April 30, 2009

Rush No Spirit No Rush Spirit

The late (re)discovery(discovery for me) of great photographer Saul Leiter is refreshing as was the time spent perusing the works of gone photographer Edward Weston. It's not only the photographs but the man behind the photographs and its thought out act of photography. The careful and cautious frenziness and visual excitement, the perception and the search of a spirit in the photograph of a chosen subject.It didn't always translate in outstanding pictures but they would go back knowing then what to look for.
Following my previous rant about over producing is the confession of my own compulsive production and piles of unthought photographs that now find its way to the bin.Victim of the illusory and lush quality of color I clicked at will at photos that looked good for a minute and made me think I had something.Well, no rush but no.I had nothing worth or so little. Beware of the wide-angle trick and the lush colors, that's not all a good photograph is about. As for black & white, resorting to exquisite printing recipe just hide the weaknesses of the photograph sometimes.No rushing and searching for the spirit is worth.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Primary Colors (gas station)

Following my previous post is another catch taken with my point & shoot digital camera.Last night I was reading, at last, an essay on Edward Weston Photography by Terrence Pitts and took the time afterwards to look at the photographs he had made, and It got me battling, in a wordly manner, and taking on photography and the manufactured commerce that prevails nowadays on its shoulders. The photoblog community in which I am taking part will not be exempted from the analysis that will ensue. The blooming of contests, the blooming of production of equipment and the confusion about what photography is, could and should be has reached a climax that has frustration and despair looming upon me. As much as I welcome the beautiful spread of the exercise of expression, it seems strongly that the profusion of glossy mags and photographic entities are drowning and leading photography in a realm of over produced emptiness of senses despite the abundant and honest work of photographers and writing of educated critics. And when it could advocate(let's say for preservation of our waters with so many photos made on the subject), photographers fail to do so for the sheer 15 minutes of warholian fame and commerce only. Photography is living at the same pace of the dominant post-industrial activity. It looks like wall street to simplify. Senseless with few exceptions(the intimist portrait photographers,photoreporters and too little a number of Landscapists).

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 29, 2009

Primary Colors

First, the eye. The quality of the equipment absolutely needed ought to be defined only by the nature and the needed quality of the final output. Photography consumers should be reminded more of that, but in the technological gadgetry driven society and market we live in we do feel compelled to buy the newest item because it has that new technological feature that we won't use but somehow need to have. Camera manufacturers have given obsolescence a new pace, they in fact control it and are being helped by photo mags to have us think that what we bought 6 months ago is no good no more to do what we were doing when it was all film camera photography and digital cameras didn't exist. They won't give us a better eye. It's not against the technology but I hate to see us mostly driven and not knowing why we do get stuff we might not need in the end or that do not make things better.That shot above reminds me of my point & shoot I haven't used in months whereas it served me greatly.We all know it's about the eye.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 28, 2009

Pebbles H2o

I might have been distracted while visiting the zoo that day, while discovering my new lens.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 27, 2009

Natural Jewelry

Fallen Leaves, a photographer's fav. The sight of it was more than that photograph.A souvenir of it,just in case I won't see it happen again.
Funny... death and life entangled together.


AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 25, 2009

Rocking the sky

Just a peaceful sight and a way to blend two dimensions in one shot. Unity as a viable concept only blocked by being narrow-minded whereas open eyes and mind can get you there.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Twins maybe

I was caught by these two.Then it was only a sight, but reflecting a little on what could be said about it.We look in the same directions.We search for the same thing, aren't we in general? Not the same ways I reckon and not with the same mind frame.But we dress, we eat, we breathe,we work,we dream,we move and are being moved,we think(some with a different part of the brain!?).We got different taste because many flavors to choose from and live by and be satisfied with.But what does it come to and where does it all go during our lifetime? A quest for a good living.Now is it enough to think only for ourselves or elevating and sharing the views and goals with everyone is something worth working towards to?
I reckon it is.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 24, 2009

Reverie

People are absorbed while driving, somewhere else(when not glued to their phones). I had started focusing on them drivers when photography time would only occur while driving myself. Absorbed by others.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 23, 2009

Evanescent Elegance

Her silhouette.We were all moving forward. My film was not sensitive enough but I was.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 22, 2009

Rear Views (Spied on)

I'll keep posting even though I'm done clarifying my transition in photography. It will help me sorting out the production and tossing away the bad. Hopefully during that process I'll end up with an idea of packaging all of them in a nicer way. Keep watching. The next will be... next.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 21, 2009

Volumes

Aesthetics. The subjects have radically changed from people to things. The nature of the stacked photos speaks volumes of that change. I now study and develop as much as possible. A perspective.
People 's photography is something I still want to do, maybe in a more formal way. But the hunt, but the hunt sometime...

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 18, 2009

Intuitive Abstract Series Study

A quest it was not. Offering it was. Not commended, just a sudden opportunity to make a trip worth. I was out serving my need of photography, an urge to get something out of a photographic intent and not leaving the chosen premises empty handed was the motivation.(It can be so frustrating sometimes, not seeing properly what lies in front of you). Time flies and you see zip.
Not so long ago it was hard to relate to that kind of capture. My relationship to pure aesthetics being so new. About the place it has in my photography, its importance?
Evolution. An ode to photography as an art of seeing things, a spiritual journey to be fulfilled visually. It's more than an ability.It's what I do.I
t is my artistic awareness and a need to harmonize with a medium of choice.It's all good.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Fency Negative

It's about seeing an opportunity and it's about trust in the outcome.It's about the surprise after you've done what was required at the time.Shooting and grasping what you felt no matter what.It is not about achieving something terrific but it is about doing what was commended at the time.And it is what it is, at last.Now it might not appeal to everybody but all things being equal it serves one purpose,your own.A reflex,a thought, an idea,a vision and an image.It might also be an experiment a posteriori to deepen.You be the first judge of that, you decide and others will give you feedbacks... maybe.The absolute truth about it doesn't lie in time but in the intent and the action at the time.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 17, 2009

Virgin Island

Another work, another section done yesterday.Another natural abstract that will complement and compliment the abstract series whose flagship is "3x5 area#1(Monochrome)" , an earlier april post.I am producing more than I can chew and digest. Abstract has no limit.I Gotta set some.For sanity first. Might be the novelty of it and a fast growing harvest. My mind is set on photo mode and the environment is generous.The actual findings are highly satisfying and satisfactory.So why stopping?...It needs to be put together and the works need outlets for them to go live.Need to have a clear look and enjoy what I did.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 16, 2009

Shiny Spots(Georgetown, DC)

Sun is shining today and I had a wonderful meeting with Nature couple of hours ago. I took an hour and drove to my favorite spot, somewhere in Great Falls by the water, to grab a shot I had overlooked months ago but got notice of, perusing through archives. Nature doesn't waste time. I did and that shot was nowhere to be had no more. Postponed until...Ah! further notice... from Nature!!??
Sun was shining and I was in my favorite spot. Now it was just nice being there. And...Nature gave out something I took right away. Series! I smiled because now I found myself doing series. As for the finding, I could see it 'cause I had tried to extract something similar, but from a different part of Great Falls. Singles or maybe sketches they were at the time.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 11, 2009

(basta!)...La Vista!

Being aware of our surrounding.
What a poor sight from where I was standing. Actually a park with no trees, really. And there I was looking at a tree whose branches had been cut down to open a vista...a vista on what?...Umh...a park with no trees?! Exactly.
I've been told that in Montgomery County, MD it is difficult to have a permission to cut down trees. But if you build a house you can chop as many as you need, want or wish. Houses are growing like mushrooms, old trees are going down Kaboom!...basta!

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 9, 2009

A maze

It was all there and I was and the kids were minding their own business so I could take care of mine before we all regroup and be family again. And it was just nice to have the camera to be in perfect harmony and not fighting against what you see and want to get. And the light is so intense and you don't have shades. That camera comes in handy between light and you. Pop!There it goes.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 7, 2009

Rings

I can't say it is Contemporary Photography(someone else be the judge of that) but I can say that this is new, and to me and to others probably since I haven't seen this done before... yet. But it is contemporary as far as my photographic history and experience are concerned. It's a visual work that's been progressing at a steady pace and the applications of that optical approach has opened a field of work and production which will only be limited by a decision to end the exploration to a satisfying, to a satisfied degree. I'm not there yet. I'm still searching for new objects that can compliment the process on top of the different ones I have already tackled, the first body of work. I'm excited by the novelty of it and the new aesthetic that it brings.


AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

3x5 area #1(Monochrome)

I don't have much luxury to travel yet and bathe my camera under the sun of photographic tourism. Ah Iceland, Ah Japan, lands of the iced abstractions here I come. So I do locally(Maryland)...for now, and as long as you're motivated and, when needed, fast to grasp, especially in winter you can compensate creatively. I had 24hours before it all melted down to water to cover 60square ft. A last minute discovery on my way to buy shoes for my kin. Inspiration. A quick note to say that I have a kid-related photography project going on. So artsy sometimes... To be continued

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

End of the Day

Black & white postcards showing some of the works of renowned french photographers put me on the road to humanistic photography and got me rambling the streets of Paris.This kind of photography was to occupy my eye and mind and embark me on an indefinite trip which soon after was to translate inner thoughts and feelings.
I 'll skip a big chunk of my history of photography. A day to day post will take my brain away from what I'm doing right now. I'll go back and forth as it comes and tell about the conditions as much as memory allows. Next. I'll post one right after that is one of a series I made in 24 hours...a most recent work.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 6, 2009

Parc St-Cloud(France)

My preferred field of practice was the Parc de Saint-Cloud, the railroad was second best.
I have rediscovered that shot in 2006. It was then the first time I laid eyes on it. Discovery was when I shot the picture(91)of course. Practice is what it is. If you have the time, go check out the Parc. Was truly beautiful, still got to be. It was my photographic academy. And then I naturally extended my field by taking the camera everywhere I was going. That easy. As for influence, though I mentioned one earlier, I didn't own books yet. I was looking at the postcards displays and it is then I realized you could do really more than this academic stuff I was building on. Postcards would have the name of the photographers and so on...
Shot it with a Praktica MTL 5B(my first camera). Looks like I used a zoom.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Dogs Horse Window

I started photographing to master my viewfinder first. That rectangle which frames a composition would be the theater of many subjects. But people were seldom present in the photographs and if so, they would be almost hidden in distance. Lines, perspectives, it was all about balancing different values present in a wannabe photo. People came by way of candids of friends, family or appeared when they were the least and last expected to show up, accidents. Dogs came even later and if it weren't for E.Erwitt who spent some time capturing funny photos of dogs, I think I wouldn't have looked at any as subjects. I wouldn't go after these kind of pictures too long though.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 3, 2009

PedXing

As far as I remember I've always loved for my photographs to be narratives, not just well composed snapshots. Not just and only for the beauty of it. Following my analysis, my photographs were carrying something from me that was not easily palpable, especially for me but that had to be expressed. I can't recall all of the images but I know that much. I was not drawn to images like that one above. They would be "happy accidents" or literally photography which I did also. Just photography, writing with light.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

April 2, 2009

Sensuous Stone...beyond surface

I have to gather my thoughts, find the leading theme and then structure the discourse. I want to get historical about me and photography. I peruse everyday "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" by Charlotte Cotton and each ingested information helps me putting together pieces of my photographic history using the medium; the hows and the whys, the shifting and transitions that I now see better. Where am I at right now? Not emotionally involved, detached, clinical, creative, experimental, aesthetical, visually credible( without much verbiage involved). These words characterized my condition and my images. I do poeticize still, when opportunity arises, but indubitably I am now more into the "know how", in the aesthetical, creative intent.
(Above. Shot in Africa. Oh boy! I should dedicate a blog to my AfrifotoGrafiK experience.If Only...Sometime.)


AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer