June Post

My thoughts on the assignment were more around artistic styles of the past that inspire me. I wasn't particularly successful but had fun trying to accomplish the assignment.

Georgia O'Keefe - watercolor

Impressionism

Black and White

Jumbles

 

Some observations about photographic art: Past, Present, and Future...

(Since I couldn't submit a photographic interpretation of the assignment, I'm choosing to use a few thoughts instead).

Every era has assigned a period name to describe past art. Going back only relatively brief periods we have used "Victorian" art, and "Art Deco", just to name a couple.

Future viewers may recognize "our" era as Smartphone inspired art, Digital collages, or definitely AI-assisted images. What is normal to us today may, in a few years, look as dated as sepia photography does to us.

I wonder how future historians will describe our civilization. We're the first ever to take billions of photographs every day and instantly share them worldwide.

They may find our experimental AI "art" of today charmingly primitive, similar to how we admire early photographs.

Authenticity may be the rare goal to achieve in the future. Realism may be highly valued. Travel photography has always been an area of interest to me, so I think it may be viewed differently in the future. I value "sense of place" but it wouldn't shock me if future viewers wanted to know, "what did places REALLY look like?" "How did ordinary people live?" "How did places really look before climate change altered them?"

Our travel art of today might become both art and historical evidence.

Imagine it's 2200 and your Frist Museum has an exhibit entitled, "Humanity Before the Great AI Integration: 2010-2035". What might be hanging on the walls?

     --street photography?

     --travel images?

     --digital illustrations?

     --social media screenshots?

     --anything handwritten or sketched?

I can imagine the museum visitor not focusing as much on the technical quality, but instead captivated by what the art reveals about us--a civilization connected to everyone, overwhelmed by information, fascinated by technology, worried about the future, but still searching...FOR SOMETHING!!!

 

May Post (although a bit tardy)... 

When faced with a dilemma about what to photograph, I easily move toward choosing "nature". And, when needing to decide where, I always consider Couchville Cedar Glade State Natural Area. It is a 140-acre natural area located in Davidson and Wilson Counties and is adjacent to Long Hunter State Park. My focus this trip was not the plentiful birdlife, the bugs, or the beautiful glade flowers, but instead I chose to zero in on the contrasts: lush vegetation vs. the arid glade; the rare vs. the common; the harshness vs. the beauty; and life vs. death.

Photos for June

 

Meharry Medical College Buildings as Bichromate Prints and as Colorized Bichromate Prints.