Category Archives: Photographs

Civilisation

Paintings

A great and erudite teacher.

I had the most extraordinary case of deja vu the other day, having indulged in the DVD set of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. I mention this as I have frequently maintained that there is more for photographers to learn from the art of the Renaissance than in any other field of visual rendering. Click on Paintings for more.

The nature of this strange flashback was that, as Lord Clark was extolling the insane abstraction to be found in Giotto’s faces (Giotto died in 1337, so hardly a Johhny-come-lately) I found myself rooting for something on Giorgione and, suddenly, Clark is talking about him. Now I want some Caravaggio and sure enough, up it comes. Then Donatello, Veronese and Michelangelo. What was going on here? My every wish was Clark’s command!

Then it struck me. Civilisation was released by the BBC in 1969, when I was 18 and just getting serious about the Renaissance. Until then I had been fixated for years on the Impressionists, later Cezanne for his nascent cubism and Degas for his perfect sense of line (until Seurat chanced on the scene, that is). The Old was not for me. All those stuffy oils, over framed, in big galleries. Well, the reality is that, unknown to me these 40 years, Lord Clark had been my teacher. So perfect was Clark’s taste, so beautiful his mellifluous use of that most gorgeous of languages, English (it has fallen out of use since) that I sat entranced and overjoyed at this journey of artistic and spiritual discovery.

As a photographer you are interested in images. As a photographer, your education remains incomplete without an appreciation of the Renaissance and there is no better way to gain that than with this series. Sure, Clark doesn’t affect polyester clothing or make any effort to conceal his patrician leanings. On the other hand, he has no cynicism or snobbery in his make up and the whole is simply a delight. I guiltily admit to having put in the first DVD last night and found that I had sat through four episodes before it was time for bed.

I think you may have the same reaction.

Pool

Photographs

Or snooker to those of you in moister climes.

When I was a lad attending the School of Engineering at University College, London, it was a well worn saying that had it that a Third Class degree was the Gentleman’s Degree, suggesting, as it did, that the honored recipient had done just enough studying to pass, while devoting the bulk of his time to the role of Gentleman About Town.

One of the vices enjoyed by that urbane boulevardier was, of course, the civilized game of snooker. Change things around a bit, number the balls and you have pool on this side of the Atlantic. It’s as fine here as there.

And while Hollywood would have it that pool players generally hew to the personality of Bogart and the ambience of smoke filled, dank halls, the reality is that it has always, at its core, been a gentleman’s game. The Victorian connotations of the ladies retiring to wherever ladies retire while the men light up a stogie and pour another one (sort of like Alan Greenspan) remains accurate.

At least to this pool player. For while my degree most certainly was not Third Class – the poor kids of parents as foreign as a fruitcake have no time for the town – my affection for the pastime of knocking a few balls around on a piece of felted slate remains firm. And the communal facilities just happened to sport a snooker table.

Well, to cut to the chase and get the photographic content in, I finally acquired a pool table after three years of nosing about in CraigsList. Realize that the population density in central California is just a tad lower than in LA and San Francisco. So specialized toys like pool tables can take a while to find.


Brunswick Hawthorn in place. 5D, 20mm.

Mine is a Brunswick Hawthorn, beloved of presidents (Ol’ Abe, no less, was a customer) and rock stars, and numbers one Julian Lennon amongst its owners. Add new felt and cushions, a bit of surgical work on the lovely Art Deco brass corner pieces by yours truly (poor design ensured they were constantly falling off as you can see above) and more time than I care to relate on a ladder installing the lights, and my gross investment of $750 doesn’t seem so bad. Priced new pool tables lately? We are talking Italian slate here! We are knee deep in solid mahogany from back in the days when we knew how to handle those rain forests.

Well, after all the efforts of installing the slate, the felt, levelling, lighting, etc. it occurred to me that a good photograph for the wall of the home theater/pool room was called for. So, not 90 minutes ago I snapped this and hope that you enjoy it.


Warm overhead lights. Added some yellow to enhance the antique look in Aperture. 5D, 85mm, 3 seconds @ f/22.

Oh!, and by the way, the 18″ x 24″ print is coming off the Hewlett Packard DesignJet 90 right now. If you would like a print, drop me a line. See what the 5D and a fabulous lens can really do.