Photography As ART

NARRATOR:

Nearly a decade passed before James could advance his creative photographic art. During this time, he had moved to Florida.

CUT to introductory shots of the Photo Gallery and Studio.

It took some time to get his life back to normal, and with the help of his sister and brother-in-law, Yvonne and Ken Hannan, he was able to open a studio-gallery in 2007.

CUT to different kinds of photography taken in the studio: Commercial, Portrait, Boudoir…

JAMES:

A studio is a great asset to a photographer. It provides a place where all aspects of taking a photograph can be fully controlled, especially vital in the manipulation of light.

CUT back to Image 77 shows the streaked color backside of new Muse, Karen, and Image 79 shows her in B/W streaked by light while elongated on the floor, and other STREAKER Photos if needed.

NARRATOR:

At the end of 2008 and into early 2009 he used the studio to complete the Aurora w/Eos series discussed at the opening of this review of PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART. Earlier experimentation in 2008, leading up to the making the Aurora series, included the STREAKER photographs, of which two of his favorites we have been viewing.

NARRATOR:

This was followed by BODY PARTS photographs, which could be compared to that popular magician’s act of sawing the body in half and an honestly played shell game, where the disassembled body parts have been shuffled out of order. In the studio a set was constructed out of a large thick piece of industrial Styrofoam.

NARRATOR:

As with all his photographic art, this magic act for the illusion is entirely performed on one canvas, which in the digital era means on one in-camera photo file. To enable his magic feat meant cutting six shells out of the Styrofoam that could be removed and replaced individually, as the Muse moved underneath to a different opened shell.

CUT to a hand holding an unprocessed piece of 2 1⁄4 transparency (or if it works… other) film, have it DISSOLVE to show a final processed photograph.

NARRATOR:

When the canvas was film, photography always had a magical aura. The certainty of the outcome was never absolutely certain until you had your processed film in hand.

NARRATOR:

These BODY PARTS photographs on a single digital file retain that same aura, because the results shown on the LCD cannot be confirmed until the photographic shell game has ended and the shutter is closed.

CUT to stock footage of card tricks, sawing body in half, possibly the shell game, or other suggested magic or illusion.

James believes that to give the perception of magic, allowing the photographer to be an illusionist is something not accessible to the computer artist, who uses photographs as substrates in building a final image.

CUT to a Pan around a some old to new camera bodies, then DISSLOVE into some artistically recorded photos, such as Tango, Charge at the TAN-TAN, Horses running in Iceland, etc.

JAMES:

Look at it this way. Photography achilleas heal is that it’s a perfect recording devise. If it happens to capture what looks like reality that we know isn’t real, we can say by magic we’ve captured an illusion, because the camera’s only intrinsic ability is to record (however artistically) what’s real.

CUT to a PAN of different computers, and DISSOLVE to Images having a photographic quality that are Compographs not photographs.

NARRATOR:

On the other hand, a computer’s amazing intrinsic capabilities are designed to create perfect virtual (or fake) realities with ease.

Its art production is actually a perfect creative collaboration between artist and scientist. That’s fine, but it should be recognized this brings art to another level of a compographer.

CUT to the imperfect PAINTER Illusion, and possibly the TOTEL POLL Illusion or initial Aurora trials (Can discuss with Editor along with Dr. Neal to help decide what will work best.)

My traditional photographic approach shows imperfection, it’s more organic and comparatively primitive.

NARRATOR:

ONE SHIPMENT OF BODY PARTS has the Muse appearing like a mannequin, arriving in two parts in two large boxes.

CUT to CU and ZOOM OUT from a portrait photo taken of Karen.

NARRATOR:

He found this a fun shoot to do, but Karen is unlikely to agree. For her it may have seemed like more abuse of the Muse.

CUT back to ONE SHIPMENT OF BODY PARTS to capture various angles.

NARRATOR:

In making this scene, she had to balance herself upside down for a long minute or two, using a blackened(unseen) monopoles for balance.

It was these photographic experiments that lead to the Aurora “painting with light” series shown at the start of this presentation, which brings us full circle to this creative process of “photography as art.”