A clump of water

Yesterday I commented about photos of clumps of things. Well, this a a photo of a clump of water, if that is possible? Taken at the Blue Pools near Wanaka, I was fascinated by the intricate ripples on the water – that made it almost mosaic like. So, I just took a random shot of a section of the pool. It has no boundary so I guess it meets my definition of a clump.

Driftwood by the Lake

You may have noticed but I like taking photos of clumps of things: paths, walls, stones, grass – anything that has no natural boundary or can be defined as a “unitary” object. Every part of the picture is part of the picture. In this case it is a clump of driftwood on the shore of Lake Wanaka.  Around the world there are billions of options for taking photos of clumps of driftwood, but once the photo is taken the clump is unique as defined by the borders of the picture. There can never be another picture exactly the same. From the picture patterns emerge, in fact everyone who looks at the photo will see different forms and patterns. Clumps take their own form and change every time you look at them. For me clumps are one of the ways photography can get close to what the impressionist and post-modern painters were trying to achieve. A picture that is a picture in its own right, not a representation of something “out there”. And clumps make great wallpaper for computers.

At the blue pool

One of my favourite photos. It provides a feeling of being around for a long time yet the cairn suggests people have been here recently. Where does human interference impact on the natural course of events? The small piece of “person” tinkering is in focus in the foreground; nature trundles on in the slightly hazy background. It’s a hot lazy day as these two aspects of the world happily co-exist.

Paris Bistros

The La Rotonde, a typical bistro in Paris. I found the Bistros to be amazing places. First, they had been around for a very long time. Second, they had been frequented by the artists, and other influential people of their time, who began to pave the way for our modern world. Inside the buildings photos of Picasso, Hemmingway, Matisse and so on show the vibrant community of “thinking” people who have lived in this part of Paris. To be able to go back and feel part of that world was very special and made me realise even more that each person is a thread that makes up the fabric of human progress. No where else have I experienced the past and present being so intertwined as in this part of Paris.

stretcher frame with cross bars Roy Lichtenstein

Bernadette standing beside Roy Lichtenstein’s “Stretcher Frame with Cross Bars”. The reason I like this photo is that it is an example of where I used search technology to find the title and painter of the picture. I searched a range of possible  titles using Google images (such as “pop art windows”, “window picture”, – names of some artist such as Warhol, Lichtenstein) and eventually found a matching image. It wasn’t easy as there are some look a likes, and the title, of course, does not include “window” in it.

Screwed up Faces

When we were in Amsterdam we went to an exhibition where a photographer had worked his way around the middle east taking pictures of people with screwed up faces. Essentially he asked them to contort their face as much as they could then he took the shot. There were some amazing photographs and some evidence that the "fun" of the activity relaxed some of the tensions amongst the people involved in what was a pretty tense time in the area. I had to have a go myself; I guess I was not as good at screwing my face up as some of the people shown in the exhibition, but I gave it a good go.

The Thinker

One day while in Paris Sally and I were wandering down from the Eiffel Tower towards our hotel when we came across the Musée Rodin.

It was one of those "stumble across something you weren't expecting" experiences; Even with my knowledge of art I hadn't been aware that there was a Rodin gallery in Paris, or that he had been so influential in the development of the art scene in Paris and Europe.

The sculptures are amazing, and after half a days exposure to diversity of form Rodin produced it is not hard to see why he was able to have such an impact of the art scene. He essentially was beginning to do what the painters were doing, transforming sculpture from an attempt to represent something "real" to a form that has it's own existence.

It was humbling to be able to walk amongst these transformational sculptures and feel the history of modern art all around us.