"Coneflower Breeze" © Hank Erdmann Nachusa Grasslands Nature Conservancy, Ogle County, Illinois

Blog #12, July 2014

"Image Integrity"

Food for Thought: "The artist and the photographer seek the mysteries and the adventure of experience

in nature." -Ansel Adams

"Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests

emotion, and I translate that emotion into art." - Georges Braque - (French artist known for

his work in cubism and his association with Picasso)

"Art takes nature as its model." - Aristotle

When Minor White would photograph, he would always begin with the question,

"What will I be given today?" (from Dewitt Jones Blog)

"Arboretum Grass" © Hank Erdmann

Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois

Wow! The response to my last newsletter has been to say the least overwhelming! Thank you,

Thank you, ... Thank you all for your kind words, your support and your encouragement. And to

all those many, many folks who came out on workshops and tours with us, again I can't thank

you enough for that support. I must reiterate however, I'm not going anywhere, I'm just re-

focusing efforts, at least those involved in making a living. I'm still teaching at the Clearing and at

the Arboretum and I will always be making images.

The photo world is changing however. There will be continued emphasis on images made

quicker, easier, with less need of knowledge, more technology the user does not control, less

need of skill, less quality and with the thought process than just good enough is; good enough.

Ugggghhhh, Sir Ansel is rolling in his grave! Cameras will continue to devolve into cell phones

and worse, don't laugh, the eye clicked camera implanted in your eye ball is just around the

corner. Not in my eye though. What fun would that be?

Everything about the digital revolution seems to be moving towards simpler (simpler if you

understand digital technology in the first place), easier, and faster with more instant feedback.

Some of this is good, being able to review composition after pressing the trigger is a blessing,

being able to KNOW your exposure is what you want by using the histogram, changed the way

we make images. As my friend Jerry Hug always says: "What's the best Camera? - It's the one

you have with you and that is almost always a cell phone camera". Jerry has a point, but at the

same time, you probably wouldn't give a lot of attention to a watercolor painting or a sculpture

that took only seconds to make (it definitely would be simple!), it is inherently understood that

works of art take some time to create, even in the hands of experts. On the other hand I saw a

demonstration from an art school at an art fair, where the artist was promoting a class where

you create cute, very personalized little post card watercolors to send a very personalized, very

warm, very neat and very talented little paintings to use as a greeting for a friend. They took

only a couple minutes (but NOT a fraction of a second) to create.

"Pt Reyes Light" © Hank Erdmann Pt Reyes Light, Marin County, California

The little cards were excellent and incredibly nice for the purpose they were created for, but

they were never meant to be great works of art for the wall. So I guess we, who criticize 'simple',

do need to consider the purpose of the effort. In that same vein of thinking, those of you who

have something being promoted to you as the latest, greatest, cheapest, simplest whatever,

need to consider that which is being promoted, with some thought of use and quality.

That post card artist became a good acquaintance and I have one of his cherished little notes

and I framed it. It might not be great art, but it is a reminder of a generous and warm effort in

saying hello. PS, use your cell phone cameras to make little pictures for note cards in the same

way, send a greeting to a friend that will be cherished just as much. Huge megapixels aren't

needed to make such wonderful expressions of friendship. Receiving such in the actual mail is to

me more fun than an email, although even an email is still a thrill and better than no

correspondence at all!

Along the thought of helping friends, thanks to all of you who sent job tips and other offers of

help. I appreciate it immensely and it got me to thinking, which is scary enough, but thinking

about what would help any artist? What can most folks can do without a lot of effort or cost.

That thought brought me back to some great advice given by Brooks Jensen in one of his

magazine articles in Lenswork Magazine. The article touched on the concept of the $3700 fine

art photographic print. An arrogant, ridiculous notion even in this photographer's mind, unless

maybe it is an Ansel Adams original in which case you'd have to add a couple, maybe three

zeros. The point Brooks was trying to make is that photographic artists are often their own

worst enemies and went on to fill a few pages with things one could do with $3700, like paying a

couple months of the mortgage, car payments, a REAL good lens, etc, etc. He was making a case

for affordable art not only for the purchasers but for the sake of the artists. He said he'd "rather

make a quick dime, than a slow quarter" and that if our goal was one to sell prints and two, also

to share our works with the world, that would happen easier and faster if one made his work

available to the masses versus only the wealthy.

Brooks to this day still sells prints for

around $20. He has sold thousands and

thousands of them (I have a few of them

myself). They aren't matted or framed,

but they are set up with titling so they

can be framed with or without the titling

if one wants to frame them. I have

framed a couple of mine. I always felt

that Brooks was right on track with such

thinking and I too have offered such

inexpensive forms of quality images.

That reminds me that I should make

some more of such prints, I've sold

almost all that I made! So the help you

can give any artist, especially those who

try to offer less expensive art that

anyone can afford, is to simply buy it! I

make that plea for all of us, not just

myself. And if "ya got the big bucks",

most artists have the larger framed

pieces as well! However for point of

reference my larger framed pieces aren't

in the $3700 range but in the $300

range!)

At Gallery 7 we embrace this concept of

having quality art at reasonable prices

"White Shrub" © Hank Erdmann, Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois

and not just photographs but ceramics, wood turnings and jewelry in addition to photographs

and paintings. To move on from the commercial, please note that the Open Lens V Exhibition

had its Opening Reception a week ago this past Saturday. Admission to the gallery is always free

(now that's a price I've heard of) at least to look at. It's a great show too, please feel free to stop

by an view the show before it ends at the end of July.

This newsletter will likely be the last in its present format. In a further cost cutting move I will be

dropping my email newsletter service and provider; constant contact in July and I'm not sure I'll

have another issue out before that move. Saving even $40 a month can be a big deal, especially

when you can multiply it but a few other things in the price range that you don't absolutely

need, like a cell phone hot spot, adobe cloud subscriptions, etc. Future emails will either be a

simple text format and I'll drop in images where and if I can, in a regular email format or at some

point in some other form. Sending out a couple thousand emails in that format is problematic as

most ISPs have limits to how many emails you can send at once or in an hour. Sending 2000 plus

emails out in batches of 100 once an hour is a pain at best, but we'll see how it goes and I'll do

some research and drop addresses which have not opened emails in recent months.

"Image Integrity"

For July's blog I want to visit the concept of "image integrity", that is being true to one's image

and to the source of it. This is less of an "art" issue and more one of respect for what we

photograph and for me, mostly a question of respecting nature or the "natural image". Let me

state first and foremost I make MORE than my share of abstract and photo impressionistic

images. I do a lot of that, I enjoy it immensely and even teach it. It's my opinion and I think I

share that opinion widely, that when an artist uses a natural subject or scene as the basis of or

the base of a photograph, and makes that scene or subject into an image or artwork of the same

in an entirely new, different, or special way, makes an artistic statement that respects not only

the subject but celebrates it in a new and different way.

"Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight" © Hank Erdmann

Sister Bay Marina, Sister Bay, Door County, Wisconsin

In no way does such an image represent the subject deceptively, abusively or make a false

statement, nor does it try to make a source of an image into something it's not. For me, using a

natural subject in such a manner is really saying here is what I felt at seeing this subject, not

what I saw. That is a very valid statement by any artist. Even intentional "grunge HDR" has a

unique and very often interesting and artistic look and appeal, it can be very impressionistic.

Using such techniques to a minor degree or just using a little of a treatment versus being

obvious and bold about its use is not only cheating the viewer about the artist's intentions, it's

cheating the artist himself from making a dramatic statement.

I have been at various camera club's critiques, competitions and image show and tell's and have

seen some truly awful abuses of over-saturation of color. (No; I won't say, when, where or

who!) In no other way did the natural scene seem altered other than the gross color over

saturation. To me this is a case of not respecting the natural scene. Am I splitting hairs here? I

don't think so. No attempt was made to say anything more with the images than to say "I don't

feel strongly about this image to show it faithfully, to let Mother Nature's wonder shine through,

or to imply that the subject didn't inspire strong enough feelings in me to use the scene to make

other artistry with it". The word "with" at the end of the last sentence is a strong and intentional

choice. I feel very passionately about that idea that we make images with nature versus taking

them from nature. Both Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter talked in such terms and in today's world,

photographers David Ward from the UK and Freeman Patterson from Canada preach similar

sentiments. The real sad thing that the images turned into velvet Elvis's had real good

composition values and would have been wonderful images without the tourist trinket

treatments. Or call it "Funky JuJu" in Will Clay's words! Speaking of Will, I even heard once in

regards to such an image, a whispered comment to the effect that "Will Clay wouldn't like that!"

Frankly neither do I, as an image judge or a juror, I'd score it very low, where I'd be very inclined

to score an intentionally well-crafted abstract of the same subject very high indeed.

"Buffalo Clouds" © Hank Erdmann

Buffalo Rock State Park, LaSalle County, Illinois

It's not manipulation that I find unacceptable. It is either the application of a treatment

in an abusive manner to the integrity of the subject itself, or the denial of the use of

manipulation altogether that to me is so objectionable. When photographer Art Wolfe

used an image of migrating zebras that filled the cover of his book "Migrations" edge to

edge without any spaces, immediately there were those that questioned whether the

image had spaces "filled in" or not. When Wolfe refused to admit that he had "filled in"

holes and later was proved to have done so by a computer forensics expert, and only

then admitted to having done so, he lost any respect I had for him as an artist. It's not

that he did it, it was a perfect photographic illustration to represent the title;

"Migrations" of that book. Had he tried not to hide that fact but instead printed right on

the title page a statement to the nature of cover image, something like "cover image

altered to illustrate the book concept" or some such notion, I would have celebrated

him for the forthright honesty and integrity!

Similarly when one uses some altering technique that says more about the artist's

insecurity to have an image stand on its own, and uses such techniques as gross over

saturation of color cheaply grab viewer's attention, the artist does so only for a moment

when that attention quickly turns to dismay or even disgust at what can only be

described as a cheap and deceptive treatment. When a photographer is so enamored

with the computer software, caring more about what they can do to an image over

caring about the subject matter, it says volumes of his or her concern for Mother

Nature. For some examples of great artistry in abstraction check out a photographer I've

been following lately (thanks Ken Thompson for the suggestion!); Harold Davis. Ken has

even taught some of his techniques in his Close-up classes. Harold takes the beauty of

flowers and photographs them on a light table in a high key manner and using layers of

varied exposures (Yes, HDR!). He makes incredibly beautiful artistic images using the

flowers as his subject and their beauty as his inspiration. They are not images of pure

nature, but are images of how those wonderful blooms make us feel wonderful.

Harold's website is: http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/ and you can subscribe to his blog

there which is well worth receiving.

F11 Magazine is a great publication and free (there's that word again) internet magazine

(Find it and sign up for it at http://www.f11magazine.com/site/index.html. It also opens

our eyes to photographers from other parts of the world. This month F11 featured New

Zealand famed landscape photographer Andris (Andy) Apse and asked the following

question amongst many: What's your position on HDR technology? A blessing or a curse

to imaging?

Andris Apse: Every advance in photography is a blessing. It is up to photographers to

turn that blessing into a curse. Used subtly, HDR is capable of producing wonderful

results. In my early days of playing with HDR I did produce some images that I am not

particularly proud of but I use it often.

"Maple Rock Falls" © Hank Erdmann, AuTrain Falls, Alger County, Michigan

Another fine art photographer I immensely respect is Tillman Crane; go to his site at

http://www.tillmancrane.com/index.php. Tillman's been publishing his monthly

"musings" about the artistic life, long before the term blog was invented. This month's

musing takes a look at film versus digital. Thought that question was long decided? Well

Tillman's smallest format before the digital age was 11x14 sheet film, throw that camera

in your backpack! He has "downsized" now to 8x10 format and in April talked about

adding digital capture to the dismay of some of his more ardent film followers. He

makes a great case for both!

So film is not yet gone but digital is now king. "Image Integrity" however is vitally

important no matter the recording medium and very much in the manner you use the

technology, be it older technology or the latest. The next time you feel the need to zap

up the hue/sat or the sharpening or use any technique in a manner that doesn't respect

the source of the image itself or represent the feeling it inspires within you, step back,

ask yourself does my image do the subject or the inspiration from the subject justice? If

that answer is not absolute yes, if you find yourself questioning that answer, find

another way to celebrate it and by doing so, celebrate your own artistry.

Allbest, Hank

More Food for Thought on Image Integrity:

The greatest cunning is to have none at all. - Carl Sandburg

In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.

- Bruce Nauman

If you want to be clever in your picture, don't let anybody catch you at it. If they catch you,

you're not clever. - Harvey Dunn

Abstraction demands more from me than realism. Instead of reproducing something outside

of me, now I go inward and use everything I've learned thus far in my life.

- Susan Avishai (wonderful New York artist with abstraction and florals)

"Swiss Chard Light" © Hank Erdmann, Cantigy Park, DuPage County, Illilnois

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