Monday, December 03, 2007

From the Archives...Is it Art?




I have studied photography for years.I had my first darkroom when I was twelve. I pursued this interest throughout my life. I experimented with different films and styles and finally stuck with straight forward photography. Photo shop, can duplicate my early infra red efforts and darkroom magic, double exposures etc. I have also discovered with the advent of so many quality point and shoot cameras that if you give an infinite number of neophytes an infinite number of cameras, eventually someone is going to create a masterpiece.
This is a picture of Boz my former advisor. I am jealous of the photo because it truly captures the "decisive moment" to quote Henri Cartier Bresson who is quoted below. This photo is a masterpiece created by a neophyte, he caught the decisive moment , something I have been struggling my whole life to achieve. I hang my head in shame, life is not fair and so what~` I will carry on by God with the full knowledge there is little chance of matching let alone eclipsing the artistry in this photograph. JWW


Henri quote:
For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.

Henri Cartier Bresson

13 Comments:

At 2:56 PM , Blogger Zen Wizard said...

I would say that photography is art: Somehow, when I go for a portrait at a professional photographer, they make me look so good I want to go to Brokeback Mountain every year with myself--and roll around in the grass kissing myself until (Spoiler alert!) Randy Quaid rides up and checks on me...

When I go to the DMV, it's like, "Hel-LO boils and ghouls! I am the Crypt Keeper! Or should I say, 'Master of Scary-Monies'??"

So go figure...

But anyway, photography is an art.

 
At 3:06 PM , Blogger josh williams said...

zen: Well put, I tend to agree.

 
At 6:05 PM , Blogger Mom! Toilets blogged! said...

Josh, how old were you in this photo?

 
At 6:38 PM , Blogger josh williams said...

toilets: Eleventy

 
At 7:11 PM , Blogger SleekPelt said...

Mom, you killed me with that one! Josh, you could write a funny caption for this photo and e-mail it to your contacts and it would turn into an internet phenomenon. I bet you'd unknowingly get it back from somebody within days.

 
At 5:05 AM , Blogger josh williams said...

Sleek: Toilets is the tall one, I actually ran into the smiling man last night at a Christmas party,he is doing well and creating havoc everywhere he goes, his stories could fill several books. I did not tell him I had taken a photo he had given me a few years back to put on the internet, back on the internet and sent it to contacts who know to open my mail in a safe place. It did not become a worldwide phenome. the first time around maybe this time...Merry Christmas to you and yours JW Oh yes I sent it as a Christmas card...

 
At 1:01 PM , Blogger Erin O'Brien said...

The confluence of composition, balance, and nuance in this effort by "neophyte" is no less than stunning. The viewer is at once confounded, bemused, aroused, and implicated in the subjects' complicit conundrum.

Brilliant, really.

The viewer finds himself returning to the piece again and again only to be rewarded by yet another discovery: a tiny detail, a heretofore seen blush of color, a play of light.

Thank you Mr. Williams, for this important offering. Boz should be proud of her indelible image and how she will remain with each of her admirers for a long, long, long time.

 
At 1:16 PM , Blogger josh williams said...

Erin: Thank you and Boz is the one on the right, the lifter of the dress. But you thank you for your observations, I think this is worthy of a museum. I wonder what the Louvre phone # is?

 
At 3:26 PM , Blogger Zen Wizard said...

I took this picture of this hot chick who works here today. (Well--she's hot by "chicks who work here"-standards.) She headbutted me at the last minute. I am not sure if this is art or not but the Louvre can have it if they want.

 
At 4:46 AM , Blogger josh williams said...

zen:I am sure the Louvre would love your art...What would be fun is to enlarge the photo on my post , frame it and sneak it in the window of a Glamour Shots Studio. A plan!1234569

 
At 5:41 PM , Blogger ing said...

You've been struggling all your life to capture moments like these? Oh, Josh, I thought you were a nice boy from Indiana!

 
At 10:37 AM , Blogger josh williams said...

ing: Your evading the question.

 
At 6:32 AM , Blogger Lee Ann said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have a wonderful 2008!
~xo
Lee Ann

 

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