Greetings!
| The Voice Behind The Lens |
 |
"POLITICALLY CORRECT?" By Michael Dubiner
When I saw the man and the young girl at the South Florida
Fair in West Palm Beach, Florida pictured above, I was in turn
surprised and somewhat dismayed.
To me, a child on a leash has always appeared a bit
unseemly. It appears to blur the line between a human child
and a human's captive animal. When I grew up, leashes were not
used to keep track of or control children. Then again, times
have changed. Obviously some parents find utility in this
disconcerting control device. It is not my role, or in my mind
society's, for that matter, to quarrel with a parent or
guardian's right to do what he or she wishes with their
children(within reasonable limits).
What then is it about this particular image that is so
disquieting? Obviously, it is the differing races of the man
and the child in light of the history of race relations in
America. I know nothing about the man and the child or about
their relationship. What I do know is that when I saw them, I
was disturbed and was even more so after viewing the image. In
fact when I described the image to a friend, and that I was
going to display it at an Arts Festival, she commented; "Are
Black people going to see it?" She, in fact, echoed a concern
of my own that I had not put into words.
The image, my friend's comment, and my concerns, in essence
were the genesis of this article. Should it offend, upset or
disquiet anyone more to see this image of a white man holding
a black child on a leash then it would if the man and child
were of the same race? Would this image even be worthy if they
were of the same race? Was this man being "politically
correct" in keeping track of the child in this manner? Should
he care? Should we?
Read
on... »
|
| Images To Inspire The Imagination |
|
|
Ken Windsor Internet Art Journalist
My aim is to give credit to some great work being shown on
the internet, but in doing so the mere act of bypassing the
home page can rob Photographers and artists of income
generated by site hits, recorded only by visits to the home
page. So, I know you will bear with me if you sometimes have
to go on a longer journey to see the actual images, as of
course we in no way wish to deprive site owners of the
benefits derived from actually creating their sites
To present your work on the Internet is one thing, but to
do it with a professional approach, well that is another ball
game. JUDITH FALCONER gives us a very polished site, with
images full of colour, and a layout which just oozes
professionalism.
Her subjects for this site are American Indians, and
although this is a popular subject for artists at the moment,
I think that these paintings have something rather special
about them.
Continue
with Story........... »
|
| Buy N Shoot |
|
 Buy-n-Shoot.com is Australia's leading online network
for the photographic industry. Search for photographers,
digital cameras, camera stores,digital / photo labs, camera
clubs and 'used' cameras / computers & darkroom equipment!
Visit!
»
|
| Thomas Barbey |
|
 My wife and I work together as a team. We go to many
art galleries and find that only a very small percentage of
the work, we find to be inspiring. Contrary to many other
artists, we both have a strong belief that imagination plays a
tremendous role in our body of work. While most photographers
catch a glimpse or a moment at the right time and turn it into
something by cropping or bringing out the beauty in the world
around us, and some manage to do this extremely well, we on
the other hand create images that don't even exist or are
impossible.
Every single one of our images has to pass what we like to
call the "so what?" test. If a combination of two or more
negatives put together doesn't touch us or have any particular
meaning, we toss it. We try to combine images and sometimes
the results can be disappointing. A giant clock in the middle
of the ocean can be an unusual image but if we look at it and
say to ourselves: "So what?" This means it isn't good enough.
If instead, an ocean liner is going down a "funnel-type" hole
and we entitle it "Shortcut to China," it takes on a whole new
meaning. The picture takes you into an imaginary world where
you can see the captain telling the passengers to fasten their
safety belts and get prepared for the descent, and so on.
At times we come up with ideas beforehand, try to
materialize them and it works. At other times, it is an
accident and the ideas come afterwards, when the image is
already finished and the concept has yet to be understood. It
is almost as if we are learning constantly through the process
of creation.
We travel a lot to take photographs of different things and
places. Sometimes we use an image several years later, but
only when it fits, like the perfect piece in a puzzle, and
completes our latest project. Some images are composed of
negatives that are separated by a decade in the actual time
that we had taken them and only come to life when they found
their perfect match. It's the combination of two or more
negatives that give birth to a completely unusual vision, but
most of all, the title we give the final image is the glue and
the substance of the piece.
Visit
Gallery... »
| |
| Caterpillar Portal |
 |
|
LAKE PAINTING
Adobe Photoshop. Painter. (Classic/Painter 6 or 7)
Alternative Software: Must support layers. 1 Hour. EASY
1.Choose a simple, landscape photograph. (Because you will
be overlaying the photograph onto a coloured background, it is
best to first convert a colour, or black and white photograph,
to sepia. Do this by using Image Hue and Saturation, tick the
Colorise box on the right and move the Hue and Saturation
sliders until you have a suitable sepia colour.) Make a very
free painting on a piece of paper using watercolours - and
scan into the computer, or do this in Paint software such as
Painter Classic/6 or 7. (The painting can be extremely fast
and simple, because it is not going to show in the finished
image, except as colour and texture effect underneath the
photograph
2.Select and Move the landscape photograph, as a layer,
over on to the painted background. If you have to re- scale
the photo to better fit the painting, go to Edit Transform
Scale. Change the Blending Modes of the photograph on Layer 1
and see the different effects. (Most of the Blending Modes
give excellent watercolour effects and you may save several
versions at this point.)
3.Use the Eraser Tool to make an edges effect. Bring the
opacity down to around 40% and erase, roughly, around the edge
of the photo layer, (Layer 1) until you have achieved a rough
edge appearance. Some of the underlying painting layer may
show through but that is only going to add to the real media
effect. Flatten the image .
Continue....
|
|
