I find it hard to separate the years of looking at other people's images with the act of making of my own. The references get so tangled. The red truck above is one of my ripostes at the endless adoration of William Eggleston's color work. Homage to banality. But once you see the red trike it's hard to forget the power of something new. I'm also a sucker for deck plate. That's the pattern on the metal utility cover show below. I love deck plate. I like industrial stuff. I'd happy for days in some sort of SteamPunk clock factory, just snapping away.
And...by the way....
Have you seen the "Steampunk" A.I. videos all over YouTube these days? I find them fascinating. And in a few years we'll collectively probably stop making TV shows and movies with real actors and flood the market with A.I. constructions. Interesting to know that the reason home video players took off in the 1980s was all down to the pornography industry. (The link here doesn't fall under that category....). But the video I'm linking sure makes use of my love for complex, mechanical, brass constructions as well as beautiful women.
Mike will hate this "new" media because it's not pure. Not handmade by humans. But it is the future of mass media whether you play along or not. And it's going to displace something....
Go see for yourself and make up your own mind. It's okay if you disagree but I'm not sure these short videos are anything more than proof of concept. Mini-portfolios as it were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V6VikmWKPw
Sure. We can all talk a good game about how A.I. will never replace: fill in the blank but if you sit down and look at what is already out there, and out there in a really short amount of time, you'll have to admit that the potential of the new technologies is more or less only limited by one's imagination. Finally, a reason for 8K monitors? Or you can dismiss it as did many critics of the original iPhone...
Not that I'm planning on melting down all my Leica gear and buying a bigger monitor and an easy chair, but I think it behooves both the people who are into photography as an art, as well as people who are into photography as a commercial business, to take off the blinders, ignore the Luddites and see what's out there for ourselves. Then, if you want to scurry back to your analog darkroom and unload those sheet film holders you can aptly label yourself as a contrarian or a keeper of the flame(s).
My take is that mass media is going to go in one direction and people in my generation will publicly rail about it ad infinitum but will also be sneaking another peek. You know, just for research...
Good push :). Having grown up as much on the tech side (built my first computer at 12 when it meant hand soldering one and loading up the BIOS manually) as the photography side, I love to play with the new toys. Most of the advances in my career have been because of play and I imagine some of the advances in my limited artistic ability have as well. Lately I've been playing with algorithmic art. Not good at it yet but fun to play. My X'mas gift to myself is an inexpensive pencil plotter to see what I can create.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the cameras languish but the kid is doing a good job of borrowing and using them so...
You said "the potential of the new technologies is more or less only limited by one's imagination." And that's the point.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excerpt from an article I wrote some years ago.
"As Fred Picker said in the March 1994 issue of Shutterbug, "This Koudelka (print by Czech photographer Joseph Koudelka) on the wall contains the most amazing combination of things that I know happened, because when he made that photograph there was no electronic imaging. Here are two horses, standing in a certain position, a boy sitting on a bicycle wearing an angel suit with angel wings, here's an old lady scolding him, all in magnificent light and beautifully composed. Today, that picture could be made by some guy sitting in front of a computer. Knowing that would take all the wonder out of it."
In actuality, it isn’t likely “some guy sitting in front of a computer” would make such a picture, because those who alter and/or combine photographs are limited by their imaginations. They can only do what they can conceive. But photography goes beyond human imagination. As novelist Tom Clancy has said, “The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to make sense.” The magic of photography is that life holds so many amazing and wonderful things that are entirely unanticipated, unexpected, even unimagined in the deepest sense; that is -- no one would ever have thought of such a thing happening. And then, suddenly, right out of the fabric of life, there it is. "I can do a beautiful illustration, but it doesn't have that 'instant of wonder' that a photograph will have." (Art Director Tony Anthony, quoted in "Photo District News," February, 1987.) Photography shows us things that lie beyond our imagination and compel our amazement because they really happened. It revels in the beauty, the mystery, and the strangeness of life. It is the most powerful purely visual medium ever created."
Members on a nature and wildlife photography website I frequent were polled about their age. I was a bit surprised to see that 45% of respondents are 66 or older. Most of them seem to have the latest and greatest gear. No sheet film/Speed Graphic photographers in that group.
ReplyDeleteI used to see A.I.-generated “Star Wars” trailers done in “1950s Panavision” style. I noticed as time went on that the “actors” moved more. And for some reason Princess Leia became more and more well endowed and wore more and more revealing costumes. Hmmm!
Thank you once again for reopening this blog. You mentioned a couple of articles ago that you sometimes re-read your old posts. I certainly do that, which is why I am grateful to have access to them again. Yesterday I was re-reading one of your posts from 2017 in which you set out your approach to video work. There will be newer alternatives to some of the equipment you mentioned, but your approach and attitude are still just as valid.
ReplyDeleteI noticed a week or so ago that your posts were no longer showing up in my RSS reader. I assumed this was a temporary glitch, so I visited your site from time to time to read the latest articles. It did not fix itself, so today I tried to set up your feed again in my aggregator (Feedbin), but it tells there is no RSS feed on visualsciencelab.blogspot.com. Have you changed something? Am I the last person left using RSS?
No, you're not the last person using RSS. I've missed these, too. Last feed was the December 18 7:00 AM post.
DeleteSpeaking of Eggleston and film, I saw J Spaceman and John Coxon playing music for his Stranded in Canton. Now that's a video I'm pleased isn't in 8k.
ReplyDeleteI read in yesterday's Financial Times that the Facebook crowd is rolling out a tool that allows its customers to create AI-generated characters to interact with others on social media. So instead of laying awake at night, worrying about why you're being trashed on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/etc., you can have your bot battle with the other bots on social media, to the (virtual) death. While that's going on, you can get on with life.
ReplyDeleteDang! That 50mm f2.0 Carl Zeiss lens for the M mount makes gorgeous photos. Technically, that is. I did all the heavy lifting aesthetically. Whatever there was.
ReplyDelete