Too many craftsmen, too few practical dreamers

E

Enoyarnam

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John Loengard was one of the most renowned photographers at Life magazine. He followed hot on the heals of former staffers such as Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstadt and Margaret Bourke-White. Esteemed company, one might say! His travelling exhibition, ‘Celebrating the Negative’, consists of words and text arranged alongside the reproductions of the negatives of photographers.

The following quotation struck a particular chord with me. Man Ray is reputed to have said his work was, ‘designed to amuse, bewilder, annoy or inspire reflection, but not to arouse admiration for any technical excellence usually sought in works of art. The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers’.

I like the fact that Man Ray was pugnacious enough to link those two final words together. I wonder, does this quotation even begin to strike a chord with you?
 
I can see the letters but it's so tiny that I just can't be bothered trying to read it. And I'm not trying to be an ass. It's ridiculously tiny. Either your screen resolution is set really low or you just like a challenge.
 
Jamie123 said:
I can see the letters but it's so tiny that I just can't be bothered trying to read it. And I'm not trying to be an ass. It's ridiculously tiny. Either your screen resolution is set really low or you just like a challenge.
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Seconded. AND white on white so I had to reverse it to find that there was anything other than a heading.

Cheers,

R.
 
COPIED AND REPOSTED, not my post

John Loengard was one of the most renowned photographers at Life magazine. He followed hot on the heals of former staffers such as Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstadt and Margaret Bourke-White. Esteemed company, one might say! His travelling exhibition, ‘Celebrating the Negative’, consists of words and text arranged alongside the reproductions of the negatives of photographers.

The following quotation struck a particular chord with me. Man Ray is reputed to have said his work was, ‘designed to amuse, bewilder, annoy or inspire reflection, but not to arouse admiration for any technical excellence usually sought in works of art. The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers’.

I like the fact that Man Ray was pugnacious enough to link those two final words together. I wonder, does this quotation even begin to strike a chord with you?
 
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Seems like there are not enough men who know the craft of using PCs at least. I guess that is a good start :)
 
sometimes one can strive for technical excellence and yet miss the moment...the image then suffers and loses something in the process
 
Then there are those who strive for the moment and miss that too -- with or without technical excellence. (Needless to say, not a personal attack on you, lxmike).

Cheers,

R.
 
Definitely strikes a chord with me. Putting an imaginative spin on the familiar is a lot more interesting and fun. As my English prof used to say "You can give me an essay with perfect spelling, grammar, and structure but if you don't have something interesting to say you get zero!"
 
technical proficiency or even excellence is easy to attain when dealing with taking a photograph... craftsmen is a bit more elusive (but attainable with practice) as it is most clearly manifest in photography when creating prints... talent and creativity is much more elusive for us mere mortals...
 
You can miss the perfect moment if your shutter isn't cocked...that part of photography is under technical excellence...
You can also miss the shot waiting and watching for the scene to become perfect when it already was...
 
if you single out images from Robert Frank's book The Americans. they're ordinary and boring. they're bad in almost every sense from a craft-oriented approach to photography. And it was strongly criticized when it was released for that reason... as single pictures with no context all of them fail or they're extremely ordinary. but then you put them all together and you have one of the most influential books of photography and for that matter any book.

So, if you take a hundred deliberately bad pictures from a craftsmanship point view because you wish to say something with a certain aesthetic sense then no one will criticize you. on the other hand, if you go like a butterfly and keep photographing with disregard for basic rules then you're just wasting your time... deliberation... that is a very important word in photography. there must be a deliberate approach to what you're doing, you can't just fly off to any flower you wish like a butterfly and hope to get lucky.

photography is a craft first and foremost. and no one can just become good at it by complete disregard to the craft aspect of it. you have to have a complete knowledge of the craft before you could start to get creative. the craft is like the grammar and the creative part like Shakespeare. now you see the difference and the gap between the two.

first you have to crawl, walk, run and then fly. you can't just fly into flying. i think it was Nietzsche who said that.


/what i posted here is as much a reminder to myself than preaching to others.
 
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...you have to have a complete knowledge of the craft before you could start to get creative.
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There's plenty of evidence to the contrary. :)

You can produce art with everything from a barbaric yawp to technical virtuosity. Art and craftsmanship are tangentially related, at best.
 
Leaving the text color at default is the best solution. It changes to the best possible contrast for viewing. If you select a color, it becomes static.

The default size is also the best compromise for all users. If you need to change font size, you're better off using the browser controls for this effect.
 
I keep getting bounced out due to the time it takes to write a thread. Hence, my decision to write my sentences in 'ms word'. I don't want to keep losing what I've just written. Is there a way around this? If not, I'll just use the default. Thanks to everyone who have taken the time to set me straight on this.
 
Enoyarnam said:
I keep getting bounced out due to the time it takes to write a thread. Hence, my decision to write my sentences in 'ms word'. I don't want to keep losing what I've just written. Is there a way around this? If not, I'll just use the default. Thanks to everyone who have taken the time to set me straight on this.
Click to expand...

You can remove the formatting like so:

- click on "Go Advanced".

- Select all the text in the box.

- Click on the "Remove Text Formatting" button. It looks like the letter A with a X through it.

For example, if I did that with the following text:

This is a formatting test!

it becomes:

This is a formatting test!

Hope that helps.
 
craftsmen/practical dreamers

craftsmen/practical dreamers

Freezing time is a cheap trick. After that novelty wears-off, is there anything left? ;)
 
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