Janet H Walker on mon 4 jan 99
Someone said (and I'm not picking on you in particular btw)
...and I love the graduated background material I got at
Porter's Photo Supplies. It goes from black to white and gives a
professional appearance to the slides. ...
Grumble. Why is this look considered "professional"? Anyone else
tired of the one-aesthetic-fits-all appearance of our clay
photography? Can't even tell the magazines apart anymore by the
style of the cover photography. All looks the same. (Whyever did
Contact cave in?)
Friend of mine is a professional photographer, meaning that he has
made his living at this for at least a decade, mostly advertisting
work, mostly with models but has done product work as well. He is
going to help me out with understanding lighting so I'm showing him
some issues of CM. He is very puzzled about the backgrounds. "Why
are they doing this," he asks. "The pots don't read against it."
"Don't get me started," I said...
The answer is just that if you don't do it that way, people will
think that you aren't "professional" and your slides won't "read" to
a jury that has been seeing only that aesthetic for three hours.
That top-to-bottom dark-to-light look has got to be the thing that
hits the visual system first. If it ain't there after having been
on the preceding five hundred, the slide won't "look right" no
matter what else is on it. So this horrible aesthetic that is
friendly only to some specific kinds of pots is the price of entry
to our shows?
If someone can give me a more positive way of looking at this, I
might rush out and buy some Varitone. But right now I'm having
trouble with the need to cave in and do something that I think is
downright ugly as well as downright unsympathetic to my quiet
languid pots.
Help me here...
Jan Walker
Cambridge MA USA
Karen Shapiro on tue 5 jan 99
Hi Jan,
I tend to agree with you. After all the kind responses I got to the original
posting, I went to a fabric store and bought some heavy natural colored duck
canvas. It looks great (I hung it from a pole above my photo area). My work
happens to look good against a light ground. but I say go with whatever
pleases you!
And thanks to everyone who responded to me (I previously posted a "thanks",
but it didn't get posted!).
Karen in Sonoma
John Hesselberth on tue 5 jan 99
Janet H Walker wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>If someone can give me a more positive way of looking at this, I
>might rush out and buy some Varitone. But right now I'm having
>trouble with the need to cave in and do something that I think is
>downright ugly as well as downright unsympathetic to my quiet
>languid pots.
>
>Help me here...
>Jan Walker
>Cambridge MA USA
Hi Jan,
Well I can't resist having a shot at this even though I will probably get
in more hot water than I want. If you are getting into the shows you
want to get in and getting the level of recognition you want to get with
whatever background you are currently using then for heavens sake don't
change a thing. Juries, though, are committees. The group dynamics
(even when the voting is individual and there is no talking during the
voting) are that no one (or maybe more accurately, almost no one) wants
to stand out. No one wants to risk having the justify their position.
Therefore it is safer to vote for excellent pots shot in a "standard"
way. And it is easier to explain your "no" vote by saying that the
photography just didn't show the work well. Why fight the system? I
think potters working their way into the shows they want to be in and
trying to develop their name by getting a few awards here and there are
well advised to present their work in whatever way allows the jury to
focus on the work. I think that includes using an accepted "standard"
background. Those who are already "in" ought to shoot their pots the way
they think they look best and let the chips fall where they may. In
short, even though we artists are proud of being nonconformists, there
this is a time when we are better off to conform. It is exactly the same
reason a man applying for a job in corporate America wears a suit and
conservative tie to an interview and why a woman, when applying for the
same job, wears a conservative, "classic" gray or black suit--clothes
they may both think they look lousy in. Peace.
John Hesselberth
Frog Pond Pottery
P.O. Box 88
Pocopson, PA 19366 USA
EMail: john@frogpondpottery.com web site: http://www.frogpondpottery.com
I just redid my web site with a fresh new look for 1999. Check it out!
Buck and Laurita on tue 5 jan 99
Resonating to Janet Walker's response to the "professional"
convention for photo
backgrounds:
As a painter /muralist easing into tile decoration, here's
where my brain goes -
think of old studio photo portraits,where the studios had
painted backgrounds suggesting a setting, usually pastoral
or classic-with-columns.
The subject was the focus, but the background did its job
well and very quietly,
creating a whole world by allusion and speaking volumes
about the people being
photographed. How about something like that, in a very
quiet tertiary palette,
loosely worked, giving a suggestion of a "place" (desert,
seashore, mts,
ancient China or Japan, a spare, elegant interior) that
would complement the work?
Piece of cake for any muralist or theatre set painter to
do. If you're really
subtle about it, you can achieve something that's not
glaringly different from
the conventional at first read, but which stands out in a
beautiful way. Another
thing that would work is a nice broken-color painted finish,
two or three
colors applied with a sponge, rag, big wet brush etc., the
famed "faux finish" look
that many of us painter-types have been pressed into service
to do. Easy and pretty,
and very effective at suggesting depth and space if you
control the colors.
Laura Chandler
Kensington MD
Louis Katz on tue 5 jan 99
Here is the way I explain the one size fits all approach.
The purpose of plain white walls to display paintings is so that the viewer
can see the painting, not the wall. Sculpture pedistals normally do the
same. They have pretty simple constraints and allow the viewer to remove
them from consideration.
The grey to dark grey often does the same. We see it often enough that it
removes itself from our sight.
But, I often tell students with darker work to try to shoot them on a
pedistal in the gallery instead.
I think a page of well composed slides that actually show the work and not
the background will get near equal consideration. If The images are
advertising photo's which have to do with sales, not the work, I am not
sure they will be as effective in getting into juried exhibitions.
I hope this helps.
Louis
--
Louis Katz
lkatz@falcon.tamucc.edu
NCECA Director At Large
Texas A&M-CC Division of Visual and Performing Arts Webmaster (512)
994-5987
CNW on wed 6 jan 99
One more comment about photo backgrounds. I don't do shows but some one who
juried craft shows once told me that startlingly different backgounds can
be very jarring to the eyes after looking at hundreds of slides. Although in
my youth I only filled out job applications in red ink. On the theory that I
would be easily remembered and found amongst all the sameness. Celia
Cynthia Spencer on wed 6 jan 99
Jan,
What kind of pots do you make. I make both a line of work handbuilt from
slabs, (vase, watercans), dark fake ash glazes, AND sculpture of various
types. Everything looks very good on seamless background.
So, am wondering what you make that this treatment does not enhance.
I believe the dark to light helps facilitate the brains ability to see a
piece for the 3-dimensional work that it is. Pieces photographed on all
black look flat, and like they are floating in space, pieces on all white
or grey can sometimes seem flat, too. I love going to a shoot with my
photographer because under his dramatic lights, my work looks like gems.
It's like a mini-show just for me. What is your photographer suggesting
would enhance your pottery more than the seamless background??
I admit to agreeing with you that this format can sometimes be on the
boring side. For my customers, I take photos of my work with flowers in
them, so they can visualize their use in the home. But I don't think
props are appropriate in jury slides. It gets too confusing. I think as
long as your photos look professional, present a strong body of work as a
cohesive unit, and aren't too weirdly taken, jurors will see the work
first.
Just my two cents worth,
Cynthia
------------------------
cynthia.spencer@cmug.com
541-753-4606
Corvallis, OR
J C on thu 7 jan 99
My two cents idea.
For background I use a cotton sheet 9' x 16' bought at a local hardware
store for $20.00. That's the kind painters spread on the floor to do a clean
job. For my purpose, I soaked this huge cotton sheet in my bathtub and
poured some "RIT fabric dye" which a spoon at different spots. I used Navy
blue at some places and Black elsewhere. Just let dry and you have a
professional looking photographer backdrop. It gives a very nice effect and
it is not as boring as a flat color.
A cheap solution.
Jacques.
Can be contacted at: chinmed@sympatico.ca
Web Page: www3.sympatico.ca/chinmed
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Cynthia Spencer
> Sent: janvier 06, 1999 10:00
> To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
> Subject: Re: backgrounds for photos
>
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Jan,
> What kind of pots do you make. I make both a line of work handbuilt from
> slabs, (vase, watercans), dark fake ash glazes, AND sculpture of various
> types. Everything looks very good on seamless background.
> So, am wondering what you make that this treatment does not enhance.
>
> I believe the dark to light helps facilitate the brains ability to see a
> piece for the 3-dimensional work that it is. Pieces photographed on all
> black look flat, and like they are floating in space, pieces on all white
> or grey can sometimes seem flat, too. I love going to a shoot with my
> photographer because under his dramatic lights, my work looks like gems.
> It's like a mini-show just for me. What is your photographer suggesting
> would enhance your pottery more than the seamless background??
>
> I admit to agreeing with you that this format can sometimes be on the
> boring side. For my customers, I take photos of my work with flowers in
> them, so they can visualize their use in the home. But I don't think
> props are appropriate in jury slides. It gets too confusing. I think as
> long as your photos look professional, present a strong body of work as a
> cohesive unit, and aren't too weirdly taken, jurors will see the work
> first.
>
> Just my two cents worth,
> Cynthia
>
> ------------------------
> cynthia.spencer@cmug.com
> 541-753-4606
> Corvallis, OR
>
Sharon Pollock-De Luzio on fri 8 jan 99
In a message dated 1/4/99 5:16:46 PM, you wrote:
<trouble with the need to cave in and do something that I think is
downright ugly as well as downright unsympathetic to my quiet
languid pots.
Help me here...
Jan Walker
Cambridge MA USA>>
Well put Jan! One of my students recently brought me some slides of her work
she had photographed by a professional photographer. They were beautiful.
Unfortunately they weren't shot on the traditional white to black background.
I squirmed and told here that I thought that they were lovely but I was afraid
that if she sent them to be juried they would be read as amateurish because it
made her look like she wasn't "in-the-know". Since then I've noticed how many
bad shots of pots there are printed on the posters hanging in my studio. One
shot of a rather famous-teaching-at-a-major-university-artist-who-will-go-
unnamed-here even had a fill card peaking in at the edge of the picture. Many
simply aren't level. Most are lit badly.
The white-to-black background seems to serve the same purpose as the white
pedistal. It's supposed to read as neutral and gives credibility. Ever
notice how you can put an old shoe on a pedistal and it looks good.
Back in the 60's everybody photographed their work on "natural" backgrounds.
I imagine that-like all fashions-sooner or later someone with enough
credibility will decide to try something different. Because they are famous
everyone will copy them--some mindlessly--some adding their own touch of
innovation.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Waxing philosophical,
Sharon Pollock-De Luzio
putting together a dynamite summer program for RISD--stay tuned for more.
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