Abstracting the diary...

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

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.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

X-Ray

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.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Abstract Pond

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.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Traffic Lights

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?

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Circles in Mind

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

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

Another Muse (to ride)

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

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

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.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

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

Ethereal Flame

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

Opening Mind

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

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

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 (#!)

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.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Colored Raindrops (#?)

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

Framed

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.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Widescreen Cinematic

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