I have in hand Henk Thijs's "Photography: from gum to inkjet", more or less 34 pages, some of the scenes already seen by website, but different anyway seen on paper in format of one image + caption per page that you actually, physically turn -- with thumb and finger on paper -- a different and possibly more real/profound experience (despite my fondness for art "on the monitor").
I myself still love the feeling of a book in my hands, from Malamud to Alex Web, from McEwan to Pentti Sammallahti .... and to produce one myself was a great experience .
Someday some great parser of photography & its experiences will parse the differences between art-on-the-monitor and on-the-page, .... but that's not this e-mail... This is to ask Henk a question -- the answer to which I figure could be of general interest so I ask "on list"...
I've commented before that I find Henk's scenes of what around here we call "street life" especially compelling (my favorite here, BTW, is "Lucca," 2009, & its distinguished-looking grey-haired fella at the outdoor cafe).
See:
and :
But what I want to know is how Henk shoots these folks unawares. Hidden camera? Long lens? Disguise with a portable telephone booth? I've done a lot of street shooting with various stratagems, but always with small camera I can more or less invisibly "click," & generally with a crowd to melt into.... These have the look (at least to this non-large-format photographer) of large-format. Maybe Europeans are so blase about tourists with cameras they don't notice? Or??? (I think at one point I knew this format, but may have repressed it.)
Street photography for me is just a matter of always carrying a camera without the goal of making 'street photography'; when i want to make a certain picture i make some to the left , some to the right , some in the air and in between the one i want to make ....
Most of the time a fairly -rather cheep- zoomlens 18 to 200 mm.
My other question is about the cover image, "Max" (tricolor gum). If I remember correctly that's... a grandchild? (Exquisite head in solemn soulful portrait.) What I want to know, Henk, is how did you figure the cropping -- in that black surround. Did it just "happen," did you try other ways, or...? (And what did you promise or threaten the kid to get that look?)
This one is not cropped , the black is just Photoshop CANVAS SIZE with black.
And yes , 'my botticelli' is my grandchild, and ' sitting' for me -not too long !- wasn't a problem until now. No 'promise' for the look, just love :-), but maybe i have to tell a short story:
When he was a baby, he had a cold, and he was too young to express his feelings in words; in pain he only could cry.
But a holiday was planned in Spain, and we have to sit nearly 3 hours in a plane, and he really had severe problems with his ears; during this three hours he sat on my lap and i tried to comfort him . Since that time we have a bit of a special relation.
I could go on, but restrain myself, except "good for you" (also whatever it is calls itself "Blurb").
PS. Where is Marrakech? I know it's not in New York. (We call that Mamaroneck & I used to live there -- heh heh).
Marocco , where two wolds come together.
Judy
The inkjet pictures are in the making for brom(oil) and (tri)color gums for my exhibition in the OpenShutter gallery in Durango in november; also some pictures taken in Istanbul (where i really want to go back!!)
