S H Bean ~ Photographer

"…within the same space the real and the abstract"

Posts tagged ‘James Turrell’

‘On Traces’ and The Invisible Landscape

“The trace is the appearance of a nearness, however far removed the thing that left it behind may be.” (Walter Benjamin, AP, p. 447) Each retinal image should be understood as a photographic trace of the object in space and time, it is where a body in movement leaves a memory.

The profane shadow produces a latent un-fixed Image on the retina. It needs to be ‘developed’ before it can perceptually reveal its persistence.

As Ruskin noted: “the perception of solid form is entirely a matter of experience” (Sept 2014 blog) then the profane shadow in the Invisible Landscape is not fixed but latent, it can only be a succession of shapes over time that reveal their true perceptual persistence in a non-retinal form when we don’t look at them.

On Restricted Light

Much if not all of my color abstract work in ‘The Restricted Light Project’ follows Da Vinci’s detailed explanations found in his Codex especially those sections on Light and Shadows. His approach to Light was to categories it as follows; Light in the Open Country, Light of Luminous Bodies and Restricted Light. ( Paris C. J 111-116)

In Photography we further conclude that there are three basic qualities of Photographic Light, irrespective whether it is Light from the Open Country, Light from Luminous Bodies or Restricted Light. These qualities are: Quality, Color and Brightness (or Luminosity)

Join my Apple Bokeh Aji protest

I am posting this in protest at the recent appalling attempt by Apple Inc to produce software based ‘vanity bokeh’.
Some points to note:
While its true that sensor size and lens construction are important contributing factors in the creation of Bokeh Ajji, It is the number of blades in the aperture and the distance from subject that are most critical. Thats why for instance you never see Bokeh in wide angle shots, just close ups (physically mid-shots and close-ups). Three things you do not want to see in Bokeh are: polygonal Bokeh, Doughnut Gradients inside the Bokeh, and round shaped Bokeh to the edge of the frame, (its always oval at the edge due to lens vignetting).

More notes on The Invisible Landscape

I try never to trust my vision,  so with the Invisible Landscape project I have gone back to basics and now concentrate solely  on the ‘cast shadow’. Shadows are somewhat difficult to perceive as the shadow darkness, its density, is predicated on the background stimulus outside the shadow area. Ruskin noted that ‘the perception of solid form is entirely a matter of experience’ So from a purely vision based perspective its density is controlled by the overall scene brightness. It is light or dark because of the overall background stimulus outside the shadow area.

To me shadows are essentially invisible objects and where once Photography was used to explore  invisible motion, I continue in that tradition to explore the shadow. In order to do this, one method I have is not to use my vision but my perception to discover its ‘imminent visibility’. (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)  The Images in the Invisible Landscape project were all taken during daylight. No artificial light was used.

The Latent Shadow-part 2

I have now added a further column to the classification table of Cast Shadows, that of ‘Distance to Background‘. To explain this new class I am using the terms Proximate and Approximate.

Proximate identifies the position of the object as on the background.

Approximate identifies the position of the object as near but not touching.

Below is the updated table for Cast shadows (always assuming the object is opaque) and the total number of possible combinations (280)

 

Light type Length Edge Shading Colour Distance to background
Daylight Short Hard Light Neutral Proximate
Artificial Medium Diffused Grey Colour Approximate
Mixed Long Black
Moonlight Abstract
Deformed

About the project’s title: The Restricted Light Project

With ‘The Restricted Project’ I set out to “discover appearances” and interestingly a colleague quoted Malevich “liberating non-objectivity ” who goes on to say: ‘…..drew me forth into a “desert”, where nothing is real except feeling..”. Of course much of the work conceptualized in ‘The Restricted Light Project’ requires a deep understanding of Light, (and of course Color and Shadows), but in essence I follow Leonardo’s guidance in his Codex (Vol 1 book 5) on restricted light. He divides light up into three types: Light in the Open Country, Light of Luminous Bodies and Restricted Light. ( Paris Codex. J 111-116)

Cast Shadows in the landscape

In this new body of work I am investigating the relationship of cast shadows and the landscape. Cast shadows allow me to construct visual planes or depth cues in the image, which in turn helps to highlight those raised regions that would otherwise not be perceived. At this point in time I am concerned with cast shadows and not form shadows and I have created a table listing key elements of a cast shadow and the number of possible combinations. This work reflects my visual interpretation of the profane (or the commonplace subject) and my attempts at revealing the invisible within it. In some ways I am just continuing the tradition in Art of seeking or understanding imminent visibility, that is everything especially the profane object holds.

Perfect results are infrequent and more often a complete failure.

Cast shadows (assuming the object is opaque) and their possible combinations (240) including light type:

Light type Length Edge Shading Color
Daylight Short Hard Light Neutral
Artificial Medium Diffused Grey Color
Mixed Long Black
Moonlight Abstract
Deformed
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