so very, very true

how to draw in one easy step

How to Draw from a c godliman on Vimeo.

via

quote for the... till next time

"What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion."

Vincent van Gogh, writing to Theo van Gogh, July 1882

quote for the day

"As for the Japanese man, who never stops photographing the world: what does he see? He doesn't even see the two elements he is trying to capture, his traveling companion and the monument that the companion is blocking out. The Eiffel Tower is there to show that this guy spent a day in Paris. But by cracking the same wide, impersonal smile in front of every monument on the face of the Earth, he is destroying the intimate nature of the moment. The Japanese man becomes as timeless as the tower itself. You'd think that the Eiffel Tower was being photographed as a backdrop for a smiling Japanese guy."

Dany Lafferriere

how cool is this?

Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Mona Lisa' reduced & remixed down into 140 exact circles of colour. Makes no sense close up. Makes every sense from the other side of the room.

(via)

once upon a time...

Years ago, I had this idea that the best way to photograph a scene like a wheatfield was to use a moving image. Unfortunately, at the time, there was only movie film, and the fledgling video camera.
Nowadays, my dream has been made available. Click on the above photo to see an example (since blogger didnt cooperate here), then go to the main site for more.

career counselling

- So you think you want to be a war photographer?

a little test

So, abstract art. Is it just a bunch of crap, a silly waste of time, scrawlings which a child could do just as well at, a brilliant scam on the art world? Hell if I know. This test wont answer the question either, but why not take it anyway?

via

funny

"statement"

My work explores the relationship between new class identities and life as perfomance.

With influences as diverse as Nietzsche and Andy Warhol, new synergies are generated from both traditional and modern textures.

Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the theoretical limits of relationships. What starts out as vision soon becomes debased into a hegemony of power, leaving only a sense of chaos and the chance of a new beginning.

As spatial impressions become frozen through boundaried and critical practice, the viewer is left with a statement of the possibilities of our condition.

Like it? If creating an artistic statement is an excercise in time and heartache for you, then give the Arty Bollocks Generator a try.

(h/t)

new rules

78 Photography Rules For Idiots

picture for the day

Believe it or not, this is a real photo, and it has not been manipulated in any way*. No, it's not mine, though I wish it were.



* Except, presumably, in the usual making-a-decent-looking-print way.

Rare FSA/OWI color photographs from the Great Depression

There are more here.

today's lesson:

Contemporary Figurative Painters

View more presentations from Jacques de Beaufort

via Steven LaRose

notice

The 24th of April is Worldwide Pinhole Photography day.

Get ready, Fool!!!

saturday matinee

I love stop motion from chloe fleury on Vimeo.

video-time!

Like a little slice of art school.

street art

Stephen says I dont post enough - and he's right!

my idea for a digital camera

So, I had this idea, and I've been playing with it in my head all day. Here it is:

Kodak (or someone) needs to sell a square format "waist-level" viewfinder digital camera. Really, when you think about how most people use digital cameras, looking at a two-inch (or so) screen rather than through a tiny viewfinder, it makes a certain amount of sense. Look, here's an old Kodak Brownie Starflex.

Now, imagine that instead of a viewfinder window, that top lens was for a flash instead.
Oh, wait, maybe you've never seen a Brownie Starlet...
Okay, the Starlet was an old Kodak camera. It was built for the masses. It was cheap and easy to use. It shot photos in a square format. The lower lens exposed the film while the top lens bounced off a mirror and onto a viewing window in the top of the camera (which popped open, see below). If you've never used a waist level viewfinder, it's kind of nice (and you didnt have to use it at waist level, it worked just as well at chin level). I would suggest replacing the mirror/viewfinder arrangement with a simple screen showing what the lens sees, just like on any decent digital camera.

Really, I'm kind of surprised that someone hasnt come up with this idea already (well, someone has, sort of, but not for real use), because digital cameras as they are currently designed are kind of awkward, being a viewfinder-style design with a screen on the backside, forcing you to hold the thing in front of you (often rather precariously) while trying to compose your shot through the glare. A Starlet-style camera (with it's hood shading the screen from glare) would make more sense. If you really needed to have the screen visible from behind the camera, it seems like a easy job to simply make the screen pop up, rather like the hood does.
I think that if you marketed this thing right (say, first going after the retro crowd and old people) you could have a real winner on your hands. And the square format is terrific (ask anyone who loves their Hipstamatic app), especially for portraits and family photos. Find professionals who shot with medium format and hand out a few for free and watch the praise begin.
Yes, you can shoot with a regular camera and crop square, but it really is not the same. Believe me, I've done both.
Listen, Kodak needs this. They were once the kings of photography, but they've been beaten out by Fuji, by Canon, and by HP. This could be their chance to regain the consumer photography crown.
Bring Back The Brownie!

see this

Ken Murphy's 'A History of the Sky' enables the viewer to appreciate the rhythms of weather, the lengthening and shortening of days, and other atmospheric events on an immediate aesthetic level: the clouds, fog, wind, and rain form a rich visual texture, and sunrises and sunsets cascade across the screen.

An image of the sky is being captured every 10 seconds from a camera installed on the roof of the Exploratorium, on the edge of San Francisco Bay. The images collected over each 24-hour period are assembled into a 6 minute movie.



Ken Murphy's website.

stolen from Presurfer.