STEPHANE THEMEZE . PERCEPTIONS DIARY

Abstracting the diary...

2009-08-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

I came back from a good vacation where shooting has been focused as I was on abstraction and other aesthetics that I will present on a daily basis on Plaisirs Instantanes/Snapshots when archiving and organizing the sequence and series are finalized. Hopefully not a long wait for me as well, as I move slow in post-production work. The silence here was a harbinger of the temporary and the unknown length of absence before my returning to resume this diary.
You are more than welcome to visit me and my photographic steps following the link above for which I am more active in presenting recent photography.
Thank you to all of you who 've been coming and hope to have you on Plaisirs Instantanes...
Au Revoir...et Merci.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Sweet Like that

2009-07-15T15:18:00.001-07:00

Just few more days before I meet the photograph. I can taste it already. And I'll strive to compose as quietly as I did there. Just being ready and anticipating too. And it was national day yesterday too! That will mark the day also.

Hugging Tree (here I come!)

2009-07-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Just a few days apart from hugging, with hungry eyes, some countryside fields, bushes and roads to feed me plenty, visually! Ahh! and some ocean view. As for the city, I'll take a good slice of Paris!

Patterns

2009-07-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Nothing extraordinary there as a scene. The attention given fuels the attention you might have. I feed you. Yes the tones go hand in hand and the composition is made to watch with ease and comfort. So is the way I conduct myself just for so long it feels like rolling stuck in the sand. Have to get rid of some old tires.

Resting Peace

2009-06-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Just been some time since I had opportunity to sit on one of these. Best place in a crowded area to disappear and observe without being questionned. They sometimes are a magnet. I just imagined myself sitting there and I took that peacefulness along with me and my happy suite which leaves me time when tucked in but to sit my rear just in front of the comp like now or the TV sometime tiring my eyes away.

Hands and Eyes on the job.

2009-06-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

We were all using our hands on this job. One pushing the lawnmower carefully taking care of the grass, one holding the paper trying to read between the lines. As for me , holding the camera taking care of the scene. Who knows maybe someone else was watching both hands on the steering wheel.

Visual Playground

2009-06-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

The game's been on for quite some time now and there's just breaks or pause only when eyes can't really let go to wander... when it's not in front of me. Everything goes in the box now. It has become a recording machine plugged into a r(eye)fle. The music is played visually and it runs like a river that will only stop when it reaches the sea or a dam for that matter.
I just realized that I won't be able to do photograph now without my kidz being around until school resumes. About 2 months from now. It's playtime! Dam(n) it!

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Grounded

2009-06-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

Light as a feather but two feet on the ground. That 's how I roam around town with design so plastered all around my brain that my eyes fly looking for it. Some say seeing butterflies around
means things are looking good, even on a stiff background.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Echoes

2009-06-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Trying to pinpoint how photography works for me I found myself making a detour by another part of me: Music. Then came the word harmony and there I was digressing cause I had found a starting point and it really echoed in my mind. Harmony is the key. Harmony is how we work, photography and (I)eye.
Then Strangely enough I stumbled onto an old article talking about improvisation and the importance of finding a starting point to initiate the improv,in music first and how photographers or some of them were into that same motion in doing what they do. Some more echoes. But I don't think I improvise, I do weave a melody though and look for harmony.

Another echoe before I post a permalink to my 2nd fotoblog Plaisirs Instantanes/Snapshots.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Rising Up

2009-06-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

The bells toll and I'm flying from far and going anywhere but up. Feathers, concrete and steel is all you need. Oh, and maybe a sword like the one I see sitting on top. Excalibur here I come. Chop chop chop.

Visual Conversation

2009-06-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

As I strive to simply enunciate each of my artist's statement associated with the different works I put together in the last three months to do accompany submissions, I do realize that this conversation and introspection are not easy at all. I have drafted many pages to sort out all the sensations that were met producing the works. Sometimes it was just like mere street photography momentum played out in a natural environment and the joyous discovery turned into some "works"( I have trouble with that particular word). But it was not thought out beforehand. I wish it could be as easy as the drawing on the wall, my photography being just a gentle gesture after all.

A woman speaks

2009-06-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

It's definitely not the same kind of photography as shown above but getting the kind of picture I want of my kids seems to be more difficult than a chosen and composed situation played out on the streets. Rare are the times when I had a camera when they had one of their greatest expressions, in my view( Cute pictures of cute kids don't cut it nicely as good pictures of kids for me). And when I had one, my eye would record it faster and/or the camera could just not do it from the position I was in or I'd be too slow. Realizing that, it is not hard to believe the best camera ever is your eye, too bad memory is not as sensitive and biologically developed to last.
I 'd like a camera that would record like eye/memory can though, even with hands in your pocket since having them on a camera doesn't help every time.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

On the same page

2009-06-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Apart being in a room filled with parents and kids or a playground with the same actors, I rarely am close to the scenes I photographed nowadays. I got used not to intrude anymore being in a car most of the time and I use a telephoto or a tele-zoom more and more.Anyway, I did promise myself to make it a date to boldly get in the face or sneak on whoever suits my mood to photograph to get what I want and then go with the flow every once in a while not to lose that touch.
A little note as a great news for those of you who are following my photography. I have a strictly digital foto blog up and running called Plaisirs Instantanes/Snapshots where I don't use much space with words.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

5 Legs

2009-06-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

A look back at some street shots taken on a self-assignment during a rainy day, a really long while back. Anyway, I noticed that people are more focused on themselves when dealing with adverse weather conditions, which makes your presence and intrusion less noticeable. Some are rushing, some enjoy the show. As a street hunter you might be doing both. I miss the city and snapshooting around.

Rougie du Soir

2009-06-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Let me just go back to a photo I did some time ago without striving, without trying to record something extraordinary. Just happy to have a small camera to quickly get a shot and also being just curious about how well it would process it. No regrets whatsoever if it failed.
Not really the state of mind I am right now since I'm really looking and working for finding/creating something new.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

X-Ray

2009-06-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

The water element is still present in a way in this...photo.The post-production got rid of the evidence a bit much but a part of the picture is a reflection. It does look closer to a x-ray than a photo by the look.I see faces or masks of human faces and a body but I could be the only one.Could it be? I have definitely developed another look at Nature.The use I make of It is like trying to get underneath the surface to get a hold of the subtleties of Nature and expose them. It might have come from a certain weariness caused not by Nature itself because it inspires me but the repetitive views offered.It could be something else on top of that.

Abstract Pond

2009-06-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

What I do mostly, lately, revolves a lot around water. A vital element indeed that it also became one of great inspiration for and in my photographic work. I naturally enjoy being near water and inside water.One day I'll take my photography under.Some experience it must be.Anyway, last time I even took snapshots of geese and their ducklings and turtles as well. I really don't know what I'm gonna do with them.

Traffic Lights

2009-05-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

I spent some time on the road and in the Great Falls national parks today where I gathered additional shots to add to a series which first take was not rigorous enough.I was lucky enough to find a spot that gave me the same kind of matter even though the forms were richer the first time I saw the performance of Nature. In the process I even found some more exciting views aided by a high dose of sun.They now need to be processed.
In the meantime I felt like posting that one to remember that commuting doesn't have to be dull every time, that we can always find a plus in the ordinary.That's what photography is about, doesn't it?

In the Eye of The Hurricane

2009-05-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

Successful, in my eyes ,use of a cross-processed capture that I didn't try to reproduce for a clear reason.Once you got it right, it's no use, at least for me, to go back and make another even to convince yourself that you understood everything that went on when you produced it. The magic of it is enough to last you for a hundred years or more.You now just have to go on to the next frame that will give you the same sense of achievement, and this, in another kind of way.It is about momentum and having all the wits about you and your craft and go along with it.I can't recall the other shots I've made on that roll of slide film but just this one made it worth the loading of it and the choice to have it processed this way.Another way to look inside a tube-like shaped environment compared to the one posted before .

Circles in Mind

2009-05-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here it is. I had said in a week or so but a good friend told me that high posting frequency is important when blogging, so...I heard.Better find in a quest.Closer to a final if not to a finer realization of a visual.A construction site nearby. A drive by find explored when weather conditions were riped.A first full out search for visual pertinence to achieve a capture. The neighboring captures are different and give a different perspective.You'll witness it.Pipe shaped blocks of concrete lying on a grass waiting to be hauled and positioned for a, mysterious to me, use but a construction.I set out to have my share of it before you need a pass to access a soon to be vanished material buried in a more fashion way.
Sitting around the area I had in mind Edward Weston and Ansel Adams industrial photographic renditions of factories. I have to be honest about the cold feeling I had photographing the area. I was invested with the know how but acknowledged the dominant lack of humanity in the process.It is from the streets but no playground for kids to be allowed into.Maybe I'll bring one of mine to deepen the discovery, all dressed in white on a sunny day. That's a good thought.I'll check tomorrow.A promise.Another promise I make is the posting of a photograph of my elder in a tube that I do find fantastic, which will be a good continuation to this one. For now I'm about to read a bit of Ansel Adams commentaries about some of his realizations.I'll digress on that too.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Photo Dished Out

2009-05-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

I do take photography seriously but sometimes I do make a fool out of myself in the same serious way.That is oil on water after cooking some I don't remember of.Pointless detailed information indeed.But I was attracted no doubt. That is the kind of motion you're going through when you're deep in a visual project. Far from being senseless, it is just the natural continuation of an idea paired with a mindset full of eyes which is working while you're into something else than photography. It is the evidence of a work in progress or the beginning sometime of a work to be. A sketch.Nothing wrong with that. It is minor but not to be ignored for the one who's searching its way into a new or ongoing project. It is a map or another quadrant to be conscious about when you finally set the quest for a better finding. It will be there with you. It is not discipline but a remembrance of what lies ahead somewhere in your quest.A clue at most.Last, I had to put it out there before dishing it out for this place is better organized than my hard drive.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Reminiscence & Wandering

2009-05-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

This kind of light (or candle of light, or even light candor) I like very much. For a fraction of a second or so it had me look at another tree, another place, another time, and I naturally raised my arms and added another tree from another place and another time. It also felt being in two places at once. It just felt good. It was taken in France last summer, can't you tell?
Right now I work on forms,lines and volumes (light+shadow). It's "cold" photography, boring sometimes but I need the discipline for another project. As for a glimpse of the disciplinary exercise, I'll post one later,in a week or so.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Poetic

2009-05-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

"Everything around us,dead or alive, in the eyes of a crazy photographer mysteriously takes on many variations, so that seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surrounding. And if the photographer has a bit of sense in his head maybe he is able to capture some of this, and I suppose that's lyricism"_Joseph Sudek .

One day I'll be able to be as clear and lyrical in wording about photography as Mister Sudek's writing. In the meantime, I'll keep seeing the way I do and feeling a photograph and what it represents the way I do. Sometimes lyrical.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Major & Minor

2009-05-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm struck by the fact that a really good photograph has an essence that will outlive its time of capture and still stir interest even if your photography evolves into something different from the subject recorded at the time.And what's really striking is its apparent simplicity. Some are interesting in that they show a possibility.Sketches.Minors. Pleasure, patience and perseverance and luck put us on a path to major finding.

Casual & Formal(Washington DC)

2009-05-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Can't really relinquish.Never been the case. The pleasure is too big sometimes and the attraction just as present as gravity itself. Never to be ignored.Being so sensitive even to my thoughts I tend to react and express myself boldly, only to come back and readjust.Can't let go of the pleasure of making this kind of photos, if not any kind.Eyes have too much to offer and photography is one hell of a recorder.One that I know of. Its simplicity is lovable. And more so I am indebted to Her. I O U so I'll stick with U for it is my pleasure to serve U as You serve me. Can't turn my back on U.

Grass Stems Calligraphy

2009-05-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

I am more into finding and arranging inside the frame than into staging when dealing naturally with photography.The element of surprise, the pleasure of finding the unexpected. That approach has a lot to do with being connected to the outside.My daughter is into picking grass and flowers lately(it is Spring after all). She had just laid down those stems before going for some more. It looked good enough for me to visually play with what had already a visual appeal to it.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

4 Women

2009-05-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm juggling with thoughts and repeating myself at times just like life repeats itself everyday with a different face. I need to find a consistent approach in general, but especially in doing photos, not to mismanage time and effort. Reason why I was happy about reading about Weston and Leiter's way of sort of "planning their photography" (See post Rush no spirit no rush spirit). I rarely do that, maybe because of the small territory of my photography caused by limited time to go around places, so grabbing anything that comes my way compensates lack of time and feed the urgency of doing photography.Not surprisingly, it has resulted in a lot of waste of film and time as well. Going digital crucial and mandatory is to define one's work, so that every frame gets you closer to your goal. For me a gentle reminder. As for references to photographers, I know "my classics". I now feed more on articles and essays about them than their photos which are results of a philosophy and a way of doing.

Another Muse (to ride)

2009-05-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

I have became too sensitive to light. I mean light seems to be a muse and it touches everything...above dirt, so I photograph widely. A streak and eye click. I'd like to find me a muse other than light. So that light will work with me and not me for her. A muse would be great.I'll use that one light behind my eyes that shines so beautifully and eye and the camera would muse around our muse. Sounds great.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Blending in

2009-05-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

I never could choose a main direction in photography. As the photographic film is sensitive when exposed in any given environment I too have been sensitive to the different environments I've been in contact with. The blend ,in time and spaces visited, is too enormous to manage. I enjoy and welcome the generous ability to photograph in any situation and environment, now that it came only to be that: a know how. It is an anchor that strengthens and stretches my being, but at the same time I'd sure like to stick to only one genre. I think the practice of color photography yielded too many possibilities that I'm driven to grasp every time(and I did). So eclectic my photography became I am more and more confused. But when I stick to one thing sometime, the feeling of repeating bores me. I'd like to dominate that impervious drive.I really do. The only way I found so far is to leave the camera at home and record with the eye only. And I do feel serene when so.

Rush No Spirit No Rush Spirit

2009-04-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-04-30T01:59:00.000-07:00

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

Primary Colors

2009-04-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Pebbles H2o

2009-04-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

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

Natural Jewelry

2009-04-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

Rocking the sky

2009-04-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Twins maybe

2009-04-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Reverie

2009-04-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Evanescent Elegance

2009-04-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

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

Rear Views (Spied on)

2009-04-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Volumes

2009-04-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

Intuitive Abstract Series Study

2009-04-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

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.It 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

2009-04-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Virgin Island

2009-04-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

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

Shiny Spots(Georgetown, DC)

2009-04-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

(basta!)...La Vista!

2009-04-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

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

A maze

2009-04-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Rings

2009-04-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

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.

3x5 area #1(Monochrome)

2009-04-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

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

End of the Day

2009-04-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

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. Street 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

Parc St-Cloud(France)

2009-04-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

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

PedXing

2009-04-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Sensuous Stone...beyond surface

2009-04-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

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.)

Weariness

2009-03-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have just stumbled onto that picture taken on a sunny day. It looks like even the sun can't have sometimes that power to lift up the spirit but leaves you in a dream that went to sleep a long time ago.

Spotlight on Light Spot

2009-03-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Really, it was just about the light(beautiful), it also looked attractive on the wooden floor and I needed a photo. The sandal was sitting there. It served me right. Only for the light. Only the light.

Fashionable Fitness

2009-03-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Remnants of Street photography which won't be my focus no more. Attention will still be there. Can't obliterate a look, a reflex that became natural.

Ethereal Flame

2009-03-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

When I felt I wasn't connected to the world or society around me I would establish connection by searching outside in the streets what I felt inside. Through the photographs I would document my moods, my aspirations, I would express my sense of beauty. I would sublimate.Thus, I was documenting myself. The photos I retained from that period, they talk about me, but scenes are performed by others, persons, objects, locations, scenic shots.It would create and a link and a system, and a portal. My theater.
Now that I'm ready to act my life and perform instead of watching others performing theirs for me, my photography is no longer documenting me. It now deals with Aesthetics and creativity, it has become a fine Art. I 'm finally accepting and understanding the fact that it is what I am and I can no longer refuse it. Not acknowledging that important fact had me fooling around and falling behind.
My Abstract photography marks the playing of my whole act and it looks and feels beautiful already.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Anybody here?

2009-03-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

Geographic location--> residential with nobody almost in sight. People found in supermarkets mostly. I don't document shopping habits. Maybe I should. What's left is the decorum of the residential suburbia. Creepy just like that ghostly tissue hanging from that tree. That's what I'm looking at. That's probably a source of explanation of what I do now. Without being thrilled but somehow relieved,I see that abstract in photography seems to be a "norm ",i.e became a formal trend of contemporary photography. I see abstract studies in any genre of photography. Motivations might be different from one photographer to another.

Any highly competitive photographic contest has that category and you should see. Check out www.px3.fr for instance.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Opening Mind

2009-03-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

I am reading articles about Photography and Abstraction. I slowly digest the info and reasoning and actual conclusions. It also triggers thoughts about my new direction, new photography I'm trying to own, to understand where it comes from. Don't you think it is important? Are we not already saturated with images imposed to us that we should know why we're creating our own.
To top it off we are enslaved via images selling us ideas and ideals of happiness, comfort, and lifestyles that we should strive to reach. The model. They are so well-crafted that some people must really think their lives stink. Brrr! Too bad really.
So I'd like to know why I've gone from documentary style-like to abstract photography. What am I going through here?
Are you in that kind of motion in your artistic area?

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Architectonics

2009-03-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

A stand alone which could be worked as a series. The subject doesn't motivate me though. Stand alone it is. Some sensations are unique in their happening, left is the sought after expectations of feeling that thing again. So maybe I'll find another one someday. It's maybe that thing that gets people goin'round towns, cities chasing windows. I look up high sometimes just because nothing's happening street level, but it's rare. Only for beautiful clouds and a pure blue sky.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Dots & Stains

2009-03-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is more like the evolution process of viewing and experimenting a subject before opportunity and circumstances vanished. (I was at a traffic light about going to go green anytime). Or it maybe how a series can bring itself about(See 2 previous posts). This might also be an element of a work in progress which consciousness is just starting to reveal. Or I am slowly , as I speak, realizing that I have been producing and adding different visual pieces to the same body, the same puzzle.
Whether true is not so important now. But to try to see an existing link between other visual pieces I made before, that my mind sees now, is.
So a series can be circumstancial...

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Colored Rain (#!)

2009-03-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

I feel that a gallery is bound to represent you, to take you on board if somehow they feel that your work can hold a distance, a space. If your work got some strength and stamina, and that magnetic quality, entice buyers. Series preferred. A specialization. A theme. I guess it helps building a multi-faceted relationship. A face for the gallery/artist bind, another for gallery/art-buyers bind through artists and the artist and his work/theme/subject. Could the latter lead one artist to be pidgeonholed or pidgeonhole himself to some kind of work? For assurance?
And what about just consistency in quality as a foundation ?
I want to pinpoint a strategy to get into gallery, so I'm pondering...Might be a good thing to go about asking gallery owners around what they look for. I'll try that and test their waters.

Colored Raindrops (#?)

2009-03-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

I think some of us work like painters. They in time come up with a signature-style. And also work series. It serves, I think, two purposes: it gives strength and depth to a work in progress, a Body; and it affirms a style, a signature.The latter is important(I'm not convinced but...) and sought after by many.Let's also note that sometimes it comes out as a complete fraud( no real object or perhaps that we can make beautiful out of everything.What's new. Try to have good taste). But as painters can apply their signature to different subjects. Can it be done in photography? Could it be recognizable if applied to different subjects?
Portraiture and fashion are areas where you can definitely shape, fashion a signature. It is done.
Seems harder in other areas.I got names though in my head that brings elements supporting the fact that it can be done. But we can recognize a work and a photographer associated with it mostly when serial. I might have touched the nerve that gallery owners move by.
I'll push further on that later...

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

This is a man's world

2009-03-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Was I the only one to see that woman? Could that shot advocate for invisible undies 2? Man ,these aftershot details!

Anyway. Could someone tell me what it is that drives army of photographers to go around shooting square format or not and capturing almost alike scenes with posts in mid-still-waters, one with a top flirting with the horizon(most of the time dividing the photograph into even halves!), sometimes replaced by boulders or a rock or a lone tree or a sun-beat walkway ending in water? Where does that homogeneity in image-making come from? What's the meaning of it? I know about repetition in photography but here...
Are we all looking in the same directions now? And/Or is it simply that the shooting recipe's good for all but the scope of photographic objects is so narrow that many end up shooting the same postcard?
...I still ponder and I'm wondering...Anyone...?

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Forget Me...Not!

2009-03-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Do you think it is really important, mandatory for a photographer to work series like we often see? I do understand that series are sometime needed to shape a view and guide viewers. I think what I want to know is whether it is mandatory in order to have your work considered successfully by gallery owners or collectors who want to know what your project is about. Couldn't it be only so subjective and sensation-driven that the project would be simply to gather good images? Because one can understand that depending on the nature and subject of your photography, series occurs or not. And building a body of work with a theme varies in time for photographers.

M Street NW

2009-03-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

In my memory, that image is among the first ones I did when I got back shooting b+w in the u.states. That info is important to me now because, first I haven't shot that much b+w and also when I did it was never in good conditions. Can't do real good b+w shooting while driving around. Hence poor production or "deja vu" which is poor production 2.
That shot, while not being a wonder, is what got close to what I consider being on the way to feel good 'bout doing Street Photography. Damn! Bon Sang! I miss being out there!
This got me doing a lot of color which is easy and has always on top of that been easier to get processed lately. And with digital capture first we see and mostly think color.(I've converted some, but still it don't come as naturally as it does when you're 100% into it(=b+w)). So color is...

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Framed

2009-03-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Framed. Too busy taking, not enough time to reflect on what I'm actually doing. Pictures piling up. Stacks made from one father but with no connections, just a collection. Framed. It felt like producing, but now I face the fact that it was consuming. I really didn't get lasting satisfaction so I would go at it again, and again. Aimlessly driven. Following. I still do just as now, blogging. But I know now what I'm doing.

Crossing

2009-03-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's only after dealing with the colors and seeing past the colors that I laid eyes on her face and gazed at her expression. The tension in her eyes, moving forward.There might be more to tell but that's all for now.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Radioactive Red

2009-03-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

Is it pertinent to state that knowing the kind of film you're using leads you to photograph certain subjects seen under certain conditions a certain way?
Can it even drive your eyes so that they consider photographic objects you had never thought could be in your photography?

Travelers

2009-03-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

It was definitely about colors...and lines shaping rectangles. As for the composition, it was my choice(hose line) plus the sheer magic of a 135mm telephoto(a preferred framer) combined with the sheer luck of being a front liner at the traffic stoplight and it being red of course.

Women in Blue

2009-03-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes reality joins fiction and vice versa. And sometimes you're just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and grateful that you brought your camera in your car.

Urban Sunset

2009-03-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

I had a glimpse of a sunset happening while obviously turning my back on it and missing a chance to see it.But it was still glaring in my direction so I took a piece.

Fortune Teller

2009-03-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

A quick draw. As for the title...sometime you wish you could know about things to happen.

Widescreen Cinematic

2009-03-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

The conditions under which I shot photos these past years and quite a bit of a state of mind I was in until a year ago got me to develop what I see as "Emergency Photography".A real need to maintain photography alive, you can lose touch so quickly.
During that period I also used a lot of slide film processed as negative film. Opportunity arose to do so and it could push some creativity out of me maybe.It was worth trying anyway.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

STOP & GO Photography

2009-03-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Not having the time I want to photograph sometime, I develop the habit to shoot while driving places I need to go. It has limitations only if you think it has. Developing a theme doesn't come first but being motivated to squeeze the most out of a short stop is the thing in itself.

Photos posted starting 2 dayz ago will reflect that "On the GO Photography" until otherwise stated.

Blue design

2009-03-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

I didn't find time to even look at what I photographed today while running some errands.I shoot while driving.It's a strange way to photograph. The reason is the lack of time so I'm trying to shoot whenever I can and when I do get out I'm always driving.I'm trying and have been trying to maintain street photography to an active level, genre that I love so much but can't get much of.

X-ray rabbit

2009-03-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I've waited so long to do this. But I'm on and you're on too.
Time for me to get to know how to spread out and get the notion of how to get to you, photographers, artists photographers and artists or not but somewhat linked to the Art world out there.
Briefly, I am actually trying to redefine my photography. I want to distinguish between my photographic perception and vision, and put the finger on my vision because I know I have shifted and need redefinition. I also try to get a grip on what's going on in Photography. Defined trends and markets(and why?), tenors of the photography(and why?) to know where all this is heading. I try to peruse art magazines but time sometimes 's slipping out of...no it just takes me somewhere else. I need some food for thought that comes from elsewhere than my own. I almost forgot. I will post some photos from time to time, catches of my wandering perception.Then & Now.