G. Steve Journal

Primordial Images

"Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthralls and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring"

I'm not sure Jung had photographic images in mind when he wrote this, but I thought it accurately described images we have all seen that are iconic -- that transcend a subject and speak to a more universal truth -- timeless.

 

 

Objective

I came across this whimiscal, but very perceptive diagram on the facebook page of artist Hugo Porcaro by way of High Existence -- see what you think:

Takes Two

In an interview in Design Arts Daily about collecting photographs, Michelle Marsh Dunn observes that:

" I operate under Minor White’s philosophy that the viewer is as responsible as the photographer for activating an image..."

What an interesting and insightful perspective!

Far Beyond

In a recent CHRONOGRAM book review of David Rothenberg's "Survival of the Beautiful" the reviewer closes with the author's intriguing conclusion:

"There is meaning in nature far beyond use; there is form and beauty far beyond function."

No Reason

If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint

                                                                    Edward Hopper

Discovery

A few weeks ago I posted an excerpt from a column by the TIMES Frank Bruni about appreciating the world at hand.  After Bruni's piece was published, he writes in his blog that a reader sent in passage from T. S. Eliot that makes a similar observation: 

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

 

A True Photograph

A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words

                                                                                            Ansel Adams

Time, Distance and Clarity

Frank Bruni's excellent op-ed column in today's TIMES is about his regrets for not being fully present as he made his way in the world.  As one year ends and a new one is around the corner, it's an opportune time for all of us to consider his call to be more aware and appreciative of our surroundings.  He writes:

"... it’s also true that we’re often just plain oblivious to the scenery right in front of us. By being closest, it’s farthest away."

Very true...

Inexplicable

I was leafing through the second edition of MOMA Highlights - 350 Works From the Museum of Modern Art New York and came across the early (1943) Jackson Pollack painting, "The She Wolf." It's a very layered, busy and disturbing image in which the editors claim "... [Pollack's] focus is a compound of mythology and an iconography of the unconscious."

However they go on to note that Pollack himself made no such assertions:

"She-Wolf came into existence because I had to paint it.  Any attempt on my part to say something about it, to attempt explanation of the inexplicable, could only destroy it."

Images are...

The December 5th issue of the NEW YORKER features a column about the new film "The Artist" -- a silent film.

"People come nervous to it," the film's writer-director, Michel Hazanavicius, said recently ... "They're afraid it's going to be intellectual.  But it's language that is intellectual -- images are about feelings."