A Word from Armond

I just bought a canon 5d mark II; my first digital camera. I am in the process of getting to know it and understand its features. Last night my good friend Burnell  sent me two websites that feature a lot of what is available to the digital world.

I started browsing these websites around 5 AM this morning. One website that I explored in some depth was Rick Sammon’s section on plug-ins  and specially Color Effects pro. Check them out if you are not familiar with them.

The challenge that this early exploration of the plug-ins presented to me was a surprise. Rather than the typical response to an overwhelming amount of information and capabilities I was sent into a existential dilemma. I found my philosophy, that is the basis of what and why I photograph, deeply challenged.

What follows is the text of an e-mail I sent to Burnell after exploring the plug ins. I wrote it about 7AM this morning. It is an early response and maybe even a naive reaction to this art form.  I hope may develop into a conversation about the digital world and where I think it may take us.  I hope I can clearly articulate my thoughts and ideas. So here it goes : Thoughts on the digital world!

“Burnell, I went to those websites and spent hours browsing around especially at the plug ins. I am overwhelmed, and the philosophy behind it all is strange to me.

Of course this is my first serious exposure  and reaction to what control there is over the image. It is truly a serious existential challenge for me. If I may be so reactionary; I know it is a matter of degree how much control and influence over a subject one has with film and with digital. I always opted for the  least control and influence. One film one paper and the subject( the combination varied over the years but the formula remained the same). I always worked to eliminate choice and therefore limiting my own influence on the image.
After seeing the plug ins, various  controls and other software; what is photographed seems almost made irrelevant given the changes one can make with these various controls. If I want to photograph a warm wonderful sunset on the  beach, I go to the beach and wait for the life experience. I then work within my parameters to convey the experience.

I know I sound “old school” but digital photography is closer to painting. For me it is making the world the way I want to see it. It is much more about what is on the mind of the artist than what is outside the artist. And to be even more reactionary, here we go again controlling nature. I know that all photography does that, but film seemed to be a good balance. I have to wait and see if I can attain that same balance with digital or will I become a digital painter. My fear is if I do become a digital painter my world will become more and more 2 dimensional and experiencing the world will become more and more irrelevant. It is akin to my early reaction ( 1970’s) to IBM’S first ad for the PC depicting a rabbit. I was afraid then that the world would become more and more 2 dimensional and that the third dimension would  disappear. Captain Kirk had this same fear when he encountered the aliens that were heads in the glass jars!

That is it for now. So I am going to spend some time thinking about the digital world. I am at the beginning of exploring it in a broader sense and its effects on us.

Armond

I was just browsing through the  stories associated with the different galleries on my website and I really enjoyed reading them again. To read who and why I AM had a refreshing clarity in the midst of so many distractions.

So this next series of posts will be from the stories on my website. I can’t think of a better way of sharing who I AM. This story was written to accompany my Landscape gallery.

http://www.earthlightimages.com/docs/galleries/landscapes.html

I hope these stories give you an insight into the Artist’s Eye.

Landscapes

“The first  scenic image  that I can recall from childhood is the Mitten Butts. John Wayne rode through Monument Valley in John Ford’s Film “Stage Coach”. That scene was the beginning of my love affair with the Western genre of film.

All through my Catholic elementary school years, during the period designated “Picture Study”, I was introduced  to the paintings of Cezanne,  Monet, and Manet. This exposure to the impressionists, along with my early love of “cowboy  movies”,  established the foundation of my artistic aesthetic.

The artists I was most attracted to in my formative years were painters. Consequently, when in 1969 I was given a camera for Christmas, I started photographing scenes with a painter’s palette, rather than the eye of a photographer.

As you look at my landscapes you will see works that have a “painterly” look and composition with formal qualities of landscape painting. I do believe that if I were given a paint brush, a palette of paint  and a canvas  before I was given a camera, I might have become a painter. But then,  the opportunity to be in the grandeur of a landscape with a camera that allows the immediate experimentation and expressions of such experiences would not be part of my artistic life.

I cherish the experience of being awed by the spiritual connection with a landscape; and during this heightened state, being able to capture that moment through photography. The result is a photograph that is  the  expression of that  connection.”