Paris jam session - l'évidence photographique
- take5_d_shorterer
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Re: Paris jam session - l'évidence photographique
A few remarks regarding The Prof's photos
In another city, I have a book about Walker Evans (The US photographer that worked with James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) in which he gave advice to photographers who were just starting out. The advice, in essence, was: when you go out to take photographs, don't take anyone else along because the process is difficult and often tedious, and unless the people who are accompanying you understand this, they will become distractions.
There is a related corrolary that Evans did not mention but that is worth mentioning here, namely that in order to get good photographs, you have make a choice between being in the moment--that is, enjoying the moment for what it is unselfconciously--and making a decision to record the moment. Almost always, it is impossible to do both. Kertesz's (or Cartier-Bresson's or Brassai's) photographs of Paris didn't happen as a natural consequence of his liking Paris. They happened because he set up shop, and waited...and waited...and waited. You have to know two things to be in position to take good photos: one, you need to know which scenarios are likely to yield good photos, and two, you need to have patience. You also have to be willing not to be part of the action, because if you are, well, then you have just put yourself in the mise en scene instead of being outside of it to take the photo.
This isn't a matter of speculation on my part. I spoke to The Prof a little after the session, and we talked about the fact that the time you spend to document an event is the time that you cannot actually be part of the event itself. You have to chose to be either making what happens as it's proceeding (which means you get to sing along) or recording it for the future.
I've thought about this and thought about and thought about this (no surprise, right?) because I've tried to do the same thing at JUs, not with photographs but with taking notes. I have taken notes at previous JUs (until tweetybird forced me to put away the notebook--said it was too much like an interview), and I could have taken notes at this one, but I was too tired (minor cold), and mostly I didn't want to miss out on what was happening as it was happening.
Those of you who were at the event itself know that specific photographs are sometimes greater than the particular instance they were recording. The one that comes to mind is one in which I am talking to Quaco and saying something pedestrian like, ``D..I'm going to play a D, not a Dmaj7 on your track.'' On paper (or on the screen), it looks like something else. It looks as if The Prof was able to get an unintentional group portrait (which are the best type anyways) because virtually everyone is in the photo (everyone except for one person I am unfortunately standing in front of). The best type of group portraits are those in which people aren't aware they are being photographed so that it is impossible to know what they were thinking at that moment, except for the fact that they were unaware of the photographer.
Those of you who weren't at the event are able to see what it was like in these pictures because The Prof is, with one exception, not to be found in any of these B&W photos.
In another city, I have a book about Walker Evans (The US photographer that worked with James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) in which he gave advice to photographers who were just starting out. The advice, in essence, was: when you go out to take photographs, don't take anyone else along because the process is difficult and often tedious, and unless the people who are accompanying you understand this, they will become distractions.
There is a related corrolary that Evans did not mention but that is worth mentioning here, namely that in order to get good photographs, you have make a choice between being in the moment--that is, enjoying the moment for what it is unselfconciously--and making a decision to record the moment. Almost always, it is impossible to do both. Kertesz's (or Cartier-Bresson's or Brassai's) photographs of Paris didn't happen as a natural consequence of his liking Paris. They happened because he set up shop, and waited...and waited...and waited. You have to know two things to be in position to take good photos: one, you need to know which scenarios are likely to yield good photos, and two, you need to have patience. You also have to be willing not to be part of the action, because if you are, well, then you have just put yourself in the mise en scene instead of being outside of it to take the photo.
This isn't a matter of speculation on my part. I spoke to The Prof a little after the session, and we talked about the fact that the time you spend to document an event is the time that you cannot actually be part of the event itself. You have to chose to be either making what happens as it's proceeding (which means you get to sing along) or recording it for the future.
I've thought about this and thought about and thought about this (no surprise, right?) because I've tried to do the same thing at JUs, not with photographs but with taking notes. I have taken notes at previous JUs (until tweetybird forced me to put away the notebook--said it was too much like an interview), and I could have taken notes at this one, but I was too tired (minor cold), and mostly I didn't want to miss out on what was happening as it was happening.
Those of you who were at the event itself know that specific photographs are sometimes greater than the particular instance they were recording. The one that comes to mind is one in which I am talking to Quaco and saying something pedestrian like, ``D..I'm going to play a D, not a Dmaj7 on your track.'' On paper (or on the screen), it looks like something else. It looks as if The Prof was able to get an unintentional group portrait (which are the best type anyways) because virtually everyone is in the photo (everyone except for one person I am unfortunately standing in front of). The best type of group portraits are those in which people aren't aware they are being photographed so that it is impossible to know what they were thinking at that moment, except for the fact that they were unaware of the photographer.
Those of you who weren't at the event are able to see what it was like in these pictures because The Prof is, with one exception, not to be found in any of these B&W photos.
le moderniste diabolique wrote:The Prof wrote:L-R in this one
Fred (neverknows) Brother Spoon, Griff, Dan Marquis, Fish, Jumper K, Pete le Pick and Duncan Cheepniz.
I know everyone was trying to get into a French theme over there, but wasn't guillotining Duncan (Cheepniz) going a bit far?
It's called le shoegazing.
Looks like you guys had a blast. Grat pics Prof!
- Neil Jung
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Re: Paris jam session - l'évidence photographique
JQW wrote:le professeur wrote:
Ooh! Wasn't he in Showaddywaddy?
No. It's Kramer!
Great pics John. There's something about black and white.... lends an air of je ne sais quoi. (That's yer actual French of course).
“Erratic associate member”
- take5_d_shorterer
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Regarding the session at Studio Bleu
Some of the best photographs of this don't exist because...well, I was in the way. I was on stage left when Griff started ``Seven Minutes to Midnight''. In specific, I was about three feet away, and I was taking up the space where Prof probably should have been, which means necessarily that there aren't photos from this particular vantage point. Which is why I should at least provide a verbal description of what this was like.
I talked to a couple of people later on about this, and we all pretty much came to the conclusion that Griff had probably been practicing this for the last seven years in front of his bathroom mirror, there was that much pent-up...whatever...expectation in this. A bottle of Jack Daniels for good luck, a cigarette. Actually, I think the cigarette kind of got in the way. I'll leave it to other people to corroborate or refute this, but for me, things really got underway in this tune when Griff forgot about the cigarette and dropped it on the floor (Duncan scurried over to pick it up because Studio Bleu was sort of an upscale rehearsal place). Some tunes you can sing while you're holding a cigarette (e.g., ``These Foolish Things''); some tunes you have to forget about the fact that you have a cigarette because a loud amplifier is simply more potent than nicotene, and you need to focus your energy on competing with the drums and guitars. ``7 Minutes...'' is in the latter category.
Uhmmm. What else? Simply that you had to be there in order to have...well, been there. You had to have seen Griff spitting into the microphone in order to see Griff spitting into the microphone (thank God I didn't have to use it afterwards). Seeing this was almost like seeing your son kick the winning goal. I don't know where that metaphor came from. I don't even care for football all that much, and Griff and I are the same age so I don't know why I'm getting all avuncular at this (cf. Guy E's onboard persona), but that's what it felt like. That's why this photo (see below) says something. The best part of Studio Bleu was getting to see the nonmusicians take the stage. Technically the best thing was Duncan's spot-on solo in ``Search and Destroy'' (look for the bootleg to come soon), but the most surprising thing was the son-kicking-winning-goal emotion.
Some of the best photographs of this don't exist because...well, I was in the way. I was on stage left when Griff started ``Seven Minutes to Midnight''. In specific, I was about three feet away, and I was taking up the space where Prof probably should have been, which means necessarily that there aren't photos from this particular vantage point. Which is why I should at least provide a verbal description of what this was like.
I talked to a couple of people later on about this, and we all pretty much came to the conclusion that Griff had probably been practicing this for the last seven years in front of his bathroom mirror, there was that much pent-up...whatever...expectation in this. A bottle of Jack Daniels for good luck, a cigarette. Actually, I think the cigarette kind of got in the way. I'll leave it to other people to corroborate or refute this, but for me, things really got underway in this tune when Griff forgot about the cigarette and dropped it on the floor (Duncan scurried over to pick it up because Studio Bleu was sort of an upscale rehearsal place). Some tunes you can sing while you're holding a cigarette (e.g., ``These Foolish Things''); some tunes you have to forget about the fact that you have a cigarette because a loud amplifier is simply more potent than nicotene, and you need to focus your energy on competing with the drums and guitars. ``7 Minutes...'' is in the latter category.
Uhmmm. What else? Simply that you had to be there in order to have...well, been there. You had to have seen Griff spitting into the microphone in order to see Griff spitting into the microphone (thank God I didn't have to use it afterwards). Seeing this was almost like seeing your son kick the winning goal. I don't know where that metaphor came from. I don't even care for football all that much, and Griff and I are the same age so I don't know why I'm getting all avuncular at this (cf. Guy E's onboard persona), but that's what it felt like. That's why this photo (see below) says something. The best part of Studio Bleu was getting to see the nonmusicians take the stage. Technically the best thing was Duncan's spot-on solo in ``Search and Destroy'' (look for the bootleg to come soon), but the most surprising thing was the son-kicking-winning-goal emotion.
- take5_d_shorterer
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- andymacandy
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- The Prof
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Thank you for all the kind words regarding these B/W photos.
Funny thing is, I was pretty sure I knew what they were going to look like a few weeks ago. It was really good fun taking them. I thought they would look ok in black & white. I knew a wide angle lens would fill the room and a fairly fast 50mm f1.4 wide open would create a really shallow depth of field.
I also thought some EXTREME posing would be going on - so it all worked out well in the end
Funny thing is, I was pretty sure I knew what they were going to look like a few weeks ago. It was really good fun taking them. I thought they would look ok in black & white. I knew a wide angle lens would fill the room and a fairly fast 50mm f1.4 wide open would create a really shallow depth of field.
I also thought some EXTREME posing would be going on - so it all worked out well in the end
- take5_d_shorterer
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See, one of the important things aout The Prof's photos even for those people who were actually there is that with the exception of people who were circulating around all over the place (like me), most people didn't get the vantage point of seeing this face to face.
We played facing Quaco and not facing the audience. What the audience saw was our rear ends (in my case, the key chain that I had clipped to my back belt loop so that I wouldn't scratch any guitars). The pictures from the front which is what you would normally see from the audience were only what Quaco saw.
One unintended consequence of all this is that it's possible to constuct these shots in which you see practically everybody.
We played facing Quaco and not facing the audience. What the audience saw was our rear ends (in my case, the key chain that I had clipped to my back belt loop so that I wouldn't scratch any guitars). The pictures from the front which is what you would normally see from the audience were only what Quaco saw.
One unintended consequence of all this is that it's possible to constuct these shots in which you see practically everybody.
- BARON CORNY DOG
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