DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> The Tom Waits end of photography
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 18 of 18, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 10/04/2010 03:05:24 PM · #1
For those craving an alternative to the Celine Dion end of photography, may I offer the antithesis?

Hereâs a small selection to get you started â¦

First a couple of notable low-fidelity photographers:

Igor Posner
Michael Ackerman (not suitable for religious rant thread enthusiasts)

And a couple more free radicals offering interesting photographs as well as an illuminating quote:

Miroslav Tichy, who said: "â¦the mistake is a part of it, it is poetryâ¦and for that you need a bad camera."

Paolo Pellegrin, who said: "I'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished' - a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in." Pellegrin had an exhibition called âAs I was dyingâ which I was fortunate to attend; the theme was death, and yet in some of his most eloquent images the dead person was not even in the frame. And the picture was of course all the better for that inspired restraint.

Hopefully this is all nourishment for your imagination. If so, please post links to other photographers swimming in the dirty water down at the Tom Waits end of the pool.

Message edited by author 2010-10-04 15:07:36.
 10/04/2010 03:19:47 PM · #2
Thanks for starting the thread ubique. As a big fan of both Waits and the lo-fi end of the pool i'm keen.

Quite timely as well as there seems to be some small discussion over in the Macro thread complaining about images being 'creative' but not 'quality' whatever that means. Seems like gibberish to me but i think i get what people are getting at even if i disagree entirely.

Thanks for the links. Some wonderful photography there.

I'll post a couple...

Brett Walker, a photographer who [user]Pawdrix[/user] was very keen on and introduced to me.

And it's always worth taking another look at Roger Ballen

10/04/2010 03:36:23 PM · #3
I never, ever, would have imagined that this sort of imagery was what I'd be drawn to. Amazing stuff, especially Roger's stuff. Haunting.
 10/04/2010 03:38:32 PM · #4
Thanks for starting this thread. I always love checking out the links people post. Some gems included in this thread already.

One I like a lot Susan Burnstine

Message edited by author 2010-10-04 15:39:49.
 10/04/2010 04:34:41 PM · #5
Interesting. I'm sure for many here DPC exists as a way to push us towards and challenge our ability to move from crude amateur to polished professional. It also creates a platform for which to showcase the ever improving technical performance of digital equipment, after all it's a digital contest and not a legacy film contest and digital still has some ways to go before it supersedes all the capabilities of film. Therefore until most of us have gone down the path of proving our ability to master composition, exposure and processing to the best of our abilities work like that featured here is IMO beyond the scope of why people come to DPC. The nature of most of these examples is crude by design and executed at a masters level. It's great to appreciate but I think it's far beyond the nature of what DPC would or should ever be. While I guess if given the choice I'd rather hang out with Tom than Celine I unfortunately need to spend a few more years in Vegas before I head down to the Bayou.
 10/04/2010 04:46:01 PM · #6
speaking of Tom Waits, he was so awesome in this movie, put it on your netflix list.
 10/04/2010 09:11:53 PM · #7
Originally posted by ubique:
â¦the mistake is a part of it, it is poetryâ¦and for that you need a bad camera."


great quote. great thread. thanks.

Message edited by author 2010-10-04 21:13:57.
 10/04/2010 09:55:49 PM · #8
Thank you.
Originally posted by ubique:


Paolo Pellegrin, said: "I'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished' - a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in."


What is it that makes people want to tie things up with ribbons.....

10/05/2010 09:31:33 AM · #9

interesting article
an informal movement
 10/09/2010 03:28:40 AM · #10

erich hartmann
 10/22/2010 11:22:13 PM · #11
Originally posted by clive_patric_nolan:
Brett Walker, a photographer who [user]Pawdrix[/user] was very keen on and introduced to me.


Wow. Incredible photostream. With guys like him around, I wonder why I bother picking up a camera at all.

And why won't Steve's (pawdrix's) name resolve? Where'd he go?
 10/23/2010 12:56:03 AM · #12
Originally posted by bvy:
And why won't Steve's (pawdrix's) name resolve? Where'd he go?


Brian, Steve closed his account here a couple of months or so ago :(

10/23/2010 01:00:45 AM · #13
Reminds me - I need to yell at him for removing his whole profile. That wasn't necessary.... bah! He could have at least left it there. You hear me, Steve? :-)

If you have shots of his favorited, you can still see them for now. One of the next database cleanups will probably kill them off, though.
 10/23/2010 05:34:42 AM · #14
-

Message edited by author 2010-10-23 18:43:13.
 10/23/2010 05:36:47 AM · #15
-

Message edited by author 2010-10-23 16:15:22.
 10/23/2010 07:50:04 AM · #16
I've been reading Susan Sontag on Photography (again): last night the essay The Heroism of Vision:

" ...one can make less and less sense out of the formalist's notion of timeless beauty. Darker, time-bound models of beauty have become prominent, including a reevaluation of the photography of the past; and, in an apparent revulsion against the Beautiful, recent generations of photographers prefer to show disorder, prefer to distill an anecdote, more often than not a disturbing one, rather than isolate an ultimately reassuring ' simplified form' ...

... the camera can be lenient; it is also expert at being cruel. But its cruelty only produces another kind of beauty ..."

An extreme offering in that vein to this thread is the Magnum photographer Antoine D'Agata.

D'Agata was in short pants (if any) when Sontag wrote those words, but I think she'd have appreciated his savage view of beauty, even unto his depraved essay in 'sordid and artificial purgatory' â Stigma.

edit: typo.

Message edited by author 2010-10-23 07:55:13.
 10/23/2010 04:03:23 PM · #17
-

Message edited by author 2010-10-23 18:43:03.
 10/23/2010 09:38:35 PM · #18
Originally posted by whiteroom:
interesting article
an informal movement

Enjoyed that. Good read. Thanks. (Also, was unfamiliar with F-Stop Magazine, so thank you twice.)
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 08/10/2025 11:50:29 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 08/10/2025 11:50:29 AM EDT.