Sassamatt Weblog

Vancouver Show

Edward Peck — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:50:22 +0000

PhotoHaus Gallery has a new show called “Vancouver” opening on Friday September 5th at 7:00 pm. One of my works has been juried into this show. PhotoHaus Gallery can be found at 14 west 7th Avenue, Vancouver, BC. It promises to be an interesting show.

Try Before you Buy Show

Edward Peck — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:01:40 +0000

This September “bcliving” ran an article on the North Vancouver Community Arts Council, (Art Rentals and Sales program), in which I have a number of pieces. The article describes that place art rental has in the process of purchasing a work of art as well as just finding an affordable way to include art in your living and working space. If you are interested you can find the article at the link in the above text.

Mobileography Show

Edward Peck — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 02:17:55 +0000

Mobileography Exhibition

The Gallery’s Business Hours
Sunday & Monday: Closed
Tuesday to Thursday: 3pm to 7pm
Friday: 3pm to 6pm
Saturday: 12pm to 3pm
Outside these regular hours, gallery is open by appointment.
Opening Friday July 15th, 2011 thru August

Mobile Phone Photography

On July 15th a mobile phone photography exhibition opened at PhotoHaus Gallery. Over 200 submissions where juried into a show of 40 photographers who produced their images solely on mobile phones, most as it turns out on iPhones. The show is a fascinating collection of images displayed on canvas, paper and iPad screens. One might worry that the resolution might not be up to exhibition quality, but this proved not to be the case; not only could they be enlarged to a surprising size, but also the canvas reproductions had to be a foot and half wide on the short side — which goes to show you that these phones have very good cameras.

To my surprise, the photographs were not only taken by iPhones, but also a great deal of the processing of the photographs was done on the phones themselves. In fact, a number of the photographers who participated were careful to point out that everything from the taking of the photograph to the final processing was all done on the phones themselves. So, it became apparent that these were not only cameras but also digital darkrooms.

Prior to the opening I was fortunate to get one of the limited seats for a panel discussion on mobileography. The panel was composed of the following photographers:

The surprise guest was Don Giannatti, a writer, photographer, designer and educator from Phoenix, Arizona. The discussion began by asking, “How would mobileography impact DSLR photography?”

The obvious answer is that it would not displace it, but instead it would give the photographer some things a DSLR does not do as well, including access to places that are not DSLR friendly, blending in with the crowd when that is important, the ability to sketch, and being there when the DSLR is not. One thing it might soon replace, however, is the point and shoot as the quality coming from the phones is rapidly becoming as good as point and shoot cameras.

Don Gianatti raised an interesting point about our current world of images. He suggested that we now have cameras the are 26, 40 and 80 megapixels, but the viewing world of computers and video screens is really a 1080p world. The iPhone images are larger than 1080p, so perhaps the megapixel world of the camera is light years ahead of the way we are viewing these images. Obviously, there is a strange technological disconnect.

There was also an intense discussion about all the “apps” that were used on the phones to make the photographs and process the images. So if you what to have some fun, here are some of the recommended applications:

Here are a few more I could add to the list:

While I am at it, here are a few general photography “apps” that I have found useful, mostly for the landscape photographers.

Redux of 400 yards of Burned Paper in a Square

Edward Peck — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 03:11:53 +0000

400 yards of Burned Paper in a Square, performed October 6th, 2010

Glenn Lewis, aka Flakey, created a redux of his 400 Yards of Burning Paper in a Square, first performed at the University of Calgary in 1970. Today’s performance included a higher degree of interrelationship with recording media than the original performance and many of the performances at that time by other members of the Intermedia and the Western Front. The big difference with the multi media today is it is everywhere, in almost everyone’s pocket.

The 400 yard paper square ran from the beach down through the intertidal zone, and onto the sand bars that had temporarily emerged from the salt water of the bay. As the square at tidal level was being completed the tide began to flow. Perhaps this was an ironic link to the doomed art community that had existed on the mud flats across the water in North Vancouver; when today the rising tide carried away the paper that had been laid so carefully in the tidal area. The muse were at work transforming the even from its prairie origins to this costal context.

As the lower half of the rectangle was being submerged in the water, on the beach the remaining portion lay with stoned in place. As this paper was ignited iPhone cameras, point and shoots, large digital cameras and video cameras snapped and rolled from almost every perspective and from both the performers and witnesses. Every shot not only documented the event but also documented the documenters. This was the world that these artists had foreshadowed 40 years ago, a world were where the performance merges with the recording devices, and witnesses became performers and performers witnesses.

Today’s event might have only existed within a specific frame of time, and in the minds of those who experienced it but now it moves forward into the future aided by a series of machines some low tech and some very high tech. How this event will reassemble itself is not just in the minds or hands of the artist but also through those who were their with their lenses.

Performance Art and Photography

Edward Peck — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:24:57 +0000

In a recent article in Aperture there was a discussion that looked at the relationship between performance artists and photography. The quote that engaged me was as follows: “The goal of performance and Conceptual work of those year [1970's] was the dematerialization of art: an attempt to separate art from precious materials and pretentious institutions so that it could exist in more pure, less compromised forms.” It goes on to suggest that photography in this context was used as a functional medium, a record that documents without having an effect on the performance.

Photography in this context, seems to me more of a direct engagement. It allows the performance to be lifted out of the idyllic pure form that is being sought, and gives it a second more permanent and larger than life quality. Given the documentary style that was traditionally used in these situation it reminds me of Gabriel Marquez who used documentary literary devices to enhance his fiction. In the same way photographs of performance art often give the performance a much greater life beyond the moment and frequently enhance the quality of the moment.

The outcome of this collaboration is the development of the possibility of using traditionally commercial and documentary forms of photography as part of photography’s artistic lexicon. This is both exciting and challenging at the same time. Having a larger palette of styles to choose from increases the possibilities and creates a greater uncertainty about the nature of the art of photography