Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mixed messages

This week’s photo assignment is the clothed body. I had some ideas, older ideas of capturing some attire in town. But, it is a small town, which is a bit daunting, not wanting gossip or close scrutiny, even if, for the most part, these people are strangers; and besides, most of the people walking around are teenagers, and I worry about legal ages and such. Still, I must say, to see men in near rags or sweat-stained work clothes, and the kids going goth or skate punk or hip hop, I see stories told, everyday stories of frailties (as that is where and how I am drawn); yet I am not confident enough in my camera or a mustered gregariousness to ask if I can see them again, just as they were, uninterrupted, before the social mask was installed to receive my query. So, I look elsewhere.

This is the first study.


JW has asked that we share the failed attempts as well as the final products. This to diagnose better, to advise a path forward. This patient has a long recovery, for his ailments are many. I continue to frame poorly, rush myself unnecessarily, and suffer in presbyoptic proportions. Consequently, I end up cropping away a lot of pixels that would have otherwise provided a sizable portrait; I neglect to fully bracket a shot; and, I cannot tell when a photo is slightly blurred until it is up on the big screen. Even though I may enter the field with confidence, I often find out too late that I have left my maps and compass behind. Thank God for digital cameras and PhotoShop.
 
Atrocious light

 Left side is dead air.

These crutches, of course, are equivocal to the process and product, and it shows. What might be good ideas at the start lack certain production qualities upon realization no matter how much tweaking is done. Inasmuch, I am left with the hope the notion behind the attempted images is of sufficient interest to encourage the viewer to look beyond, even if to means to dim her own lights of expectations.

The clichés are rampant: clothes make the man; dress for success; and on and on. Yet, there is always some truth for them to become rubber-stamped so, and from there I proceed.

A few weeks a go a friend asked a question about a photo attached to a résumé, and if that might make a difference in a job search, specifically mine. How would I go about such an item in a manner that would adequately, if not accurately, represent me? A difficult task, indeed, even for the inner being that I should know better given the intimate nature of our relationship. Down right complicated. Unsettling. Even absurd. And since I am looking for a teaching position in an (any) art department, it might just work.
Assuming the position for Final Critiques

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too stiff B.

Forget the camera, as if you could, or anyone, sit on the grass and play solitaire.

What about that picnic painting by the impressionists, sans la nude madam, perhaps a wedding dress carefully placed in front of you.

Good beginnings.

I remember putting up a few of me reading a dictionary by a window for a dating site.

aki

Anonymous said...

*cough*
aki

Anonymous said...

working with what we have
dressed in work clothes
carefully arranged in front
business suit
and vice versa

heh
aki

Crash said...

Dapper! I didn't even know it was you at first.
I was wondering what the pink strips of plastic on the trees were, in the previous post. Here, they usually mean a tree is to be felled against the owner's wishes. People try to cover or remove them.

bastinptc said...

The studies of the same person in different attires is as common as a sculpture referencing a bed. The stiffness may be the result of not knowing which way to turn. Still, there can be no doubt: I clean up real good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo1s4P55dRY

Crash said...

Admit it, that's a clip-on tie.

bastinptc said...

Single Windsor knot.

Crash said...

OK, I believe you. Am impressed, you do clean up good. You are reading a guy who no longer owns even one suit and has tied a tie only once since 1998. Had to wear it to a fancy "East Coast" wedding. Made my neck sore.

Anonymous said...

Tried the windsor

I'm either too tall
or the cloth is too short

Crash said...

Try a 'Shelby.' Beautiful. Compact. You start with the tie inside-out. I can tell this subject is not going to go far.

bastinptc said...

Nice symmetry.

Anonymous said...

the Shelby looks good and easy
needs a substantial tie.

aki

TenMile said...

Last picture;

1) Glenn Beck looking at yet another chalk board.

or

2) Overlooking a liliputin formal presentation.

or

3) Listening to an undergrad explaining HOW the dog ate the assignment.

Word verification: spomp

TenMile said...

Lets make that Lilliputain

I'd rather Russia not come looking.

bastinptc said...

Beck? Might be time to grow out the hair again.

Do you hear voices? Do you hear voices? Come out Jezebel!