November Light

Autumn Gold
by George Inness

There's a subtle golden light in New England at this time of year that's hard to describe. The leaves are down, the trees are bare, and the few leaves left clinging to the branches have faded to brown. Their fallen brethren cover the ground in a thick layer like a blanket... and everything seems to be crawling into bed under that blanket for the winter.

And still, when the sun is low in the sky there's something subtle and beautiful going on with all the browns in the landscape. Many people in the northeast find this time of year here quite unremarkable, the amazing bright colors of fall are gone, and the snows have yet to arrive, but if you stop and look... let the quiet of the light wash over you early in the morning or at dusk, it's really quite beautiful.

I've been battling the flu and the school system. Not sure which is more frustrating. Well, yes I do... the school, they should know better, but neither battle is relevant to this blog, so I'll spare you the details, but I'm determined to recommit time to my own work, despite these pressures.

Let's start small, shall we? By Friday, I declare, to have four rolls of film souped.

Congrats, Ellen!

Just a quick shout out to my friend, Ellen for making it into the Critical Mass top 50. She didn't make the finalist cut for the book, but still... the top 50 is a sweet deal. I didn't participate in Critical Mass this year... I want to build up the portfolio I'm working on a bit more, and give it a whirl next year.

In the meantime, it's great to see Ellen's work get some great and well deserved recognition.

Echoes

If I may be so bold...


Edith, Chincoteague, Virginia
Copyright 1968 Emmet Gowin



Vinland
Copyright 1992 Sally Mann



T-shirt
Copyright 2009 Suzanne Révy

Gowin's influence on Mann is pretty clear, and both their influence on me is pretty obvious, too, though I didn't have either picture immediately in mind when I made mine. I'm certainly familiar with them... and perhaps on some unconscious level they were floating around in my head or maybe at a more gut level. I don't know.

I recently purchased Steidl's reissue of Gowin's book, Photographs. I've long wanted this book, and I'm pleased to finally have this collection of images. Coming across the above picture of Gowin's in the book brought to mind the Sally Mann picture, and got me thinking about how we are influenced by the work of others. Mann, I think, stays true to her vision... I wouldn't mistake any of her pictures for Gowin's, but it's clear she was familiar with his work. And that can be the measure of an artist secure in their own vision. To find your own voice in the conversations we have with each other.

Happy Halloween!

Ghosts
Copyright 2004 Suzanne Révy

Ellen Rennard on Nymphoto

Copyright 2009 Ellen Rennard

My friend Ellen's conversation with the womens's collective Nymphoto is up today. Take a look at it, here.

The Transcendant Apple

Still Life with Peppermint Bottle c. 1894
by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
National Gallery of Art
Chester Dale Collection

Dalton Rooney's recent post about Cézanne's apples struck a chord, and he clarified some thoughts that I've been mulling over, and attempted to articulate in my last post. He quotes Jonah Lehrer from the book, Proust was a Neuroscientist about Cézanne's approach to painting an apple (and I'm paraphrasing) as being akin to laying bare the very nature of the universe in a few brushstrokes depicting, say, apples. The the apple or whatever the subject of the painting (or photograph) are ultimately less important, irrelevant if you will, to what the artist is really seeing, and conveying.

As a photographer of people, it's something quite different to suggest that the subject, your sitter is irrelevant... they aren't. But then I often find my best pictures are ones where the subject matter itself seems to be the least of it, particularly when the picture feels transcendent. More than the sum of its parts, and revealing something more.

By the way, I have an absolute boatload of film to soup... this move has been about a two month process, but I'm hopeful that after this week I'll be able to break out the x-tol and fix!

Tonight at the Photographic Resource Center

Stretched
Copyright 2008 Suzanne Révy

I'm pleased to have donated a print to this evening's auction fundraiser for Boston University's Photographic Resource Center. They are an excellent resource for photographers. I'm looking forward to an evening out!