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Accidental Art

Don Lashier

New member
I rarely take a photograph without at least some attention to composition and artistic value but occasionally just snap off a shot for "documentary" purposes. A while back I was going through my old slides and something about this shot from 40 years ago caught my eye. It certainly qualifies as a "snapshot" (at least my intentions at the time) - I had just come down from a mountain where I nearly died from pulmonary edema, spending 36 hours in delerium at nearly 17,000 foot elevation before my climbing partner managed to get me down. The next morning, barely able to walk and not having eaten for four days, I stumbled out of our hotel room and managed to shuffle the 100 feet or so to a bench in the town square where I pulled out my trusty Leica and snapped a shot of our hotel, not paying any particular attention to lighting, composition, who or what was in the photo. It was simply a docu shot for the slide show showing the 10 peso hotel (80 cents) where we had spent the night.

Maybe it's just the memories associated with the event, but after scanning and a little crop work it has become one of my personal favorites. Has anyone else taken a "thoughtless" snapshot later to find some hidden value?

countryhotelsquare-1weba.jpg


and the original uncropped image

countryhotel300.jpg


- DL
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don,

I don't buy it! Your brain, eye and hands were already integrated to and by many years of Leica work.

Although there is inherent beauty in our world, this shot is, IMHO, no accident.

Get used to it!

You are an excellent photographer. I do love this shot and wonder what happened to the child?

This would, BTW, make an excellent processing challenge if you provided the unmodified image from the scan

Asher
 

Don Lashier

New member
Asher Kelman said:
I don't buy it! Your brain, eye and hands were already integrated to and by many years of Leica work.
Perhaps - this stuff does become subliminal at some point, but I was still relatively a novice at 22, but still had bought this Leica at age 14 so had a few years under my belt (aside from earlier cameras).

Half the art is recognizing the good ones.

Also, I shot for 30 years with nothing but a 50mm. This teaches you to look for the opportunities.

- DL
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A bright, debonair and worldly lady-killer professor used to say, "Man, either you got it or you don't got it!"

Don, you got it, man, you really do!

Asher
 

Mary Bull

New member
Half the art is recognizing the good ones.

Both before and after pushing the button!

This is a magnificent picture. One I could walk into, and inhabit.

Good show, Don--speaking only as an amateur art lover.

Mary
 

Ray West

New member
Many times it works the other way for me. ;-)

I think that if the detail is there initially, then you can crop many snapshots into a 'work of art' format. I suspect, at the time of the taking, the important thing was 'this is the hotel'. Now, when you see it, you can select the strong shadow framing, recognise the skill in choosing the girl's dress colour to match the walls.. and make it more interesting, so that folk are led into asking a different sort of question.

Perhaps that is the secret of art - to get the viewer to ask a question of themselves.

Best wishes,

Ray

There are two secrets for success in this life-
1) Never tell anyone everything you know
 

Mary Bull

New member
Perhaps that is the secret of art - to get the viewer to ask a question of themselves.
I like everything you've said here, Ray. Much to learn, for me, from your entire comment.

OT: P.S. I've just now downloaded and installed Picasa2--thanks for pointing me to it. Already it has helped me find some pics I thought were lost.

Now back to look some more at Don's image.
 

Don Lashier

New member
Mary Bull said:
Now back to look some more at Don's image.

Mary, bear in mind that many of the images in my galleries are "postcards" (and not what I would consider art) because that's what visitors (tourists) like. Many of my personal favorites are not (yet) online.

- DL
 

Don Lashier

New member
Ray West said:
Many times it works the other way for me. ;-)

Indeed! I can't tell you how many times I've labored (in the field) over "the perfect shot" only to get home and find the results boring and uninteresting.

This is one of the joys of photography - the disjuncture between expectations and results.

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
Don, I was only going back to the image of the hotel, embedded in your original post. I was trying to get specifics in my head to help me figure out why I like it so much.

But I have your website up in another window now, and I'm looking at the Old Film Stuff gallery.

I like "Andromeda North Face" immediately on-sight. Surely it is more than postcard quality?
 

Don Lashier

New member
Mary Bull said:
I like "Andromeda North Face" immediately on-sight. Surely it is more than postcard quality?
Mary, I consider most of my old mountain shots "postcards". The only one I'd like to print and hang is "Cornice!" and perhaps "Palisades Sunrise". Of course I have thousands of others I've not yet scanned - scanning and the inevitable adjustments are (is?) very tedious.

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
"Ramparts" pleases me very much, in "Climbing Mountains."
And that's not a bad view of your laundry, either, in "Assorted."

Well, shutting up. I'm probably just proving how uneducated my eye is.
 

Mary Bull

New member
I knew it! I've got the "sentimental taste" rash! Help!!

I know how tedious scanning is. I did a bit of that when I first got my HP scanner, early in 2003. And then some of the old Kodak snapshots went in so blurry, that it told me that my idea of what I'd captured was all in my imagination. Of course, I didn't (and don't) know how to do any adjustments.

Even the ones I'd made with the old Minolta, with 35 mm film, were not as sharp as when first taken.
 

Don Lashier

New member
Mary Bull said:
"Ramparts" pleases me very much, in "Climbing Mountains."
And that's not a bad view of your laundry, either, in "Assorted."

Well, shutting up. I'm probably just proving how uneducated my eye is.

"Ramparts" solves the classic summit photo problem of looking spectacular in person and dull and flat in the result - by including a foreground subject and interest.

I like "My Laundry" also and have gotten favorable remarks from other photographers, but it needs a little more Photoshop work. This is another example of "accidental art" - not much thought to the photo at the time, just documenting how laundry is still done in a very upscale neighborhood of San Salvador. What it doesn't show is the wash tub where clothes are hand scrubbed (labor is cheap there).

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
Yes, I see what you mean about "Cornice." The ragged edge of the skyline in front of the climber, and the punctuation mark of the shadow. I like "Palisades Sunrise" a lot, too.
 

Mary Bull

New member
Don Lashier said:
"Ramparts" solves the classic summit photo problem if looking spectacular in person and dull and flat in the result - by including a foreground subject and interest.
It makes me feel as if I could be in the scene, if I bundled up.

I like "My Laundry" also and have gotten favorable remarks from other photographers, but it needs a little more Photoshop work. This is another example of "accidental art" - not much thought to the photo at the time, just documenting how laundry is still done in a very upscale neighborhood of San Salvador.
It's how it was done in a moderately upscale neighborhood in the Depression world of my South Texas childhood, too. <smiling reminiscently>
 
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