Monthly Archives: December 2011

When I’m 64


Will you still need me?
Will you still heed me?
When I’m 64.

Some aver that Seward Johnson’s lifelike outdoor bronzes are kitsch. Others denigrate them for his use of modeling software like Maya, the technology speeding the production cycle.

Seated couple at 6th and Lincoln, Carmel, CA. G3, 9-18mm Oly @ 15mm, 1/400 f/5.6, ISO320.

You can make your own mind up, though I confess I tend to find them never less than amusing and, on occasion, as above, surprisingly poignant. They are Americana in much the same way that Norman Rockwell’s work is, and Rockwell’s oeuvre has much the same accusations leveled at it.

Seward Johnson’s entry in Wikipedia makes for interesting reading.

Photojournalism now

Times they are a’ changin’

Back on September 16, 2008, I wrote:

The last reference was to an iOS app which allowed any snapper to upload newsworthy pictures.

Well, look at this from the Gannett Blog:

Anyone, it seems can take a picture, but few can write. That has long been the mindset in newspaper circles, and while the likes of Robert Capa, W. Eugene Smith and Robert Doisneau might disagree, it’s very much the way of the world.

Scam

There’s one born every minute.

Hard to know where to begin when writing about this scam:

Click the picture for the article.

It’s unclear whether the ‘artist’ shared in the spoils – let’s hope so as that makes the whole thing just funnier to contemplate, but I can’t help but quote him:

He said he “carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half”.

I usually trash my losers right after loading the files into Lightroom, but this one wouldn’t even have lasted that long, as I can’t see why anyone would waste time taking it in the first place.

Scummy ‘art dealers’ like Larry Gagosian get away with this sort of thing, selling crap to insecure hedge fund managers desperate to show their wealth on the walls, but that sort of sum could get you a few decent Degas sketches as a minimum.

A fool and his money ….

Sales pitch from Christie’s:

Be sure to listen to the sales pitch linked by Arun Gupta in his Comment, below. For sheer chutzpah, it rivals the picture.