What we sometimes do to one another

James Nachtwey at TED. Unmissable.

Oh Lordy

Had on my Bridgend Specials today, trousers so horrible that offing myself crosses my mind whenever I notice them (which, given the driving rain accompanying me both to, from and during work, was quite often as they flapped soddenly round my lillywhite ankles). Down to 3 pairs for work at the moment, partly because I am obviously freakishly dysmorphic judging by the sizes on offer in the shops, and partly because buying trousers has to be up there with digging your own grave on the list of things one wouldn't want to spend one's spare time doing.

Tin Ears?

What happens when one of the world's foremost violinists busks during rush hour - does he make much cash? Find out here in a great multi-media, well thought out article that makes for very interesting reading.

Twine: A Work in Progress

Am trying out the beta of Twine. Don't quite get it yet but watch this space.

Update 30/04: It doesn't work. "Twine This" - I can't. Report the problem? It comes up with a link to a hotmail account I haven't used in centuries (admittedly probably a problem with my computer set up perhaps).

Ducks

Benches, Kew Gardens

My Eyes - courtesy of today's eye exam

See my Flickr stream for a full run down on the ins and outs of my lazy eye should your life be incomplete without this information.
I can, I must say, heartily recommend Vision Express - very professional, very clear, a special offer on the eye exam meant very inexpensive, and all in all very reassuring. Their glasses are not cheap but the service I had today was exemplary.
Up top is my lazy right eye, below is the better functioning left. I was told not to worry about the darker red areas - dust on the machine apparently.
Do go to Vision Express if you are in need of a check up - after all, it isn't every day that you get photos of close ups of your body parts to post on the interwebs.

Empty Benches in the Sun

You know, I like my "Empty Bench" series and the fact that nobody else does? Well to hell with them.

Sackler Bridge, Kew Gardens

Rushes

Depressed Moorhen 2

Depressed Moorhen

I have been admonished thus:

Patrick
Thanks for your comments on my Photographer's Gallery image. I enjoyed your thoughts about developing on other photographers' work through a mix of imagery and comment.

I'm sure you realise that my take on that particular work was aesthetic, that is the impression made on me by the exhibit, and, to an extent, the drift of one man's identity over time in contrast with the fleeting moment of viewing the exhibit (by me and the figure in the image). I enjoy thinking about photography in this way; I see you do too in your blog entries - I found your piece about Ansel Adams particularly evocative.

Whilst I like your idea, I have to say I'm uncomfortable with your taking of my finished image and making only a minor adjustment to its colour and frame as a "development". To incorporate my image into one of your own to grow the theme or to make a new statement would be to develop the work, or to make a new work.

To simply photograph an artwork straight has little or no artistic input from the photographer. To use another's photograph almost straight is a copyright infringement, however it might be wrapped up in a philosophical question. I don't share my images on flickr for people to take, change as they like and then publish. Whilst I appreciate your comments and the credit (without link I might add), I would have preferred that you had asked permission.

OK point made. I think you have some wonderful, thoughtful, thought-provoking work in your stream, which I shall return to enjoy ...

... Ken

(Ken is known as touchingthelight on Flickr).

I have replied thusly:

Hi touchingthelight,

Thanks for your comments on my interpretation of your photo over on my photo stream - I will take it down even though you don't request this as your Flickr mail to me make it clear that you are unhappy with what I have done - I hope you don't mind if I quote you here, to whit:

"To use another's photograph almost straight is a copyright infringement, however it might be wrapped up in a philosophical question. I don't share my images on flickr for people to take, change as they like and then publish. Whilst I appreciate your comments and the credit (without link I might add), I would have preferred that you had asked permission."

I am sorry I didn't link to your picture - this is because I don't know how (honestly!).

I was, I admit, being a little provocative (Flickr can get so dull!) and was interested to see reactions to what I had done. This was, in part, because both you and I have singularly failed to credit the photographer who created the work in your picture above - to rectify this somewhat, his name is Juan Pablo Echeverri. (Again, sorry, but I am not sure how to link to his work here). I think we are all taking from each other all the time, though the degree of verisimilitude varies.

I am genuinely interested in the point at which the work of one photographer, in this case Echeverri, becomes the "work" of another, namely you. In point of fact I was going to take an almost identical picture to the one you did when I was at the PG (albeit I hadn't thought at the time about adding the Orton effect) but something held me back - nothing moral, I think, but simply a fear of being caught! Also, I only had my crappy camera phone with me (instead of my also somewhat crappy D50).

At the risk of being provocative again (oh go on then!), did you ask permission of (a) the woman in the photo above; (b) the staff at the Photographer's Gallery; or (c) Echeverri before you posted here? While your picture of his installation might be considered more of an adaptation of his work than mine was of yours, nonetheless the question is, I think, worth asking. At the risk of repetition, how much modification of an image (and I think his installation is an "image" in its own right) is necessary before a "new" artwork has been created?

I am with Thomas Hawk (also on Flickr, but also with a blog here: thomashawk.com/index.html ) on this one. His philosophy about picture taking and sharing could be summed up as antithetical to your own, namely "I ... share my images on flickr for people to take, change as they like and then publish." OK, he hasn't said it exactly like that, but that, if I am not mistaken, is the general tenor of his beliefs (sorry if I am wrong Mr Hawk!).

[Making me hesitate before posting is the thought that possibly you make a living through your pictures - this may, although I haven't thought it through, make a difference, although again I am wondering if this occurred to you in relation to Echeverri].

I genuinely hope none of this annoys you but rather is thought provoking - I am hoping that some light (!) can be shed on this topic by further discussion. I've also posted here rather than emailing you as I would be interested in the views of others.

Best wishes,

Patrick

Sadly I can't share the pictures here - that would be too provocative, Ken / ttl having made his views known. However, I am genuinely interested in this debate and I shall keep both of you posted as to developments.

Florentine sunset

Photography as Art

Having spent Friday night in prison in Oxford I wanted to recuperate a little yesterday and so took the time to visit the Ansel Adams exhibition at Oxford's modern art museum. Now, back when I were a nipper during my phirst phase of photographic interest, between the ages of about 18 and 25 (before the Exeter sojourn and the heavy-duty clubbing period thereafter), I remember I loved his work. However, since then, sadly, a more cynical Patrick held sway for a while (cynicism, for a long while, being my idea of sophistication) and I rather went off his pictures, or at least, the idea of his pictures. It seemed to me that everyone who had even the remotest interest in photography cited Adams as a key influence and criticism of him appeared off-limits. During this time I wasn't even sure that photography was an art, and that Adams couldn't be as good as I'd thought because he earned near universal praise for his work (I know, strange distorted thinking, but that's how it went). So anyway, I didn't much bother with him.
Fast forward to April 2008 and I can see what a Dumbkopf I have been. The pictures are, as any fule kno, astonishingly beautiful. They have an impact that totally belies their size and, if you have even a passing interest in photography, should be seen at least once in a lifetime. But anyway, you probably knew that. What was also good for me, though, was the fact that the pictures got me interested and made me pick up a book of his letters in which I almost immediately came across the following quote, written by him in his early thirties:

"The economic problem is a perennial one which I accept because I made my own choice many years ago. I could have spent time and effort making money; I chose to spend it on my work. My real problem is a more personal one;- the need of being alone. I am not anti-social; I have a deep affection for my friends and family, feel deeply for suffering humanity (also for suffering animals!) but at times I have a desperate need to be absolutely alone. This desire is all bound up in my work."

This was a revelation to me - I hadn't known anything much about the man before (still don't of course, though I bought the book so I hope to partially rectify this), but here he was echoing exactly what I have thought myself a thousand times about the need to be alone. Now, if I can be strong enough to make the connection he made between the need for solitude and the Art of photography (I can call it that now that I have revisited his pictures, though I make no claims here for my own), then this will be an exciting new chapter of my development.

UPDATE: Of course all the above would be better were it not for the fact that the man responsible for the quote was not Ansel Adams but his friend Edward Weston. Ah well, I'll have to go to one of his exhibitions now...

Buddha, Ashmolean, Oxford

Oxford

Four Pints

It is too many. Three and things are fine. Four and online scrabble becomes a challenge and one begins to wonder about death. And one's diet.

The Heffalump Comment

Heffalump comment: visible both here and at Flickr - one is initially excited to see that one has a comment, only to discover that it is a reference to one that the author oneself has left in reply to someone else's musings (normally, of course, their musings are singular).

Florence

Florence

This one is growing on me more and more. A bit cheesy I thought at first, but now I'm coming back to it frequently and thinking fondly of Florence in the spring, the beautiful old city somehow able to remain aloof above, behind and around the teeming hordes. You can go, you can see, you can try and capture the essence, but you won't be able to spoil the city - which makes you feel kind of good.

Somerset House

My Bedside Table

There was a great article on this theme in the Guardian yesterday which gave some interesting insights into how people operate, or at least how they might want other people to perceive them to operate. Anyway, I present to you my bedside table. The writing is a bit unclear - apologies. Essentially, however, the picture shows a radio alarm tuned to BBC radio four. Goes off six thirty. Thus is the getting-ready-for-work routine carried out to the cadences of the Today programme. Next up: some tablets - probably medicines will come to dominate more and more space as I get older, but for now at any rate they don't take up much room. Then there is the photography magazine - late night reading for inspiration, education and techno-lust. Then we have some random sunglasses - not sure why they are there; they are not prescription so, when wearing them, although I look as cool as Officer Francis Llewellyn "Ponch" Poncherello from CHIPS (!)*, I can actually see bugger all. A book of gardens follows - looking at this is very relaxing and soporific. Finally there is a copy of Lionel Shriver's There's Something about Kevin, one of those books that everyone who has read it says, without fail, that it is an amazing piece of work - I have yet to start it.
There now, that's my bedside table, where's yours?

*Minus the tan, teeth, torso, uniform and motorcycle of course.

The Women of World War II: Memorial, Whitehall

The London Marathon today meant that Whitehall was closed to traffic so shots such as this were possible.

'ello 'ello.....

Earl Haig's Hoss, Whitehall

Nice Ass (!)

The War Against Terror (TWAT): Downing Street

Ooh, thanks Tony, I feel much safer now.
By the way, I in no way mean to imply the occifer is a twat, rather that his ultimate boss, the PM, was and, of course, the current one has done little to change this perception.

London Marathon Supporters

Here's another effort

Oooh, it is harder than it looks this "planet photo" malarkey. Kew Gardens. No. of hdrs put together then through the secret formula and hey-presto, almost indecipherable picture. As I work on them the quality gets more and more degraded as I run up against the limitations of my computer and have to make the files smaller (at times they are over 70 megs amd my machine can't cope). Anyway, will keep trying. Perhaps using HDRs isn't helping.
Anyway, this was taken outside the large greenhouse on the steps leading down the pond / lake. The two things you can see to the left and right, aside from the large flowerpots, are babies buggies - the gardens were full of Polish au pairs.

Hey, listen, it is my first attempt so stop laughing at the back

Hurricane on Richmond Green.

Shedding light on China

First London, now Paris: fiasco in the streets. How marvellous. I don't, I'm afraid, have a deep understanding of the history of Tibet but then I wasn't taking part just for that poor benighted country, I was there to oppose Chinese human rights abuses in general. Oh I know, it was a little thing and but a pinprick on the elephant, but still it felt good. I hope San Francisco continues the trend.

World gone White

Winter redux

From sunny Firenze to this...

Richmond Park this morning. Pretty while it lasted.

View across the Arno towards the Uffizi

Florence from San Miniato

Typical scene in Florence

Luigi

Campanile, Florence, HDR

The Duomo, Florence

d. aged 82

There are worse places to die