New Photography 4

Here are some new photos on Instagram, featuring fall/winter scenes and urban photography. Like my previous posts (1, 2, and 3) I used my iPhone and the Aviary app for quick touch-ups.

New Photography 3

Here are some random pics from my walkabouts in New York City.  Like my first and second photography posts, these test shots are about abstraction, color, and value, rather than narrative.

I used my iPhone 6 plus rather than a professional camera. I will be uploading more pictures here.

New Photography 2

Here's the second installment of my photographic experiment. Like the first batch I focused on geometric abstraction and avoided narrative.

I took these pictures with my iPhone at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney. The last three were of revolving doors at the MoMA where the blurred motion and reflections somehow reminded me of Gerhard Richter and Andy Denzler. These images gave me some ideas for future paintings.

This Saturday will be our final class for the summer at the National Academy, after which we'll have a few weeks' break before the sessions resume in September. I may take some more photos during this hiatus.

New Photography

I recently watched Finding Vivian Maier, a documentary about a nanny who compulsively took photographs on her daily walks.

Curiously, most of her pictures remained undeveloped in her lifetime. Maier's work was discovered a few years ago during a liquidation sale of her storage holdings. Since her death on 2009 her photos have received critical praise and found a wide audience though the internet and international exhibitions.

The film inspired me to try some photography during our two week break at the National Academy. Unlike Maier, I couldn't bring myself to photograph strangers on the street, not in any recognizable fashion anyway. I limited myself to abstract compositions in an effort to resolve a new set of pictorial issues that had nothing to do with figurative painting.

I have a Nikon DSLR but found it too clunky to carry around. I used my iPhone instead and online photo editing programs.

I took many pictures, deleted most of them, but thought I'd share a few images. Art class resumes this Saturday but I'll probably continue my photographic experiment. It's a new way of looking at things. I find myself mentally cropping everything I see in order to distill my daily life into its abstract essence.