Moto

[kaskais]

São as expectativas que gerem o entendimento do mundo. São elas que dirigem o nosso olhar, que escolhem o ângulo. Vejo, e fotografo, aquilo que a minha expectativa quer que eu fotografe. Não vejo o que de facto está ali a passar-se. A expectativa de que alguma coisa acontecesse ofereceu-me de bandeja esta imagem! E ficou-se por aqui!

https://kaskaisphotos.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/moto/

[Shadowman]

Nicely framed.

[DanK]

I really like some of your minimalist images, but this one doesn't work for me, for two reasons. First, the tonal range is very compressed, making the image drab. Some curves adjustments could fix this. Second, and more important, there is far too much empty space at the top, in my opinion. It makes the image unbalanced, and it creates two competing focal points of interest. I find my eye going up and down rather than focusing on the subject.

I don't know whether you allow edits. If not, PM me and I will remove this. However, I did a very quick edit. It's only approximate, but it shows what directions I think would help. I cropped it, although perhaps a little bit too much. Then I did two curves adjustments, one global and the other local, selecting all but the darkest areas. see whether edits of this type would help.

[Manfred M]

Dan - my understanding is that Antonio has very limited English, so he is unlikely to respond to any comments.

His technique with lots of sky and very little subject matter buried near the bottom of the frame was quite "in" 5 - 10 years ago, but is considered quite passé. Actually, so is B&W; none of the exhibitions I've been to over the past couple of years have shown any B&W work. When I spoke to the exhibitors and curators they confirmed this. Fine art photography definitely follows fashion trends and some of the photographers I know and work with are very much up on this as they do show their work quite frequently.

[DanK]

There is a well-regarded Japanese photographer who dispensed with subject matter entirely. His photographs were nearly featureless black and white photos of the horizon between the ocean and the sky. I heard a talk in which a curator of a major museum praised it.


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[Manfred M]

I had a chat with the photographic art curator from the National Gallery of Canada after her talk at the photo club. She was there to discuss Edward Burtynsky's current exhibit at the National Gallery (and at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto) called Anthropocene. He specializes in huge, often aerial images, that explore mankind's impact on the environment. He often leaves out the horizon, so his landscapes are often rather abstract.

We were discussing how people are very affected emotionally by his works or others who feel that there is very little emotional impact on them at all. Very much the same idea as with your example of the Japanese photographer; some will find the work stunning while others will have trouble understanding what the fuss is all about.

Fine art photography is a strange beast that definitely goes through cycles of what is in fashion and what is not.

[DanK]

I had a chat with the photographic art curator from the National Gallery of Canada after her talk at the photo club. She was there to discuss Edward Burtynsky's current exhibit at the National Gallery (and at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto) called Anthropocene. He specializes in huge, often aerial images, that explore mankind's impact on the environment. He often leaves out the horizon, so his landscapes are often rather abstract.

We were discussing how people are very affected emotionally by his works or others who feel that there is very little emotional impact on them at all. Very much the same idea as with your example of the Japanese photographer; some will find the work stunning while others will have trouble understanding what the fuss is all about.

Fine art photography is a strange beast that definitely goes through cycles of what is in fashion and what is not.

You are more charitable than I. There is a subset of the art world that is faddish and puts the false sophistication of being in the know above anything aesthetic. Some of the art displayed in one of the well-known modern art museums here--a museum of which I was a member for some years--has been truly hideous. One display, for example, was a collection of heads from decapitated dolls. Another was a bunch of large collages of construction debris from building renovations, which looked exactly like piles of rubble (because it WAS piles of rubble, just glued in place). But for whatever trendy reason, these were considered important artists, and people stood around looking thoughtfully at these ugly displays. We are supposed to look past its lack of aesthetic value because of some concept the artist says it represents. Instead, we let our membership lapse.

It's a shame, because it obscures the really inspiring modern art. That same museum has a wonderful sculpture garden with appealing and interesting sculptures of many types. This photo, for example, is one of them:



I think I once mentioned the most extreme photographic example of this that I have encountered. The same curator who was so impressed by horizon lines was also impressed by the work of another Japanese photographer who created images by placing slightly radioactive soil from Fukushima on film. The resulting images were amorphous black blobs with randomly scattered pinpoints of white. It looked like someone had spilled thick black paint. It had no aesthetic value, but she came up with some explanation of its conceptual significance. As significant as Fukushima is, I failed to see the significance of that "art." It was simply ugly.

For fun, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BlLX03OJRU

[Antonio Correia]

Dan - my understanding is that Antonio has very limited English, so he is unlikely to respond to any comments...

You mean Fernando, perhaps...
I love the work of Edward Burtynsky whom I follow for some time now.
His work Anthropocene, in collaboration with others, is absolutely amazing !

[Manfred M]

You mean Fernando, perhaps...
I love the work of Edward Burtynsky whom I follow for some time now.
His work Anthropocene, in collaboration with others, is absolutely amazing !

Sorry, I did mean Fernando...

I on the other hand find Burtynsky's older work far more interesting.

[Manfred M]

Time for a little fun...

Let me throw one of Burtynsky's Anthropocene images into EveryPixel's image evaluation image:



12.5% likelihood it's awesome. That means 87.5% that it's not awesome.




How about Ansel Adam's contact print of Moonrise Hernandez New Mexico.



14.1% chance that this image is awesome. An Adams contact print with none of his usual dodging and burning is better than Burtynshy's final product?


I wonder how Adam's finished work will fare?



Up to 30% likelihood that the final print is awesome. Personally, I could never understand the buzz about this piece as I never particularly liked it.





Okay. Let me throw a recent image I had been working on?



Woohoo! Damn I'm good!

[Round Tuit]

Time for a little fun...

Let me throw one of Burtynsky's Anthropocene images into EveryPixel's image evaluation image:



12.5% likelihood it's awesome. That means 87.5% that it's not awesome.




How about Ansel Adam's contact print of Moonrise Hernandez New Mexico.



14.1% chance that this image is awesome. An Adams contact print with none of his usual dodging and burning is better than Burtynshy's final product?


I wonder how Adam's finished work will fare?



Up to 30% likelihood that the final print is awesome. Personally, I could never understand the buzz about this piece as I never particularly liked it.





Okay. Let me throw a recent image I had been working on?



Woohoo! Damn I'm good!

Beat you



Maybe not (This one earned 3rd place in a monthly competition)

[flashback]

not a bad score, I must be better than Adams





but hey, surprisingly it didn't like Ansel Adams' Moonrise photo so how good is this AI?