Current Film Project

So recently I've begun to explore the sort of, advanced cousin medium to mine own (photography) which is that of the moving image. 

I'm a very form oriented individual. My photographic "parents" as some people like to call them, are Albert Renger-Patzsch, Julius Shulman, and Andre Kertesz. The important one in terms of this blog post is Albert Renger-Patzsch. Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity active during the Weimar Republic. Now, the New Objectivity was something that, for those who know me, would assume I would hold protest against. However, in looking at the photographs presented by Renger-Patzsch, his focus on recording the beautiful forms that exist in the world, I've found a substantial amount of nearly universal subjectivity tying together all of his work. Yes, the images were recorded at a somewhat "arm's-length-distance" in an attempt to reduce the photographers bias. However, the choice to make the photograph is the biggest form of subjective bias I can think of.

Anyway, his importance in this blog post is that the increased sensitivity to everyday forms and objects, as well as Julius Shulman's increased sensitivity to imbuing a subjective, emotional, aesthetic quality to everything he pointed his lens at helped me in my first (after a long hiatus) film project.

As for the cinematic influences on this project...well, in keeping with the Germanic/ western European love of form I was greatly inspired by German Abstract Cinema of the 1920s and later on Soviet film director (1929) Dziga Vertov's masterpiece, Man with a Movie Camera. < Please, if you have the time, watch Vertov's film.  Specific artists would have to include, Vertov, Walter Ruttmann, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling and Oskar Fischinger. While the latter four are arguably more abstract than Vertov and my film is much more in the spirit of Man with a Movie Camera, I developed my appreciation for the musicality of forms and their inherent subjective qualities because I was first introduced to German Absolut Film before experiencing anything of Vertov's. (Again, if you can spare the time, please read the short wikipedia article about Absolut Film)

Currently it's called City of Light and Lines but I might as well call it Man with a Blackberry Camera as that's what I chose to shoot with for convenience, ease of blending in and capturing the true environment, and it offered me a lo-fi, old film look that I feel works.


As the film progresses it becomes more and more abstract. Elements of sci-fi and suspense. Light is personified as a concept and a character.

Without further ado...here's my short silent film:

Any feedback, comments, questions, any...anything is greatly appreciated! Please utilize the comment box either on Youtube, blogger, or my email address provided in the right hand side bar.

Warmly,

-steve


P.S. Here is the stable URL link to the youtube page.
http://youtu.be/EWZ0HTJpdF0

Image of the Night #19

Untitled;  2012

Image(s) of the Night #17 + #18

I've been experimenting with some different photographic processes.

Here are two of the results.

Title: Mandala 1; 2012

Right-click and select open in new window in order to see full image and increased detail.

Title: 增長 ("Growth"); 2012

Upcoming Group Exhibition

Please come and look at some exceptional artists work in this upcoming group exhibition.

Check back in the near future as I will be posting a small write-up about the show and why it's more than simply a group of individuals suspending images on a wall.


*Note: This is simply my own personal promotion card. Each individual artist has made his or her own.

Back to Making Work

I've been spending quite some time reading interviews held between various individuals and John Cage. I'm working on ways to steer my work in a direction more similar to his. However, for now I'm just going to keep making the work I feel I need to.

Having said that, here are some examples of my most recent creations. As always, I'm going to leave out (aside from what one gathers from the titles) any notion of my intent or goal. Both of theses are or should be considered irrelevant for you, the audience. All they (the pieces) require of you is that you place your soul under careful observation, paying attention to its reactions.

A friend of mine mentioned that I should write up a manifesto of sorts and I'm currently battling myself with that idea. I want not to take the offensive but at the same time I strongly believe that art has been steadily traveling down a damaging path, largely to blame is capitalism, and that there should be felt some great urgency to correct it's path.

However, here, in this blog post, is not the place to do it.

Without further swelling my passions, here are some samples of new work:

100th Post - Recent Work

I've been neglecting this blog as well as the additional blog I run which, aside from some fundamental differences, shows the same work as I do here on One Hand Clapping.

Here is a compilation of the most recent work I've been focusing on:

Recent work

From left to right:
Arrangement for Yellows and Blues: Alegro con Brio - 2012;  36" x 29"  Pigment print from digital file
Arrangement for Reds and Blues: Larghetto con Motto - 2012; 36" x 29" Pigment print from digital file
Nocturne in E: Grave quasi Lamentoso - 2012; 36" x 29" Pigment print from digital file
Arrangement for Tones - 2012; 18" x 28" Pigment applied to mulberry paper

The less I say about them the more freedom I give to you in order to interpret them or better put, experience them as your own, in your own way.
Enjoy and thanks for sticking with me till now.
: )

Sincerely,

-S.

P.s. - To view the image larger than Blogger's native viewing window size please right click and select "open in new window" or "open in new tab."

New Works of the Morning (1/16/2012)

I had a difficult time sleeping throughout the night and, to be honest, had a rather odd dream. There was nothing overtly strange about it except how cemented it was in reality. No laws of physics were broken or thrown away with. The only strange thing about it was that there was nothing strange about it. Anyway, I woke up this morning, wandered down to my friend Anthony's place and woke him up asking if he wanted to go to the bookstore and get some breakfast or brunch. After hearing that he too did not sleep well I decided it was best if I give him some more time to rest, I returned to my room and picked up my camera. I discovered something though. While I normally create while listening to music I may have to stop doing so from time to time. The first image I'm going to show you comes equipped with a sound clip. Actually it will be an entire song because I'm not going to bother to edit out the specific portion that took me from the beginning to end of making the image. Anyway, the song is called "God Fearing Man" by Ben Harper (personal website here). It features an instrument known as the Weissenborn lap-slide guitar, favored by Mr. Harper. I think that the meshing of the slide guitar portions of the song combined with the subject matter and visual texture of the original photograph contributed greatly to the resulting image. I find it almost works better (as in it is better understood) when it accompanies the music. Though it is not my intention to create images that accompany music but rather images that posses a musical quality I cannot help but feel a significant connection between the image and musical piece. This I attribute to the fact that I was listening to it, rather loudly, while creating the final image. However, if I am to take a step back and look at the situation a different way I could make the argument that my current train of thought is only possible because I desire it to be so and that I'm projecting a biased opinion and created an argument to make sense of that. Whichever it may be I'll let you all be the judge of that.

The image has no name yet but the text "Created while listening to God Fearing Man by Ben Harper" accompanies it. Possibly a mistake, but for the purpose of this bolg post I feel it serves as supporting evidence.

And here is the song: (Please, if you will let it play through for a bit. It wasn't until the energetic solo that I created the image.) I couldn't upload the mp3 with this blogging site. Probably best since even though it could be considered for educational purposes and thus be filed under the "fair use act" I'd best not tread on thin ice. If you'd be so willing, please open it up in a new tab or window and open this image up. Thank you.

Below, I have another image that was made with no external stimuli such as music. Rather, it was made by an open window and though I live in New York City it has been a surprisingly quiet morning, just the wind has been blowing. This image was made before the first image in this post.

This is an un-edited image and my only thoughts towards editing it are to possibly crop a bit off of the bottom.

I sincerely thank you for your time,

Peace

-S.

UPDATE 1/16/2012:

Here is the alternate crop of the second image: