George Clooney to come to the first gig, I am afraid.
Hélder Cotrim
Because they live inside a Parallel Universe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcyjKE-8us&feature=related
TLaakso
Nice use of dof here – to be precise, depth is the issue here ain’t it. The conceptualization (the question) is given a boost by the white outlines of these cards – well seen and thought.
Btw. in your description you mention this associative way of connecting an idea to the image. Nothing to be ashamed about it: actually I think this is the thrill of amateur photography (at least essential aspect of it). Hunting (many of the terms used in the photography are loaned from this sport) the images and trying to see meaning everywhere around you – even in the places there is none. Nobody has said that the idea must be ripe at the moment of exposure. To me too, It is a process. You just turn from one street corner and think here you will find an image.
And maybe you will.
monojussi
Thanks.
I am not saying I am ashamed of only coming up with the concepts later — it is simply a fact. Most of the stuff I shoot is not conceptual as such, anyway — it is associative.
DigitalLyte
the two-dimensional character to the rightmost looks as if she is about to have a breakout moment as she ponders the situation
monojussi
This is a promo for the new George Clooney flick "Up in the Air". Perhaps something like that happens in the movie.
iofdi
… could be, or it could still just be up in the air?
Sometimes with camera in hand, loitering with intent, I feel moments of synchronicity. Love that magic. At other times, it only happens after I upload and really look at the photo.
I see many people as cartoon characters, this photo reminds me a bit of that.
Evergreengirl
I haven’t been to visit your stream in quite awhile and here I bop in to this great pic. I guess a lot of movie characters (and book characters too) are like that because we want them to be that way. We want to escape reality for awhile and believe that all the men are handsome and tough and all the women are beautiful and sexy and all the children are precocious and cute. The good guys win and the bad guys get their just desserts.
I’m like you most of the time – I depend on serendipity. I just keep my eyes open and shoot things that strike my fancy. Occasionally I actually plan something and sometimes that works (which is really cool) and sometimes it totally flops (which is frustrating).
I like the way you composed this shot and the narrow frame suits the theme too. Well done!
emmaporium
@ Jussi, and TLaakso (and anyone else!)
"Most of the time the concepts (if any) are born after the fact as a result of a weird association".
The same is true of Art (when I do it at least)….most conceptual artists, I am told, have the idea first, and then decide how to make it.
I am the other way round, finding the materials and making the piece first….materials and process based….the concept either "evolves" as the piece is being made, or after the fact. The same is true of photograhy, I guess…
monojussi
There is probably a ton of theory about this, but being blissfully ignorant of art theory, I will babble on.
I have coined two terms for these two approaches: synthetic and organic.
In the synthetic approach the concept comes first and then the materials or image or whatever is synthesized to correspond to the concept.
In the organic approach one observes or shapes the materials or image an only then, a concept emerges organically.
The synthetic approach has quite a bit of common with engineering — you have a goal in mind and then you systematically build a way to get there.
This probably also explains why I am mostly an organic image-maker: I am an extrelemely poor engineer.
Now, Emma, you being the expert: whose art theory did I just reinvent in horribly mangled and child-like way?
emmaporium
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for you!) I don’t know…I need to look into it. This is something a group of us (artists) have only recently discovered when analysing each other’s working practices. At first I was quite alarmed that I seemed to be doing it all back-to-front, but that’s just the way I work. I couldn’t just have a blistering idea, and then work out how to execute it….far too clinical. So even the things which seem to have a sharp concept benhind them are anything but…..(even poor old "Carl Andre" was an afterthought to a pile of soggy newspaper bricks)…..so an organic approach seems to be the most apt description.
There must be some theory on this….the closest thing I can think of is in educational theory (different styles of teaching, learning, curriculum development etc…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
emmaporium
P.S. Jussi – I don’t think you mangled it, I might just have to borrow it……
monojussi
Be my guest. I just have a feeling that the conclusions might not be exactly new and unique.
emmaporium
I’m sure the’re not, but you explain it quite well!
°m°
one of the most interesting discussions I’ve read on flickr so far…
your distinction between organic and synthetic reminds me of the distinction between figurative and abstract art (and conceptual art), which to me is only one facet of a broader philosophical (ontological, to be precise) discussion concerning the perception of reality and the access to cognition.
considering that, I’d say that both the organic and the synthetic approach share the premise of "constructing the world through photography". even the synthetic, engineered photographies would not be there without the "filter" of the photographer’s imagination, whithout him or her considering the relative motive worth of taking a picture of.
that would be the constructivist interpretation of your discussion, I guess 🙂
@emmaporium: is that close to what you meant by educational theory or is it something completely different?
emmaporium
@ °m° – yes, that’s pretty much it – thanks! 🙂
monojussi
Well done.
But you did mention Barthes in one of your posts recently, didn’t you.
°m°
@ emmaporium: yay :-)! it’s so interesting to read about the "genesis" of your artwork!!
@monojussi: yes I did mention Barthes 🙂 he would enjoy our discussion here because he basically said that we can only experience the world through language.
maybe susan sontag’s "on photography" would be a good read. she writes:
"In teaching us a new code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads – as an anthology of images."
emmaporium
Susan Sontag’s "On Photography" is the second masterpiece mentioned this morning. I think Jussi is going to be busy 🙂
monojussi
Pretty soon I won’t be an uneducated yokel any more. I just ordered Barthes’ Camera Lucida, Bachelard’s Poetics of Space, Sontag’s On Photography, and Berger’s Ways of Seeing on Amazon.
Quite curiously, when Amazon gave me a list of recommendations (as to what buyers of these books have usually bought and/or what I might enjoy), one of the top choices was the Ant and Dec book "Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story".
I distinctly remember someone mentioning Ant & Dec in a conversation within the past couple of days.
Talk about serendipidity…
monojussi
I ordered the Sontag before seeing your post, °m°, honest 😉
emmaporium
Pah, I doubt you were ever an uneducated yokel…
It was our esteemed Manager, SimonB who mentioned Ant & Dec….the mind boggles as to who actually bought one of the aforementioned tomes in combination with that….a spot of light Christmas shopping, most likely (although I prefer to think it was a maniac).
Must read the Barthes then – by some wild coincidence, I’ve read all the others, which must be some sort of record (not Ant & Dec, though)
monojussi
The uneducated yokel bit is part serious, part self-referential humour.
I am certainly not nearly as well-read as most liberal arts majors — especially in their areas of specialty. But I am not totally hopeless, either.
When I went to the uni, we had some gettogethers with students of Sociology and Social Politics (quite fittingly, their student organization was calld Stigma, ours Prodeko) from another uni (do not ask how that had started).
They certainly had a very disdainful air about them and they treated us by default as uneducated engineering yokels. It was quite delightful to be able to play their game a little bit and surprise them once in a while.
We ended up having a few fairly visible flame wars that ended even in the newspapers.
°m°
I believe you monojussi, great minds think alike, hehe.
emmaporium: have you read "mythologies" by barthes? if not: I think you’d like it 🙂
emmaporium
Amazon is doing quite well out of us this morning, I have just ordered the Barthes. They didn’t offer me Ant & Dec though, I feel slightly miffed….
Jussi, I would say you are almost definitely more well read than most liberal arts majors (in my experience anyway). Areas of their particular specialities do not count, as they would not be expected to know and understand all about particle physics, for example.
There is, and always has been a great deal of unjustified snobbery and rivalry between the Arts and the Sciences.
One of the most erudite and knowledgeable people I have ever encountered in the field of history, politics and philosophy, is a computer scientist with a degree in chemistry.
emmaporium
@°m° – no I haven’t, I will add it to the list 🙂
°m°
I hate the snobbery and rivalry between the Arts and the Sciences!
monojussi
Strong buy on Amazon stock. I additionally ordered Mythologies and a long-ago read and loved book that I tragically lost somewhere. Lewis Mumford’s "The Myth of the Machine".
emmaporium
Both Mythoogies and Camera Lucida ordered 🙂 Amazon shares through the roof….
Point-Shoot-Edit
Absolutely fantastic
TLaakso
Great conversation! Camera Lucida was once my bible and sure would like to share thoughts about it someday. Be carefull though: I have noted that the first hand experience and a little bit of thought gets you very far and getting tangled with the thinkers like Barthes might wind you to see punctums everywhere. It is written in ingenious rhetorics and it really gets to you! Be careful of the contamination – wear protective clothing 😉
Edit. Bergers Ways of Seeing is not a very good book in my account. At least not without seeing the original series that it relates to. It is the kind of arts education book for kids; an attempt to start and arm public with some media criticism. Many of the concepts you have met elsewhere I’m sure. I think his essay anthology Toisinkertoja is much more rewarding (includes the Appereances, Stories, etc etc).
Edit2. Geez, getting to this short answer was a real process. Wrote many versions , edited it and saved again. My problem always – inability to let go.
emmaporium
I remember being forced to read Berger’s "Ways of Seeing" as an undergraduate….didn’t remember much about it, so went to seek it out. Lo and behold, I don’t seem to have it anymore….
The original SimonB
I seem to recall my cousin bought me Ways Of Seeing for my 18th, wonder if I still have it.
monojussi
Then again, maybe Berger will be the one book that won’t make me feel totally inadequate 😉
Black&Color
Thank you for adding the explanation and I understand your point. I like the picture in and of itself, but understanding the concept gives it a new dimension.
This is such an interesting conversation, and I would much like to participate if it weren’t for the fact that I do not have a well set position on it. Love it though and will re-read it during the coming holiday.
Thank you for your comments on my latest uploads. I like the other version of the leaves too and the blue abstracts are rusted paint on top of a car.
monojussi
I am not sure any of us have set positions, either.
antoine takes pictures
Interesting conversation indeed and great photography with a pending question !
Both remind me of Wilde’s quote : Nature imitates Art.
emmaporium
😀
monojussi
Emma, one could almost think we are being accused of having an
intellectualintelligible conversation.Must shape up!
emmaporium
Bah, I must wake up!….for a moment I wondered what you were accusing me of……it’s not often I get accused of having an intellectual anything, let alone making sense.
That should do it for starters. More drivel (by the bucket-load) is available upon request for the dumbing-down of this intellectual conversation.
😉
emmaporium
Ha! My books have just arrived 🙂
See you next week. folks!
😉
monojussi
I got the Mumford today which came from a small Amazon affiliate. The actual Amazon stuff is not here yet.
emmaporium
Both of mine were from Amazon affiliates… They were cheaper 🙂
monojussi
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/7919353@N04/]Thanks for the link, that stuff is good. I have actually found something similar here on flickr:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/graciform/4038965071/]
Evergreengirl
I’m definitely in the "organic" camp. I hardly ever have a concept and even when I do it is often abandoned as I work with the subject matter. This approach reminds me of writers who often say that a character takes on a life of his/her own and demands to say certain things or behave in certain ways, sometimes contrary to what the author originally had in mind. So it it is with photography for me. Things just seem to cry out "Take my picture!", "Look at me!". Like Emma’s experience with her art, the concept evolves as I work with the subject matter.
monojussi
Wow, it is good to reread some old convos. This was a good one.
As for the reading, I’ve read Sontag, stuck in the middle of Barthes, the others are still waiting.