Comments for 2point8 http://2point8.whileseated.org A wide-open view of the practice of street photography by Michael David Murphy, While Seated. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:36:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 Comment on Street Photography Now (printer’s proof) by Johanna http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/02/03/street-photography-now-printers-proof/comment-page-1/#comment-121341 Johanna Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:25:47 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=741#comment-121341 Hey MDM thanks for the mention (it's Sophie Howarth b-t-w!) Hey MDM thanks for the mention (it’s Sophie Howarth b-t-w!)

]]> Comment on Reconsidering Winogrand by KBq http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/01/31/reconsidering-winogrand/comment-page-1/#comment-121106 KBq Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:30:59 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=731#comment-121106 "Let’s Do This. And yet, while Winogrand emerged from the darkroom with photographs that delineate the attentions of a man clearly focused on incongruities writ large;" Good article, but: Just so the young and impressionable set doesn't get the wrong impression, GW, at least in his 'mainstream' years, didn't print his own stuff. He farmed it out. “Let’s Do This. And yet, while Winogrand emerged from the darkroom with photographs that delineate the attentions of a man clearly focused on incongruities writ large;”

Good article, but: Just so the young and impressionable set doesn’t get the wrong impression, GW, at least in his ‘mainstream’ years, didn’t print his own stuff. He farmed it out.

]]> Comment on Reconsidering Winogrand by Graphicghreg http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/01/31/reconsidering-winogrand/comment-page-1/#comment-121010 Graphicghreg Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:24:13 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=731#comment-121010 I have always loved this shot of Winogrand's (but there are many I do) and so it is telling to see another viewpoiint with the photographer captured...WITH the subjects. That also shows how much his particular point of view added to the image ~~~> everything! I believe that toward the end of his life, it was the act of shooting that became important, not the product. But of course, this has been mentioned elsewhere by others. I have always loved this shot of Winogrand’s (but there are many I do) and so it is telling to see another viewpoiint with the photographer captured…WITH the subjects. That also shows how much his particular point of view added to the image ~~~> everything! I believe that toward the end of his life, it was the act of shooting that became important, not the product. But of course, this has been mentioned elsewhere by others.

]]> Comment on Reconsidering Winogrand by jacques philippe http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/01/31/reconsidering-winogrand/comment-page-1/#comment-120719 jacques philippe Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:44:37 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=731#comment-120719 Very nice essay, thanks for that. "he outran his own workflow (...) It’s in this spirit that I sometimes consider Winogrand to be the first digital photographer". Yes, that could be true. Though one can argue that he outran his own worflow consciously and voluntarily though (i.e. by postponing film processing months after). Don't you think that Winogrand's work routine was a bit paradoxical, being such a compulsive shooter, wanting to see "how things look like photographed" and at the same time delaying to see the result that long, to the extent that he left about 300k frames he would never see ?! ... that is fascinating... but at the same time wasn't he very much consistent with his vision by doing so ? I believe he was, deeply.... Because of his concern towards form and content that he would repeat again and again when teaching: "every photograph is a battle of form versus content. The good ones are on the border of failure". This seems to indicate that he had to experiment the most possible situations he physically could photographically exploit to challenge the "border of failure", which is not something attached specifically to the context of the shot (date and time of the shoot, mood at the moment, subject matter...) but something recorded in the film frame in an unalterable way. The "never-ending now" (as you wrote nicely) could have been for Garry Winogrand not a genuine interest for what is going on in this world - be it worth to be photographed for its own sake - but the infinite variations of the "battle of form versus content" Very nice essay, thanks for that.

“he outran his own workflow (…) It’s in this spirit that I sometimes consider Winogrand to be the first digital photographer”. Yes, that could be true. Though one can argue that he outran his own worflow consciously and voluntarily though (i.e. by postponing film processing months after).

Don’t you think that Winogrand’s work routine was a bit paradoxical, being such a compulsive shooter, wanting to see “how things look like photographed” and at the same time delaying to see the result that long, to the extent that he left about 300k frames he would never see ?!
… that is fascinating… but at the same time wasn’t he very much consistent with his vision by doing so ? I believe he was, deeply…. Because of his concern towards form and content that he would repeat again and again when teaching: “every photograph is a battle of form versus content. The good ones are on the border of failure”. This seems to indicate that he had to experiment the most possible situations he physically could photographically exploit to challenge the “border of failure”, which is not something attached specifically to the context of the shot (date and time of the shoot, mood at the moment, subject matter…) but something recorded in the film frame in an unalterable way. The “never-ending now” (as you wrote nicely) could have been for Garry Winogrand not a genuine interest for what is going on in this world - be it worth to be photographed for its own sake - but the infinite variations of the “battle of form versus content”

]]> Comment on Reconsidering Winogrand by rolo http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/01/31/reconsidering-winogrand/comment-page-1/#comment-120363 rolo Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:33:35 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=731#comment-120363 Bravo! And this, "While Winogrand’s street pictures might appear to be bounty from the hull of a trawler with a Fifth Avenue driftnet. . ." Superb. Bravo!

And this, “While Winogrand’s street pictures might appear to be bounty from the hull of a trawler with a Fifth Avenue driftnet. . .” Superb.

]]> Comment on Ways of Working #3 (Know Your Gear) by Graphicghreg http://2point8.whileseated.org/2005/09/14/ways-of-working-3-know-your-gear/comment-page-1/#comment-120263 Graphicghreg Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:05:14 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=7#comment-120263 Interesting to see you posted the link to the Majoli article. I first read this about five years ago, awhile after I bought an Oly C5050. It was a great camera indeed but woefully slow. I got many wondeful shots with the camera, and many pics of the sidewalk as the shutter fired five seconds after I pressed the release. Newer cameras like the Canon G11 are much faster and a worthy successor to a Leica and a fraction of the price of the real thing. Plus it has a (limited) viewfinder for daylight shooting. Interesting to see you posted the link to the Majoli article. I first read this about five years ago, awhile after I bought an Oly C5050. It was a great camera indeed but woefully slow. I got many wondeful shots with the camera, and many pics of the sidewalk as the shutter fired five seconds after I pressed the release. Newer cameras like the Canon G11 are much faster and a worthy successor to a Leica and a fraction of the price of the real thing. Plus it has a (limited) viewfinder for daylight shooting.

]]> Comment on Ways of Working #1 (Get over it) by Graphicghreg http://2point8.whileseated.org/2005/09/06/rule-1/comment-page-1/#comment-120262 Graphicghreg Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:51:10 +0000 http://www.2point8.whileseated.org/?p=3#comment-120262 Points well made, especially paragraph #4. Diane Arbus was not a street photographer, she was a portraitist. Once the photographer has influenced the event,it is no longer street photography other than the fact that it may have been recorded "on the street" or other public place. That does not mean that the subjects cannot be <i>aware</i> of the camera as in Cartier-Bresson's image from Spain http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bressonalicante.htm Points well made, especially paragraph #4. Diane Arbus was not a street photographer, she was a portraitist. Once the photographer has influenced the event,it is no longer street photography other than the fact that it may have been recorded “on the street” or other public place. That does not mean that the subjects cannot be aware of the camera as in Cartier-Bresson’s image from Spain
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bressonalicante.htm

]]> Comment on Garry Winogrand with Bill Moyers, 1982 by Graphicghreg http://2point8.whileseated.org/2007/03/23/garry-winogrand-with-bill-moyers/comment-page-1/#comment-120236 Graphicghreg Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:09:42 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=152#comment-120236 In 1973 I was fortunate enough to take a week-long workshop with Garry Winogrand. It was at the Country Photography Workshop in Woodman, Wisconsin. We spent mornings photographing in small rural towns of the area. I remember the group discussing the day's photos after dinner. He would ask one of the students, "what do you see in this photo?" Of course the person would create a "story" as a reply...you know, "well um, it looks like the little girl is sad because her mother won't let her go into the store, and, you know, she is trying to break away from her mom, and he shoe came of while trying and...". Winogrand would come back and say, "No, what do you SEE in the photograph?" I don't think that any of us got it at that time. Although I never was a storyteller, it has taken me 35 years to accept that photographs do not narrate, they describe. Most of the world however, still cling to that old adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words". Not! In 1973 I was fortunate enough to take a week-long workshop with Garry Winogrand. It was at the Country Photography Workshop in Woodman, Wisconsin. We spent mornings photographing in small rural towns of the area. I remember the group discussing the day’s photos after dinner. He would ask one of the students,
“what do you see in this photo?” Of course the person would create a “story” as a reply…you know, “well um, it looks like the little girl is sad because her mother won’t let her go into the store, and, you know, she is trying to break away from her mom, and he shoe came of while trying and…”. Winogrand would come back and say, “No, what do you SEE in the photograph?” I don’t think that any of us got it at that time. Although I never was a storyteller, it has taken me 35 years to accept that photographs do not narrate, they describe. Most of the world however, still cling to that old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Not!

]]> Comment on Does Haiti’s Crisis Call for a New Photojournalism? by 4edges http://2point8.whileseated.org/2010/01/20/a_new_photojournalism/comment-page-1/#comment-120034 4edges Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:58:05 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=715#comment-120034 Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel asked Burk Uzzle to explain what he meant when he said this about his Cambodian photographs. "I hope that they reflect the subject first" and that "I gave myself to the refugees." His response is reflective of much of what I think the photos of Haiti should have. "The best photography comes when the photographer gives rather than takes. I think you give of your energies, you give of your understanding, you give of your perceptions, and all that you are. You filter that subject matter through all that you've become and experienced, and you give something back. I think that is really what gives joy, what gives growth, in not only the person that does it but in the person that receives it." Visions and Images: Cornell Capa and Burk Uzzle, 1981 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0V4Xv-20os&NR=1 Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel asked Burk Uzzle to explain what he meant when he said this about his Cambodian photographs. “I hope that they reflect the subject first” and that “I gave myself to the refugees.” His response is reflective of much of what I think the photos of Haiti should have.

“The best photography comes when the photographer gives rather than takes. I think you give of your energies, you give of your understanding, you give of your perceptions, and all that you are. You filter that subject matter through all that you’ve become and experienced, and you give something back. I think that is really what gives joy, what gives growth, in not only the person that does it but in the person that receives it.”

Visions and Images: Cornell Capa and Burk Uzzle, 1981
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0V4Xv-20os&NR=1

]]> Comment on PapageorgeX2 by jacques philippe http://2point8.whileseated.org/2009/11/19/papageorgex2/comment-page-1/#comment-119654 jacques philippe Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:34:37 +0000 http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=678#comment-119654 This has to be some of the most insightful words I ever read about photography. Thanks a lot. This has to be some of the most insightful words I ever read about photography. Thanks a lot.

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