Topic: advice/opinions sought

[LT]

Here are a series of pics I'm thinking of using as a small group or choose 3 for a triptych.  They were all taken during my doomed walk up Mount Snowdon.  It was really hazy and misty so I made sure the negs were well overexposed and I plan to print then pretty much as presented here - a high-key limited tonal range to match what we saw on the walk.  the colour is supposed to match a thiosulphate toner and selenium split (it does on my monitor anyway).

What do you think?  a bit dull?  uninteresting?  does it "work"?  I'm in 2 minds and am keen for your valuable opinions.



 

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[rdbkorn]

Gosh, I've been looking and looking at these for about 10-15 minutes, a back and forth debate going on in my little pea brain the whole time. I certainly understand there are times when an artist is a little uncertain of where some work is going, and finds it helpful to talk things through with other people. But I feel in general that if I reach that point before the work is really embarked on, I don't need advice - I need to move on to something else. Not sure exactly which situation applies to you with these images, but I did notice that in your message the words "doomed walk", "dull", "uninteresting" all came before the question "does it work?".

Having said that, I think these images do not work well viewed on a monitor. I suspect there are intriguing details in each image that are being washed out by monitor brightness. I think you will only know for sure if these are going to work as a small series of images (I don't really see a strong triptych coming from these) by printing them. I think you might need to play with scale (compare some 4X4 prints with 20X20 prints), and variations on toning protocols.

Paul

[moominsean]

i dunno...i keep looking at them and think that #2 is really the only one that ends up doing it for me. i think it has an overall dreaminess, while the others all sharpen up in the lower right corner, which i find a bit distracting to the theme. particularly #1, which has to go. i don't think they are 'dull' by any means...just not sure that they balance properly as a group. for me at least!

[gothamtomato]

I'm sorry to say that they don't do it for me. But then, there's A LOT of contemporary photography that doesn't really do it for me -- usually the kind of stuff that's selling for thousands of dollars in Chelsea galleries. So that could mean that these are destined for big bucks if you speak the gallery language.

But I don't think these are up to your usual standard.


However, I wanted to mention to Rdbkorn: That flower still life on the blog is just STUNNING.

[db]

Love them.

I'm a huge fan of minimal high key abstract stuff. The subtle gossamer-like wisps of tone tantalize me.
I could just lick them. To me this is the sort of composition and treatment where landscapes transcend the
pretty, but ultimately boring 'record of what I saw'. Here the metaphysical and the atmosphere (s'cuse pun) become more important than the physical.

I confess I've never worked out how or what makes a triptych work (anyone?- please?) but I can
imagine these individually printed, quite large, either block mounted or sitting in a huge white matt, and on acres of snow
white gallery wall. (stop me- I'm drooling)

As to the actual images, I think they all work well. They are all the same- but different, which end up reinforcing one another
in a gallery situation.  On my monitor the sky in llanberispath6 looks a touch heavy on the RHS, otherwise, all good.  I especially enjoy the delicate white area in the sky of llanberispath4 -yum.

[Stu]

I agree. I really like them and in particular the composition of 2 and 4. I enjoy images in which it isn't the deatail that hits you first, but instead it's the whole feel for the place, the ambiance. I can imagine what it was like when there, which, for me, is always the most powerful landscape photography.

I'm not sure about the three together thing as for me as there are two which would look amazing as individual framed prints.

[mikeg]

I like them too.

The weakest one for me is the first one, the mountain is a bit too distinct and I don't like the bottom right corner, followed by the last one. I really like the second one, particularly the way in which the foreground and the background have similar outlines.

Mike

[Nigel]

I like them, but I think this is really coming down to monitor settings.

I like the ones that hint of something further in the far distance that is becoming more distinct - so for me 3 and 4 are the best. But these are images where the printing is going to be even more critical than usual.

Nigel

[rolo]

Even on my laptop the second one and the last one really grab me.  I like them a lot, with the exception of the first one which I, too, think is too sharp and distinct to work in this series.  I'm not a fan of the wall-size photographs, but I think these do need to be printed fairly large to tell their subtle story.