33 Comments

As most of you know, I've worked side-by-side with Bob for about 14 years now. I'm glad he's shared with you his technical expertise, but also his artistic sensitivities and how his mother's passing affected his work (don't our emotions affect all our work?). I can tell you that Bob takes his photographic passions seriously.

In this particular case, I remember Bob bringing in the first and second drafts. My take on it is that it is a prime example of artistic intent. The simple answer is to put the clouds on top and the wall/bench on the bottom. That grounds the page. The solid bench and the immovable wall ground the ethereal clouds above. Like I said, simple....yet...

By placing the clouds on the bottom, I found that it created cognitive dissonance for me. And that is not bad in a viewer. It causes more time spent, deciphering, decoding, dealing with our discomfort with that dissonance. I was forced to think of why the artist did this. It made me look longer and deeper and then the color and hues hit me. Yes, THAT was the artist's intent after all. Color. Hue. An interpretive image conveying his feeling about place.

So, all I can say is that we spend a lot of collective time in our studio listening, arguing, rethinking. Curation is critical. Few things can spoil a presentation as easily as thoughtless curation.

Expand full comment

It's hard to separate what you have in your book from what I now know about the photographs. Had I not read your article, I may not have seen the relationship. I'm a bit of a visual Visigoth, I guess. But from that insensitive perspective...

You've chosen to print these two photographs in a higher key and bluer hue than they were in nature, based on the one photo in your article above. That's consistent with your text on the page facing the photographs in question. Are the other photographs in the collection similarly altered to blue, green or gray?

In the text above, you mention a passing storm. I'm guessing that the cloud photograph would be from that storm or some other. The puddles in your original photograph of the wall are more obvious than those in the photograph in the book. Having seen it and with what you said about the storm, the relationship between the two photographs in the book is more apparent: they are related causally and emotionally. So I think the two photographs as presented would work better together if the puddles could be made a bit more obvious. For example if the puddles on the gravel were more silver like the ones immediately adjacent to the wall, they'd be more recognizable. In that case, I'd leave the two photographs in their current orientation.

I am interested in seeing the book when it's finished!

Expand full comment
Feb 15, 2023Liked by RWB

Probably clouds on top - but I always have to actually see a sample printed each way, before deciding. It's too easy to imagine how I think it will look - rather than looking at actual work.

Expand full comment

Clouds on top. Putting them on the bottom forces a different perspective that, in this case, is not needed for the story. So clouds on top sets the viewer at ease to notice the similarities of color which is the point. The gap that the white space between the images provides acts as a sufficient ellipsis for this story.

As for curators, it is indeed an art form unto itself!

Expand full comment
Feb 16, 2023Liked by RWB

My perspective on curation is more nuanced and follows other editing disciplines. In essence, the “opus” should follow the narrative the artist is trying convey. I can’t pretend to understand your intent and without that knowledge, it is difficult to make a determination. Perhaps you are in a better position to craft the story and weave the images into that tale?

Expand full comment

Sorry to be a contrarian but neither of the images does much for me. But stepping back a bit to me the only thing that unites them is the dominant blue hue. Having said that I would opine that it doesn’t make a difference to me which is on y to op. However a radically different approach would be to superimpose the clouds ON TOP of the fence with about 50% transparency or just play with the slider to see what amount works best. But I’d also remove the foreground from the fence image so you have ONLY the fence. The rest of my comment has to do with the fence image.

I like patterns and when appropriate isolating them in the frame. So of the images you sent the third of the fence by itself sans any foreground or background is the one I like the best as a stand- alone image

Expand full comment

I spent a (very) few days at a marina near the mouth of the Patuxent, and several time drive over the last bridge before the river broadened into the Chesapeake. The view upstream and down was remarkably beautiful, and it told the story of the tributaries and the bay itself. Maybe one day I'll get back there without a sailboat to occupy me and instead have time to capture that feeling

Expand full comment

My first reaction was to place them on facing pages, the bench on the left towards the bottom of the page, the sky to the right towards the top.

However, I know it's important to be consistent with presentation throughout the book. Readers don't like formats that change consistently. When creating books, one has to be a graphic designer as well as a photographer unless you have access to a designer.

Whatever you decide will be just right.

Also, my condolences on losing your mom. Death has a way of knocking the wind out of one's sails.

Expand full comment

Without reading the article, my initial reaction to the image was its about the color blue. Had the building been on the bottom I might not have made that immediate connection.

Expand full comment

The darker blue of the building feels heavier and to me, belongs on the bottom.

Expand full comment

Personally, I think challenging our natural tendency of wanting the clouds on top and the buildings on the bottom forces the viewer to figure out how the photos “fit together” in other ways. In this case, it highlights the fact that the subject of the photos isn’t what is tying them together but the color. I think if you flip them you lose that focus, since it’d be what the viewer expects from the scene. The viewer doesn’t have to pause and think to appreciate the other aspects of the photos that link them together.

Expand full comment

Given my 40 years of trying to take a few decent pictures, I am relatively new to consciously working on curating my work. And only beginning to get a feel for "what's right." It's really a constant struggle to select "the good ones" and to put them in a presentation order for display. One just keeps working at it , I guess. I do often feel that I approach "good" through repeated reviews over time. There does seem to be a distance in time needed to get a different perspective or to at least clear out fixations from the last perspective. And to incorporate new learning into the decisions.

It does seem a perpetual work in progress.

Expand full comment

As it is. The top photo has more weight and seems to anchor the clouds in the frame. If the clouds were on top I'm afraid the eye would drift off the page and the bottom shot would not get scrutiny. Just my two cents. Curating is such a HUGE thing. Been doing it with my work for so many years and still never feel like anything is 'right' or finished. But the constant questioning is good....right?

Expand full comment

Barbarian, as in no sensitivity or appreciation of art or subtlety.

Expand full comment

A PS to my comment of a few moments ago. Perhaps if you try my suggestion of overprinting, you might leave the foreground alone on the underprimt as it serves to visually “anchor” it while the clouds impress as “elevating”.

Secondly I have never appreciated wordy verbal commentary on a photographic image by the photographer on what the image “means” or signifies. Images should be capable of telling their own story or at least be such that the viewer can appreciate it ‘qua’ an image. Or perhaps with just a minimum of context. Photographers who come to mind are Bernice Abbot, Imogene Cunningham, Robert Glen Ketchum, Ansel Adams, Elliot Porter, Dorothea Lange, Georgia O’Keeffe, Bradford Washborn , Robert Adams, Galen Rowell …

Expand full comment