A Mark In Time
General Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: vgonis on December 15, 2012, 01:37:30 PM
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I know that all of you, are here for MK's music and I guess it is going out on the ledge presenting them on AMIT, but since my recordings are only fragments and ideas, I would like you to see some of my more completed works, that are in another art form, Photography.
Any comments and opinions are welcome! It is in fact a way to communicate a bit more, away from the faceless nicknames!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vassilis_d_gonis/
And Season Greetings to everyone! May this season of love and sharing be only the beginning of a year in the same vein!
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I only wish I had your creative eye and inspiration.
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dmg, no need to wish, you've already got them both!
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dmg, no need to wish, you've already got them both!
:-[
As MK says, my photos are "just an attempt!" I enjoy my hobby though, and that's the main thing.
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Christopher Small used to say that the end result in art is rather insignificant. The main thing of value is the creative procedure, the actual experience. You should find and read his famous book. I, too, take the ride hoping it will be joyous!
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Hi Vassilis,
wonderful photos ! I LOVE your street fotography ! Here is my flickr account...but I
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Thank you Mona Dee! I will go through your photostream and leave comments! I have recently removed all my photos from facebook (I had more than my flickr account) as a protest against the rules that were brought to my attention after the buy out of instagram.
After the sale of Instagram, I checked again the terms of facebook use. I found out that the photos, personal data, preferences etc. of the members can be SOLD without their concent and without any compensation!
The user agreement states,
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Hi Vassilis,
wonderful photos ! I LOVE your street fotography ! Here is my flickr account...but I
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@ vgonis...yes I heard about the problem with photos on fb...so I don`t have a lot photos there anymore. It`a shame what they can do with the photos !
@ dmg...I will have a longer look at your photos after christmas-time..it`s so much to do now...yes, grasse etc. is really wonderful...and I had my ice-tea-surprise in cannes: cold peppermint-tea with orange-juice in a very very small bar...delicious !
I think now, my photos of France and Italy and some more older photos are nice, but nothing more...now I try to take photos of the "not only nice" places...
And telling stories with photos is my big wish...but not easy to do...vgonis can do that perfectly !!!
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really great photos !
several ones made me think of Robert Franck's shoots (almost all the ones with people) :
"after the party is over"
"The old laughing ladies"
"Hi there baby!"
"Fast food blues"
..
I love them !
Your use of B&W is very well mastered : the light, the contrast, the focus, I like the way you manage to capture the moment.
I really like the contrast /shadow on your sel-portrait
it's a personnal taste, but I find that B&W suit more to portraits, urban scenes, than nature.
I prefer nature photos in color, that's why I'd say I like a little less the pics in the "nature" gallery, and also because they had less contrast, a bit "flat" to my taste
I love the 2nd Mark photo, the one with the pensa, Gleen in the blue background : nice composition and wonderful light atmosphere
don't know why but experimental body shoot #5 and #6 remind me the cover of Genesis' "lamb lies down on Broadway", by Hypnosis if memory serve
"Stairs" has also a storm thogerson touch, maed me think immediately to Floyd's Pulse
I saw that your photos have been showned at exhibitions, but do you have the project for a book ?
You could make it. I think very sincerely that you have a great talent for photographing.
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Thank you JF! Your post was like an injection of something good(dare I say hope? ) ;) Robert Frank is really one of my favorites, and I guess his best photographic book "The Americans" must be one of my first books of photographs. So it is really a great compliment. But even though I am flattered I can say I don't have any photographer in mind (at least conciously) while I take photos. Only once or twice, but then I name the photos "homage to ..." But yes, now you mention these 4, I can relate to some of Frank's photos. By the way, have you ever seen any of his films?
B&W photography is what I prefer, but the recent changes (the last 10 years) in digital technology has changed everything. The film cameras I use have became less practical in comparison, even to the cheaper, digital cameras. But I still have a film camera with Tri-X with me. The other thing is how expensive the films and papaers have become. This one is still a puzzler, because silver is getting more expensive by the day and experiments for new types of film have stopped.
I thing you can do everything with either colour or B&W, but it is a different approach. So if some photos don't work, they simply are not that good!
I took nearly 1000 photos from that concert and at least 250 were usable. I haven't uploaded them, but after I sort out the best 20 I will upload them. The MK photos were not uploaded for aesthetic reasons, you understand.
I have many Genesis records, (sorry Dusty, childhood errors) but not this one. I saw the cover on the internet, clever! It may be Hipnosis. I listen regularly to Pulse. I like the Comfortably numb version, I think it is the best version ever. And I have been learning the basic riff of Run like hell the other days by listening to it. (I admit that I saw a youtube tutorial as well). The cover is fantastic!
As for the book thing, it would be great if I had the chance and money to publish one book with my selection of photos, but I know from experience (I have been working in bookshops and publishing houses since 1993) that books from unknown photographers very rarely cover their expenses with adequate sales. That said, a book about Athens was published in 2004 from teNeues, in Germany.
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Yes I saw Candy mountain (with Dr John !) at the cinema University. A teacher talked about Robert Franck to us, and I felt in love with the americans book.
Then I discovered that he did the Exile cover and booklet.
I'm aware of the famous cooksucker blues film, but never seen it.
Genesis records from trespass to Wind and wuthering are rock masterpieces, surely not childhood errors ! ;D
My friend drummer made me discovering these music (and then after I came to King Crimson, Yes, Oldfield APP...) while I was more a basic blues-rock fan, and I realized why I liek so much DS/MK : I thinks it's the perfect "symbiosis" between country-blues-rock roots and prog-etheral-melodic-epic pieces.
In Alchemy, I hear prog influences blended with blues flavour, or vice versa ;D
funny how we always comme back to our main subject... did I say I was trying to "zoom out"... ;D ;)
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I managed to go through "Cocksucker blues". It was a peculiar film and I had to force myself not to fast forward it. I guess I am not that thrilled with the stones, or their life and tour manners. ::)
It the mid to late 90ies vinyl was thought so passe that people from all over the world were getting rid of heir collections, probably replacing them with CDs. It was a heaven in Greece back then , because you could find all these mega selling albums for 50 cents! Even now you can get many good records for 1 Euro. The standard price for used in VG+ vinyl records, that had sold healthy when released, is around 3-6 Euros. I bought most of Yes albums with less than 50 Euros, Genesis as well, Oldfield too even though he was a bit more expensive, and my only problem has been King Crimson. Apart from 2-3 records, the rest are quite expensive, usually starting from 10 Euros, in VG. And it is a pity because I find King Crimson the best of the prog/experimental groups. And your thoughts about Alchemy are spot on! http://www.alibris.co.uk/community/review/10931959/Setting%20the%20bar%20higher%20for%20live%20albums
Well it seems that we have a similar music background! Any new groups you like?
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I am a strong advocate of film photography but as you say vgonis film is becoming expensive both to buy and process. Choices are also becoming more limited as companies like Kodak are decreasing their range.
In comparison to digital where one would mere snap away readily taking many multiple shots of just about everything and just discard 90% of them, when working with film one tends to be more considered in the photos one takes more time and effort upon each one. That's not to say they'll be any better mind you!
I recently bought a Leica M9 (after saving for about a year :o) which is their digital rangefinder, to go alongside my M6 film camera and at the moment I still find myself taking "considered" shots. It is the worlds first full frame digital camera, meaning when you put on a 50mm lens you get a 50mm shot and it isn't cropped. I wonder how long it'll take me before I start pointing at everything and just start snapping away! The M9 takes the ranges of fabulous Leica M lenses that I think (and others too) are the best in the world. Each one has it's own character that enthusiasts call the "Leica glow!"
Does b&w on a digital really work? I mean the sensor is developed to be receptive to light for colour primarily isn't it and post processing is cheating. Photography is the power of observation, not the application of technology. Leica have developed a camera called the Monochrom which takes only b&w digital photographs presumably because other sensors aren't good enough and they don't compromise.
Favourite directors now. Michelangelo Antonioni is one for a start. That shot through the hotel window in The Passenger is now legendary. I also loved the cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth, Jack Cardiff and Christopher Challis. Very many 60s films had innovative shots. A great one is the Stanley Donen's Arabesque with Gregory Peck (in a role tailor made for Cary Grant I've always thought) and Sophia Loren. A fine film too I might add.
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dmg, you are so right on almost every point! I had to buy one digital camera early on, (Canon because I already had the lenses that fitted) but the aspect ratio (1.6x) ruined my whole perspective. I never got used to it, that is why I always had a film camera with me, as well. Early in June I bought an Eos 5d mark II (had to sell part of my cigarette packs collection and some books and records, as well) and now this problem is solved!! But the film camera stayed on! I was lucky to be given in 2007 an Eos 1V Canon film camera, and it was really 100% full frame, water resistant and absolutely enjoy working with it! For the ones not aware, most film cameras had an issue. What you saw in the view finder was the 95-98% of the image that was depicted on film. Then most of the digital models -up to semi pro- could use the some lenses as the film cameras, but there was a 1.6 crop factor. see: http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/1-6x.htm
I buy the 30m roll, usually from the USA and load it myself, so it is a bit cheaper than buying a single roll at a time.
I used to take photos all the time, and yes, knowing that you have a film limit of frames to take, was a good way to get into the photograph, discipline your eye and finger and try to do the best out of every frame. But everybody has to make his mistakes. It is not working by seen other people's mistakes. So you take photos just to see how it looks, and after years you can say, "what a load of crap". But the seeds are there, you can't avoid taking these photos. Now it is a bit easier and a lot cheaper to take photos, and the only limit I have (and it is working) is the time I have to even see the photos I take! So knowing I will have to spend hours on ending just filing my digital photos, make me hold back from taking just snaps!
Even though I use it rarely to have an opinion, from what I hear from other photographers, they shot in RAW (which is by default colour) and then they turn it into B&W and it works OK. There are many programs around (some new cameras have it on as well) that can give your photo the look of almost every film there is! I haven't tried it, but I have seen some results and they were convincing! I saw the M camera but I really don't get the idea behind Leica's Monochrom, but if it gives results, who am I to say anything! I mean all films and cameras (even b&w) are panchromatic. This means that they can capture the wave lengths of the colours, and the b&w films translate these wave lengths in grey tones. From the view finder you see colour, so it is a mind thing, trying to see things in b&w, or even imagine how they would look in b&w.
I saw The passenger when it was re-released in the late 90ies, and I paid attention especially on the well known seen. I still prefer the Blow up film, and I was a bit disappointed with Zabrinski point. Still have many Antonioni films to watch! I will look for the other ones you mention!
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Yes, Zabrisie Point is rubbish. But well shot! Blow Up is brilliant; I love those "swinging London" films, but it was much more than that. The whole premise of the film was explained by the tennis scene at the end which puzzled me the first time I saw it. Great stuff.
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I have seen blow up only one time, I have to watch it again to understand the whole thing.
I mainly remember the yardbirds scene with Beck breaking his guitar !
I've seen Zabriskie point too, but it was mainly for the music.
Antonioni is not among my fav directors.
My top 5 would be : Leone, Kubrick, Hicthcock, Welles, Chaplin, and just after : Eastwood, Hawks, Ford, Corneau
well, just one french ! I'm not chauvinist ! ;D
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I have seen blow up only one time, I have to watch it again to understand the whole thing.
I mainly remember the yardbirds scene with Beck breaking his guitar !
I've seen Zabriskie point too, but it was mainly for the music.
Antonioni is not among my fav directors.
My top 5 would be : Leone, Kubrick, Hicthcock, Welles, Chaplin, and just after : Eastwood, Hawks, Ford, Corneau
well, just one french ! I'm not chauvinist ! ;D
Oh, I wouldn't really rate Antonioni as one of my favourites. He is erratic in his work imo. ;D He directs through the camera lens though so his pictures are always well shot even when they are rubbish like Zabriskie Point. Hitch is my favourite.
I love the French new wave though and where would cinema be without France and the Lumiere brothers as well as la nouvelle vague. Louis Malle, Jean Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut are all geniuses. My favourites are (please forgive possible spelling errors :think): Le Boucher, Day For Night, Ascenseur pour l'echafaud, A Bout de Souffle, Fahrenheit 451...
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As for the book thing, it would be great if I had the chance and money to publish one book with my selection of photos, but I know from experience (I have been working in bookshops and publishing houses since 1993) that books from unknown photographers very rarely cover their expenses with adequate sales. That said, a book about Athens was published in 2004 from teNeues, in Germany.
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I found it:
http://www.amazon.de/Athens-Photopocket-Vassilis-Gonis/dp/3823845799/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356626685&sr=1-2
great !
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I love the French new wave though and where would cinema be without France and the Lumiere brothers
yes, right, and I live in Lyon just near the Lumiere Brothers house, 2 streets from the "rue du 1er film" (1st movie street), so I totally agree :)
as for the french new wave, I love it too, my favs are : a bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou,(I like Godard but not all his movies), les 400 coups, jules et jim
another fav french director is Chabrol : very Hitch influenced !
from Truffaut, I love la nuit am
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While talking directors/cinematographers, how could I forget the great Nicholas Roeg. Walkabout, Performance, Don't Look Now...
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I love the French new wave though and where would cinema be without France and the Lumiere brothers
yes, right, and I live in Lyon just near the Lumiere Brothers house, 2 streets from the "rue du 1er film" (1st movie street), so I totally agree :)
as for the french new wave, I love it too, my favs are : a bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou,(I like Godard but not all his movies), les 400 coups, jules et jim
another fav french director is Chabrol : very Hitch influenced !
from Truffaut, I love la nuit am
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I found it:
http://www.amazon.de/Athens-Photopocket-Vassilis-Gonis/dp/3823845799/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356626685&sr=1-2
great !
You found it indeed!
Your view of the world is quite different from mine and thus captivating. But the subjects you chose are subjects I like to work as well! The cemetery, the window reflections, the gardens, etc!
The issue you mention about the presence of people (and their faces) in the photos is common for every major country in the world, that tries to protect the human rights. But these human privacy laws are badly written and they deprive photographers and eventually the world from the good old human documentary photo made famous by the likes of Bresson, Capa, Eugene Smith etc. And it is pretty weird, because life has never been less private than today. We are monitored all the time and anyway our lives are less exiting than ever due to the virtual life and relations through a computer. See the facebook case I mentioned, which can sell your private information, name and preferences, and photos without telling you! It is actually a passing of information to big companies and governments. See the thousands of cameras in the streets and in public places. And the only other exception is for journalists, that most of them have become pawns in the hands of the big newspaper owners and their big businesses. I don't know for a fact, what is going on outside Greece, but here every major business man with investments in construction, insurance and other big money businesses, always buy a TV station, a radio station and a couple of newspapers in order to influence the public and pressure the government.
It may sound like an excuse for my using these photos, but I know the ethical dilemmas and understand the risk. I always respect people's privacy. I never make public, photos of people in strange or diminishing situations, at least not without their consent (which is very tricky, because you have to ask their permission before you take the photo and this 99% of the times ruins the original mood. ) But a photo of a person for me, has to do with a reflection of the human condition. The more personal it is, the more universal it can become. And the secret is hidden not in the details or the clarity of the photo, but in the symbolic and aesthetic magnitude encoded in the photo by the choices a photographer makes during the shooting and later on the choosing and post production. So I really find peculiar that these laws have become so strict for the every day photographer, who is in fact the only reliable recorder of the history of man.
I like portraits very much and I always try to convince people to pose for me. It is hard sometimes, not because they disagree, but because the easiness of having a camera and taking a photo, has ruined the "mythical" status of a photographer. So they don't focus, they are hasty and that shows in the photos.
But this is another story! I will keep looking at your photos. I leave some comments, always to the ones that draw my attention! I will try to write you about the general feeling I got from them, but probably in the new year!
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vgonis, you are right, people use facebook and inform the world, what they do when and how...and pretend to have problems with a simple photo, that may be published or may be shown in an exhibition...
Asking for the permission before taking the photo spoils everything, so I use to ask afterwards. Or I ask friends from my photo-club, they know, what is important.
I love Bresson, his photos show so much of the athmosphere and history, although I was a little disappointed when my photography-teacher (only evening-class for hobby-photographers) told me, that "the kiss / Cafe paris" was staged with actors ;-) My favourite photographer is Joel Meyerowitz, especially I love his Cape-Cod-photos. They remind me of the painter Hopper.
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So photos passed down the years, turn up to be staged. Even though my initial reaction was the same as yours, I, now, find them even more compelling! A man was able to stage an absolutely faboulus scene that looks absolutely natural! Robert Doisneau's kiss is just extrodinary and I wish I have taken that photo. Staging it would give me extra pleasure! If I remember correctly the first attempt to find the original couple had produced at least three couples claiming to be the the one! Apart from it being totaly hilarious, it might also prove that Doisneau had made more efforts than this successful one.
I guess it has to do with expectations, more than anything else. I mean street photography is limited to a treasure hunt if all we are looking for are unique - blink of an eye moments. The photographer with the best equipment, most time and better reflexes will be able to capture it. But Bresson and the other photographers of the era, were more than that. You can see that their photos even though they have the element of the decisive moment, are in reality the best moments of non-significant events. A kiss after all is not that significant unless you give it and receive it. A man jumbing over water is only interesting aesthetically. (By the way it is one of the very few photos Bresson had to crop!)
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/tag/henri-cartier-bresson/
Of course all these photographers were photo joournalists as well and they had to shoot news for a living, so that explains the rest of the photos that contian news material.
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Bresson was famous for using a Leica rangefinder and 50mm lens almost exclusively throughout his career apparently:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/cartier-bresson.htm
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dmg that was fun to read, thank you! Of course I agree, but I wouldn't just buy a Leica for it's resale price! And the digital expensive cameras are for people that can actually afford them. These people are usually photojournalists that want a reliable body that can send their photos 10000 miles away to their newspaper ASAP, or people who want to show off their latest camera. Unfortunately I can't say I belong in either group. That is why I have been using my Canon EOS 620, until it broke down completely. I even tried to find another one, but I received a body with electrical troubles and I desided it was time to move on. I already have 3 Nikkoormat bodies (I broke one and I found another one for 75 Euros) and a wide variety of lenses for them. I feel fantastic using them, even though their meter is rather unstable and not reliable. And yes the best way to learn framing is by using a simple lense. %0mm is a fine beginners choice. Magnum photographers use 24, 28, 35 and 50.
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The resale value is quite important because it allows you to sell on lenses/bodies you no longer want in order to upgrade or if you simply need the money or lose interest, then you get your money back on them. That has allowed me to try different lenses over the years and find ones that I like the rendering of best.
Of course there is nothing like using a Leica rangefinder and the compact size of the camera and lenses combined with the silent cloth shutter they have makes them ideal, unobtrusive street cameras.
Of course with a rangefinder, one isn't looking through the lens a-la SLR. Instead the attached lens brings up a set of framelines in the viewfinder so you can't use zoom lenses (good news), but you can see objects that are surrounding the frame (which can be handy to know if something is coming into shot). Apparently the most popular lens is a 35mm, probably my most used too.
I actually looked at a Nikon FE2 many years ago but decided upon an Olympus OM4 instead. I was still at school at the time. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! ;D
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I was looking through someone's photography (primarily) blog and came across a couple of nice quotes. I though I'd share them:
"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." - Ansel Adams
And one of the reasons I like the Leica rangefinder camera:
"I want simplification, not amplification or complication...I just want light controls ... because photogarphy is about light." - Thorsten Overgaard
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An old subject, brought back to life because there is a gallery with the MK photos I have promised almost a year ago! Here is the link:
http://vassilisgonis.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/the-musician-that-changed-my-music-directions-for-ever-mark-knopfler/
And Mona Dee, it has been a year already! ;-)
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An old subject, brought back to life because there is a gallery with the MK photos I have promised almost a year ago! Here is the link:
http://vassilisgonis.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/the-musician-that-changed-my-music-directions-for-ever-mark-knopfler/
And Mona Dee, it has been a year already! ;-)
Indeed :-) , how good times flies !