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ambropoetica View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: AltPhoto Source Update
    Posted: 25 January 2006 at 18:37
Originally posted by autochrome

Hope everything works out as you have a
customer base out here.

I am posting this link without comment - Sally Mann's new wet plate
work -

http://www.houkgallery.com/mann-lastmeasure/lastmeasure.html

john


this probably belongs in another forum, but I'll reply after visiting the site
and reading the glowing gallery press article from the Houk...

"Unique among her contemporaries, Mann has enjoyed a reputation for
technical virtuosity; with this body of work, she’s continued to challenge
barriers and reinvent her approach with aplomb. Gone are the warmth,
and romantic Southern light - hallmarks of her earlier series; instead,
viewers will encounter a radical shift to cool, moody, ashen tones.
Unconventionally made from collodion wet-plate glass negatives (a
process developed in the 1850s), the images are at once painterly and
photographic, some approximating charcoal drawings or etchings.
Adding yet another layer to the effects of the laborious developing and
printing methods".

Ooohhhh...... Excuse me, but I think that's a total sack of "s h i t" !!! The
only virtuosity on display is smoke and mirrors disguised as art.
Apologies if I offend anyone.

Steve
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 January 2006 at 21:18
Originally posted by quinn

...It was disheartening to me; I have to go through ANOTHER inspection and more red tape! ...


"But guarding fumes and making haste,
It ain't my cup of meat.
Ev'rybody's 'neath the trees,
Feeding pigeons on a limb
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
All the pigeons gonna run to him."

-Bob Dylan



Hang in there buddy.

Joe
      
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 January 2006 at 21:44
Thanks Joe, awesome quote... my theme song -
Regards,
Quinn Jacobson
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 08:04
Quinn, I appreciate the effort!!  Please don't give up.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 08:47
In regard to the post of Steve on the Sally Mann collodion images -
I don't think Steve comments went far enough - I would double the sack.
Another case of "the King has no cloths" but the art community
operates on the premise that if we don't see the beauty we must be
ignorant . Some child needs to speak up and say the oblivious -
Bad images are not good art.


john
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 10:38
Originally posted by autochrome

Hope everything works out as you have a customer base out here.

I am posting this link without comment - Sally Mann's new wet plate
work -

http://www.houkgallery.com/mann-lastmeasure/lastmeasure.html

john


Yuck!  Okay, maybe I don't get it right in the camera every time, but I certainly wouldn't want my name associated with something that you couldn't even tell what it was because of poor exposure, poor processing or whatever.  Hope she doesn't get a book put together of this exhibition!   Is all her work like this?
Diane :)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 10:50
Why is it that there is always someone willing to trash another artist (that's if
your an artist and not a hobbiest)?
First of all I've worked (assisted) for Sally in the past and have nothing but
good things to say about her and her work. If you had a chance to view the
work (Last measure) in person I bet you all would think different! And last,
Steve the show was three years ago, do your homework.
James Munoz
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 10:52
Sally Mann got her fame for images of her children in somewhat
provocative poses.

Her work prior to this was a book and gallery show on decaying bodies.

My point is that there are beautiful images out there that galleries won't
show but they mount a show like this because of her name. I hope
people don't come away with the impression all collodion work is like
this.

john
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:07
John
So tell us what's your inpression of collodion work should be or look like?
James Munoz
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:11
I believe you should at least be able to see the image.

john
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:13
James - I'm with you on this. Seems like many artists are all-too-eager to bash the work of others who are successful. I've been a Mann fan since her earliest Immediate Family work. To me, calling those images "provocative" says more about the viewer than the maker.

No, I don't love everything she does. These Last Measure images don't do it for me - although I'm sure they would have a different impact as large prints in person rather than small web images.

The images in the book What Remains (the decaying bodies) at first horrified me. I bought the book, looked at it once and put it on the shelf for a year. When I brought it out for a second viewing, I became facinated and now find the work very compelling. Art is not always pretty.

Her Motherland series has some images in film and collodion that practically bring tears to my eyes. There are others that just make me shrug.

The bottom line for me is that she is a true and original artist following her own voice. Her commercial success has made that easier for her, but I have a lot of respect that she has moved on and is not endlessly repeating the same formula - a trap that many successful artists have fallen into. Maybe trap isn't the right word...

But, for me, Sally rocks!!
Kerik Kouklis
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www.kerik.com
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:14
John,
Did you see the show? Or just images on a the web?
James Munoz
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:20
Kerik,
You being an artist (an I love your work) couldn't have said it better, So
true...

James
James Munoz
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:25

I've always respected and admired Sally Mann's work. I have mixed emotions about her wet plate work. Conceptually, I understand where she's going with the photographs (I think) and the images of her dog (well, the dug up bones) in her book, "What Remains" are powerful. Her whole approach to that work is powerful and I have great respect for her insight and her ability to contextualize and express on that topic.

As far as her technical abilities in wet plate, I think she'll even admit they aren't the best. In her defense, I think she wants it that way. She is saying something with that approach and that "style" of wet plate work. I think it's valid. As James said, you probably would have had to been there to fully appreciate/understand this body of work.

On the other side of the coin, I do think there is a lot of political and marketing bullsh*t swirling around known names and their work. It puts them, and in essence, their work at risk (in my opinion).

For example, some of our small group here has already dismissed this work because of that bullsh*t (there is some validity there too). If you were to stumble across this work on a web site of an unknown artist, like one of us, you may give it a chance. You may still not like it, but you would be more apt to give it a chance. The "write-off" factor would be less of an influence with an unknown artist. Work needs to be seen and understood in context. A lot of viewers, because of the name and the marketing hype, will immediately dismiss work like this.

 

I think it's unfortunate that people get "famous" in the art world. I believe in the long run, they loose a lot of their audience because of the notion that anything they do is great. Some of the work they do, like this work, is very difficult for a lot of people to get their head around and the “hype” makes it even more difficult.

With that said, there is a lot of art out there, the question is; is it good art? I leave that for each person to decide.

Regards,
Quinn Jacobson
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:43
(Thank you, James).

Yes, Sally's wetplate techniques are 'bad' by traditional standards. But, you can bet she wants it that way. These are not mistakes, even if they look like it to the casual observer.

You can't blame the bullshiite hype on Sally. It's part and parcel of the gallery business. Most serious collectors and admirers of art see right through that crap. I could care less what the guy in the black turtleneck with too much mousse in his hair has to say about the work (sorry for stereotyping 'gallerists'). I just roll my eyes and then look at the pictures and make my own decisions.
Kerik Kouklis
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2006 at 11:52
Originally posted by james munoz

Why is it that there is always someone willing to trash another artist (that's if your an artist and not a hobbiest)?
First of all I've worked (assisted) for Sally in the past and have nothing but good things to say about her and her work. If you had a chance to view the work (Last measure) in person I bet you all would think different! And last, Steve the show was three years ago, do your homework.


I'm not trying to trash her as a person, but this Last measure work of hers just doesn't cut it with me at all.  Would it change if I saw the work in person? I don't know.  I have not seen any of her other work.  Could I do better? No, since I've never tried the process (though I would like to at some point).
Diane :)
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