Inspired by Jiri Hrebicek, Part 2

[canan (Canan Karatekin)]

Project Images

Gallery Overview

Individual Images

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

Image 8

Image 9

Project Description

This is part 2 of my series of gull pictures inspired by Jiri Hrebicek’s webinar on this site. Check it out if you haven’t already! The first part included images in color, this part includes only the black and white images.

Self Critique

Please see Part 1 for more. I like the black and white images because by stripping away color, they make the image even more about motion rather than a specific bird at a specific location.

Creative Direction

Please see Part 1 for more.

Specific Feedback

I’d appreciate all kinds of feedback!

Intent of the project

Just for fun

[Allen_Brooks]

I think black and white works well for this technique, Canon. For me 2,5, 6, and 9 do the best job of conveying motion, while remaing quite abstract. I especially like 5 and 9, which to me looks as if something is soaring high above the earth. I guess I’m used to a certain style of bird photography that shows motion to where, as in image 7, I would want the head sharp.

[canan (Canan Karatekin)]

Thanks a lot for the critique, Allen :-). I agree with your comment on #7, though it’s really tricky to find the right balance between blur and sharpness. I’ll keep trying and playing!

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Hi Canan,

I love this series. For some reason, from my memory of individual images posted over the last several weeks, I thought there were more high key images. Is my memory inaccurate, or did you choose to go with the darker ones for this project?

To me, the black and white project feels more stripped down and elemental than the color one. I love both, and equally, I think. So I’m not comparing / assessing. Just trying to define the differences and perhaps nudge you toward the conceptual-- “what else is this about”?

Do you have a sense of what these images convey or evoke for you? I don’t want to give my impressions until you articulate yours, you know, to avoid influencing how you see them.

ML

[canan (Canan Karatekin)]

You ask such good, thought-provoking questions, Marylynne! Thank you for making me think hard

I didn’t make any conscious choices regarding low- or high-key in posting these images. For these gulls in particular, I liked their white shapes against the still-gray and brown branches in the background, so more of them turned out to be low key. But I also took a bunch of similar pictures of black cormorants against the sky yesterday, and they are all black & white & very high-key, with just the black cormorants against a white background.

As for color or black and white, I also think that bw is more stripped down and elemental. My general rule of thumb for all sorts of images is to go with black and white unless the color adds something to the image.
What do these images evoke for me, other than what we already mentioned regarding the experience of taking them? They evoke hidden beauty in nature uncovered through photographic magic (e.g., see #1, #3, #5, #8), calm & peacefulness & a sense of floating in air (#9), something innocent and pure going through dark & turbulent times (e.g., #2, #4, #6), reality distilled to its essence (e.g., #2, #8).

After a lot of thinking during the past year about what unifies all the various kinds of images I like making, I recently wrote an artist’s statement of sorts (it’s still a draft in progress): “I love to photograph anything and everything. Immersing myself in taking pictures makes me feel alive and savor the present moment. I want to notice and convey the beauty and nuances of the visual world around me, discover aesthetic value in the mundane, turn the ordinary into extraordinary, capture fleeting moments, use pictures as a means of self-expression, and explore the human condition. In other words, I want to photograph life, as seen from my vantage point.” So in this grand scheme of mine, I think these images fit into all of the points above, except exploring the human condition.

So what are your impressions?

[Marylynne_Diggs]

I like your artist’s statement, Canan. You remind me that I should work on mine. Sometimes my artist statement is more a reflection of a specific body of work, and like yours, it should transcend that and cover all of my work or at least “where I am and what I’m doing now.”

I’m going to pull out the sentences in your reply above that I think most clearly get at the “what else” question. For me, the “what else” question can’t really be about the photographic process itself; if it is, then it’s about the what and how, technique and literal subject, not “what else.”

These are the phrases that add up to “more” and they are consistent with my experience of the project: hidden beauty, peacefulness and floating, something innocent and pure going through dark, turbulent times, reality distilled to essence.

The word I was going to use before I chose elemental and stripped down was “spiritual.” I chose to withhold that concept because I feel like that can be a loaded term, implying specific religions, etc. But that’s still kind of where it takes me in a totally non-religious way. This project, to me, feels like it’s about the soul, whatever that might mean to you: hidden beauty, peace, floating, innocence in dark times, life distilled to an essence that goes beyond the physical to something more mystical, pure energy stripped of its physical form.

My interpretation might be more connected to losses I’ve endured in recent years than to anything inherent in the images themselves, so I’m curious to see what others say as well.

Do you have a Part 3? If so, I’m excited to see it.

ML

[canan (Canan Karatekin)]

Thanks, Marylynne. I think good art invites different interpretations, including ones that the artists did not necessarily intend, so if you interpret this project in a way that’s different than I what I had in mind (and if it provides consolation to you), it’s all good.
I might have a Part 3 this week–I went to a rookery yesterday and hope to go again during the week. If I get good enough shots, I’ll post a Part 3. Thanks for making me think about the “what else” and for your encouragement