Har har har har har har har har !!!
Have you been paging though Oscar Hoff’s three books on Blurb?
His photos have obvious elements like this, but he usually titles them after some obscure object or detail that one must hunt for. After the first half dozen pages or so of his first book, it became a photographic “Where’s Waldo” game for me. I was rarely successful in guessing what the title might be for the photo on the next page.
Here’s a link to his Collected Works, Volume 1: http://www.blurb.com/b/5157750-collected-photographs-volume-i
You likely won’t stop until you’ve been through all three volumes (probably more than once). I’ve been through them all cover-to-cover several times. With each viewing I’ve been inspired to get out of my visual box / rut and try to find the art in the ordinary, overlooked, and ignored sights in life.
I met him in Detroit this summer at an exhibit he participated in, and found him to be one of the most unassuming folks I’ve ever encountered. His modest demeanor belies his intriguing talent and insight.
Nice. I got this fleeting image of a street sweeper driving away, looking in his review and muttering “f*&@ it !”. The linear design is great without the pebble, but the pebble does add something to ruminate on. Do you have any personal standards/guidelines about “staging” a shot, such as moving the pebble around?
Steve, I agree the pebble adds something to the composition but I have to admit I didn’t even notice it was there until after the fact. It was yet another a lucky accident or I subconsciously saw it and didn’t realize it. (I should probably just claim the latter in order to preserve my reputation.) As far as staging a shot, I have no qualms about that as long as it’s done honestly (i.e. don’t lie about the manipulation). I would, for example, have removed that pebble after the fact via Photoshop if I though it helped the composition. After all, this isn’t photojournalism where some standard of “truth” in the reporting is expected. In practice however, I rarely stage a shot simply because I find that creating a good composition is much harder than recognizing one that is already there.
One Pebble
Bozeman, Montana
2014
Har har har har har har har har !!!
Have you been paging though Oscar Hoff’s three books on Blurb?
His photos have obvious elements like this, but he usually titles them after some obscure object or detail that one must hunt for. After the first half dozen pages or so of his first book, it became a photographic “Where’s Waldo” game for me. I was rarely successful in guessing what the title might be for the photo on the next page.
Here’s a link to his Collected Works, Volume 1:
http://www.blurb.com/b/5157750-collected-photographs-volume-i
You likely won’t stop until you’ve been through all three volumes (probably more than once). I’ve been through them all cover-to-cover several times. With each viewing I’ve been inspired to get out of my visual box / rut and try to find the art in the ordinary, overlooked, and ignored sights in life.
I met him in Detroit this summer at an exhibit he participated in, and found him to be one of the most unassuming folks I’ve ever encountered. His modest demeanor belies his intriguing talent and insight.
Jim, I haven’t seen Hoff’s books, but am intrigued now to check them out. Thanks for the reference.
Nice. I got this fleeting image of a street sweeper driving away, looking in his review and muttering “f*&@ it !”. The linear design is great without the pebble, but the pebble does add something to ruminate on. Do you have any personal standards/guidelines about “staging” a shot, such as moving the pebble around?
Steve, I agree the pebble adds something to the composition but I have to admit I didn’t even notice it was there until after the fact. It was yet another a lucky accident or I subconsciously saw it and didn’t realize it. (I should probably just claim the latter in order to preserve my reputation.) As far as staging a shot, I have no qualms about that as long as it’s done honestly (i.e. don’t lie about the manipulation). I would, for example, have removed that pebble after the fact via Photoshop if I though it helped the composition. After all, this isn’t photojournalism where some standard of “truth” in the reporting is expected. In practice however, I rarely stage a shot simply because I find that creating a good composition is much harder than recognizing one that is already there.