first time i seen jerry's work i thought of multiexposure which couldn't be in jerry's work as his "borders" align too perfect. but the thought remained. is jerry's work for everybody? no. but nobody could take away his genius and imagination of creating something like this in a darkroom. a pioneer if you like.
It's a good question and one I haven't resolved: how much does being a pioneer matter? We don't judge Cervantes and Sterne the same way we judge a modern novelist. We give them extra latitude because they were original. Artists are inspired by possibilities from the past, historians just have to tell a story of what happened.
it all depends on how much importance one wants to give to the "pioneer". is it important who discover electricity? or penicillin? or airplane? maybe not. but there are people out there that even today bring homages to "pioneers" of all sorts: ancestors, religion, inventors, artists. it is up to each individual what matters and what not. i have a camera that can take photos in raw format as long as keep the shutter button pressed until the memory card is full. does it matter? sometimes yes. some other times not at all as i often go back to film cameras that can take one frame at the time.
Plenty of hate happening in the comedy world 🤣 I find absolutely awful comedy very inspirational. Also think that being a vocal hater is quite a male thing (I just scroll on by). And being hated is a good motivator to prove people wrong
I think you're probably right about it being a male thing and obviously it changes in tone when the person is alive and reading it. I used to be an integrity maximalist — https://neilscott.substack.com/p/integrity-and-the-critic — but have softened quite a bit. I listen to my Mum: "If you haven't anything nice to say ..."
I think it's different if it's literally your job to be a critic, honesty all the way! Otherwise, I'm with your mum. The Joanna Page/Things You Should Have Done incident is a good example of how to needlessly look like an arsehole: https://x.com/chiwithaC/status/1773302960736424156. She should have saved it for the group chat.
Interesting prequel leading to your Uelsmann rant. I'm liking how you are marrying seemingly unrelated ideas in your mind into a focal point in your essays. My uninvited comment is on Morrisey. I don't think he had wit, he had racist vile, but just that's me. I think you hate Uelsmann as much as i hate those insidious dog and baby photographers, Wegman and Geddes. Different leagues, I know. manipulation is one thing, but creating trite artifice...Dante reserved a circle of hell full of overexposed film and a single cracked Lomo fisheye to fight over for those people.
Thanks Mark. Morrissey's comments are unfortunate, but songs like November Spawned A Monster ar such a unique subject matter that I can decouple them from his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8LdKp2Y-8
Had never heard of Geddes before. Really wish that was still the case. 😬
These comments are gold, Neil. I haven't hated anything in a while, but did have a visceral reaction to a performance piece at Take Me Somewhere festival in Glasgow's Tramway before COVID. An Australian performance artist was opening the festival with a piece that went on as long as the audience stayed. I left after she urinated onto the heads of some other performers from on high and self-flagellated with a dead octopus.
I agree with Byung Chul Han that our era suffers from a lack of negativity and an excess of positivity. The answer is always "yes," "more" and "without limit," whereas artistic practices require a degree of tension and contrast to flourish. Maybe the taboo against hate is part of the same picture.
Yep. I wonder how much it is to do with the swarm dynamics of social media. You can’t just be against something, your taste pits you for or against your online community.
I disagree with most of what you say here, but I admire your passion, intensity, and surefootedness in an age where everyone is second guessing themselves.
first time i seen jerry's work i thought of multiexposure which couldn't be in jerry's work as his "borders" align too perfect. but the thought remained. is jerry's work for everybody? no. but nobody could take away his genius and imagination of creating something like this in a darkroom. a pioneer if you like.
It's a good question and one I haven't resolved: how much does being a pioneer matter? We don't judge Cervantes and Sterne the same way we judge a modern novelist. We give them extra latitude because they were original. Artists are inspired by possibilities from the past, historians just have to tell a story of what happened.
it all depends on how much importance one wants to give to the "pioneer". is it important who discover electricity? or penicillin? or airplane? maybe not. but there are people out there that even today bring homages to "pioneers" of all sorts: ancestors, religion, inventors, artists. it is up to each individual what matters and what not. i have a camera that can take photos in raw format as long as keep the shutter button pressed until the memory card is full. does it matter? sometimes yes. some other times not at all as i often go back to film cameras that can take one frame at the time.
Plenty of hate happening in the comedy world 🤣 I find absolutely awful comedy very inspirational. Also think that being a vocal hater is quite a male thing (I just scroll on by). And being hated is a good motivator to prove people wrong
I think you're probably right about it being a male thing and obviously it changes in tone when the person is alive and reading it. I used to be an integrity maximalist — https://neilscott.substack.com/p/integrity-and-the-critic — but have softened quite a bit. I listen to my Mum: "If you haven't anything nice to say ..."
I think it's different if it's literally your job to be a critic, honesty all the way! Otherwise, I'm with your mum. The Joanna Page/Things You Should Have Done incident is a good example of how to needlessly look like an arsehole: https://x.com/chiwithaC/status/1773302960736424156. She should have saved it for the group chat.
Interesting prequel leading to your Uelsmann rant. I'm liking how you are marrying seemingly unrelated ideas in your mind into a focal point in your essays. My uninvited comment is on Morrisey. I don't think he had wit, he had racist vile, but just that's me. I think you hate Uelsmann as much as i hate those insidious dog and baby photographers, Wegman and Geddes. Different leagues, I know. manipulation is one thing, but creating trite artifice...Dante reserved a circle of hell full of overexposed film and a single cracked Lomo fisheye to fight over for those people.
Thanks Mark. Morrissey's comments are unfortunate, but songs like November Spawned A Monster ar such a unique subject matter that I can decouple them from his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv8LdKp2Y-8
Had never heard of Geddes before. Really wish that was still the case. 😬
These comments are gold, Neil. I haven't hated anything in a while, but did have a visceral reaction to a performance piece at Take Me Somewhere festival in Glasgow's Tramway before COVID. An Australian performance artist was opening the festival with a piece that went on as long as the audience stayed. I left after she urinated onto the heads of some other performers from on high and self-flagellated with a dead octopus.
Haha. Classic TMS!
Totally, Neil! I left and then had absolutely nothing in me to even go for a drink with my pal! Never happened before!
I agree with Byung Chul Han that our era suffers from a lack of negativity and an excess of positivity. The answer is always "yes," "more" and "without limit," whereas artistic practices require a degree of tension and contrast to flourish. Maybe the taboo against hate is part of the same picture.
Yep. I wonder how much it is to do with the swarm dynamics of social media. You can’t just be against something, your taste pits you for or against your online community.
‘Raw life and messy reality’ gets my vote 👍
Agreed.
Great photos of yours again. Some illustrations of why alcohol restrictions are necessary in Scotland!
Also love Uelsmann's photos. Still pine for all things psychedelic!
What happened to psychedelia?
It was all in the mind! 😵💫
Turn it off, relax and float downstream, mate!
I disagree with most of what you say here, but I admire your passion, intensity, and surefootedness in an age where everyone is second guessing themselves.
Food for thought…
Seems to me now just a technically refined version of Grete Stern
The spirit is very different though. Stern's photos (which I didn't know before) are full of humour!
Black humor though. I knew both but never saw the connection. I see it now. I think clearly one inspired the other