Andrew Wyeth and Time Travel from Lisbon to Taipei

I have a special penchant to the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. While Christina’s World (1948) is his most well-known painting, I have been attracted to the more common daily life moments he noticed and celebrated. He is considered a realist painter and a regionalist who painted people and their ways of life in various geographic areas.

Very similar to a street photographer who captures moments in different cities or countries. A street photographer is rarely abstract – people are real and their behaviors realistic when captured on film.

… As I was hanging wet 8x10 photo paper on the drying line across my darkroom, I smiled at the realization that, as I use wood clothpins to hang them, I was almost hanging laundry the old-fashion way. The darkroom was my own backyard, my balcony, and my sun was a 20 watts red light!

Which made me think of a painting by A. Wyeth that I have always appreciated. It is the Light Wash he painted in Pennsylvania. It is a very visual scene and full of movement. Laundry is hanging on line to dry, there is a breeze, and a dog is sleeping in the shade of the laundry next to a wicker laundry basket. The latter is partly covered with sunshine depicting a warm and sunny day.

… So a theme developed in my mind, something like “hanging laundry and street cleaning.” I searched for photos I had taken with that theme consciously, or unconsciously, I had considered.

Neighborhood under the São Jorge Castle in Lisbon. It was one of my favorite walks going up the hill to the Moorish castle overlooking Lisbon and the Tagus River. The neighborhoods on my path were typically Mediterranean with their narrow streets, iron balconies, the aroma of fish frying all hours of the day, and especially the laundry hanging from these balconies. Being born on the Mediterranean, I have always kept a soft spot in my heart for balconies and laundry hanging on line…

Street renovation in Lisbon. Another moment from Portugal, equally nostalgic as the above photo but this time due to the 19th century architecture of the building. The sun was at its zenith when I was walking the streets in search for a moment to capture with my 1980s Olympus OM. This worker was taking a break from cleaning gravel in the construction area outside the building. He was certainly feeling the heat and his attire was to shield him from the sun. Yet, the moment was what my Olympus was hoping for – he stopped next to a street advertizing board showing a lovely model in minimal attire. Who had the right idea about clothing for noon time in Lisbon?

Taipei before sunrise. Another of my routine practices was to wake up an hour before sunrise and walk the streets of Taipei. Life never stops in Taiwan’s largest city as street vendors start preparing breakfast food almost around midnight. I loved being part of the sounds, smells and movement of Taipei. Another activity before sunrise is to clean the streets, the sidewalks and the entrance walkways of residences. I took this photo right after someone had used mops to clean the house entrance and had placed the mops in anthropomorphic postures. It looked like the mops, still wet and dripping water, were taking a rest.

… The wet photography papers hanging in my darkroom took me from Andrew Wyeth’s Light Wash in the back of a Chadds Ford house in Pennsylvania to Lisbon and Taipei.  

This time and space travel may not have happened if I was downloading digital images on my laptop and manipulating them with digital photography software….

June 26, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016

Paris, Simplement

I have been to Paris dozens of time. Many times for professional work, but mostly to visit my parents. Paris is perhaps the city most written about, most celebrated, and most visited by those in search of that je ne sais quoi they have always thought to find only in Paris. Indeed, for reasons I am not sure I can fully understand, the café crème tastes truly different when sitting in a French café trottoir watching people and their attitudes pass by. Even with the exact same ingredients no one in the world can make a baguette as memorable when eaten while walking the streets of Paris.

Paris was also the city most photographed in the world. I say “was” because nowadays everyone has a digital gadget and clicks non-stop no matter where they are. In the “old days” one had to load film, rewind, focus, set the speed, and gently depress the shutter release.

I still live in those “old days” when it comes to photography….

… A friend asked me today if I had any pictures of the Champs-Ėlysées. I said “no”.

“So how would you describe Paris through your photography? Can you narrow your optic to just two photos?”

That made me go to my Paris files in search of photos I may have not published. I was delighted to find a couple that indeed could summarize what Paris represents to me if I were to “think in images”. No, it is not the Champs-Ėlysées which is now a noisy, busy and expensive 1.2 mile long and 230 feet wide avenue. I recall a walk along that street on New Year’s Eve decades ago and what I see now does not make me feel like a kid anymore.

So, here are the two photos.

First, an embrace and kiss upon a park bench after sunset. It is romantic, panhuman, and the nonchalance of it somehow Parisian. Yet, to place it in context, the Tour d’Eiffel had to be there as a watchful eye surrounded by the lovely clouds.

Second, the bicycle, the trench coat and the busy street. I like this photo as she seems in no hurry compared to the men in the background. It is a simple moment that reminds me of my days in Paris.

So, these two photos may not excite my friend to plan a trip to Paris, but in their simplicity and perhaps personal memories, they represent the City of Lights to me.

June 24, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016

Delacroix’s Horse in the Shade of a Cactus

A group of artists, mainly painters, gathered on the town square of Prescott, AZ, to show their talent and donate the sales of their paintings to one of the local museum. The painters were from numerous Southwestern states, and they were given a picture to paint within 20 or so minutes.

One artist caught my attention. Wearing a cowboy hat and Southwestern clothing, she was about to start painting a trotting horse. I am not knowledgeable enough in the art of painting animals, but at that moment I could only think about one horse painting that has remained with me. It was “Horse Frightened by a Storm” By Eugene Delacroix that I saw at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The atypical vulnerability of that frightened stallion has an anthropomorphic character to it – the massive body of the horse is twisted and his face is all fear. There is nothing majestic about that horse as in many other paintings. It is a frightened and disoriented animal.

So, I was eager to see how this artist will paint her horse. To my delight, between two wrist movements of her brush, she pointed her brush toward the canvas as gracefully as an orchestra conductor. As if she was asking for the lines to take shape and the horse to become form. It was a beautiful style and I tried to capture the first few minutes of her work.

Now, here is the brush used as a conductor’s baton. “Become a horse, lines!”

The next few fluid strokes – it will be a horse.

A few more brushes and the stallion is all movement!

Once the creative phase was over, I was less interested in the coloring and finishing. I had seen the birth of a majestic animal and that felt quite delightful.

As I walked around the square admiring the works of various artists, I was thinking about the parsimony in art. As a scientist I have been indoctrinated to pursue and celebrate the golden rule of science – parsimony. And, as a photographer I have learned, after many decades, that a mechanical camera with a couple of shutter speeds is enough to capture what the eye saw as beautiful, generic, unusual or purely human. The artfulness of a photograph has practically nothing to do with the sophistication of the tool used. The simplest camera is often more than enough.

Yet, the artist I watched did not have a revolutionary painting style. The few etching strokes are standard practice before “filling in” the canvas. I think it was her demeanor expressed through her wrist. The conductor of undulating lines as if musical notes. It was that subtle relationship between the artist and the emptiness of the canvas that I had experienced.

And then, I saw this artist’s corner. A freshly painted saguaro cactus under the shade of a tall tree on the city square. The artist was not there; I did not see his or her work style. However, I did stop to look at the painting.

Why? Not because of the painting, but because of the moment and setting. The artist’s dog was a striking contrast to Delacroix’s frightened horse. The dog was all calm, and content.

…Perhaps that is how we identify with creativity: either by the power of its suggestion or the touching of a raw, even if dormant, nerve.

Done with parsimony and grace.

June 18, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016

When Our Legs Tell Our Story

Still photography aiming at telling a story about people relies heavily on their facial expressions. Street photography, however, aims at capturing people’s attitudes in an impromptu way while attempting to not always reveal the identity of the people. Because it is not important who the people were in a photo – what counts is the story they tell that can be understood and interpreted by the viewers.

A street photographer aims at capturing moments with which viewers identify, and avoids identifying the subjects of the photograph to the extent possible.

So, I took this photo last week. The three persons, their hands and legs were perfectly aligned and self-composed the shot. Yet they were distinctly different in their line-up. As I was looking through the viewfinder of my 1970s Nikon F2, I wondered if their postures reflected their characters and attitudes.

And, as I often become curious about body language, I did some research about what the positioning of legs is believed to tell about the person or the message they are sending with different ways of placing their feet toward another person or the object of their attention.

I was amazed that there is a lot written about this topic in the sociological literature. Distilling the proposed interpretations to a manageable set, here is what seemed of interest to me as a photographer:

1.     Managers who interview applicants are often trained to “read” the body language of the interviewee. It seems that when a person answers untruthfully to a question, they make unconscious leg and foot movements.

2.     Crossing the legs seems to tell what the person is open to or reluctant to do. There is the “standing- leg-cross” implying defensive posturing in company of people we do not know well. There is the military “legs-apart” showing dominance; there is the stereotypic “cowboy stand” with legs apart, feet pointed outward, and thumbs in the belt with the hips pushed out.  There seems to be the “European/British leg cross” where the left leg is crossed over the right one.  And, there is the “American Figure Four” leg cross, which is a modified version of the cowboy stand, this time sitting down but still pushing the pelvis out and placing the hands on the crossed leg!

3.     Not only legs, but ankles also tell a story…The “lock ankle” position, both in men and women is believed to be equivalent to “biting the lip”! It is reported that people in courtrooms lock their ankles, and that more people lock their ankles when dealing with the tax professionals than they do when in the dentist’s seat…

4.     Finally, there is the “parallel legs” with one foot’s toes gently locked upon the other leg’s ankle. This is the ultimate femininity expression, and one that every man on our round globe will recognize and appreciate!

Ok. So now I was very curious to look through my photos and see if I had, purposefully or not, captured some body and leg positioning which may tell a story about the person. My interest in this topic is not new (https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2014/09/street-photography-from-dogs-perspective.html) but I felt that now I have more of a scientific template to use when looking through my photos.

So, here is a sample.

St. Patrick’s Day. Two of an Irish band’s musicians taking a break. Is this the “cowboy” posture? In fact the man on the right seems to have more of Greek demi-god feel of the moment….

On the boardwalk looking at sailors in a passing boat. I do not see any reserved or reluctant body language here.

In Paris, looking like a sailor. The hands on the hip, a look that says “few discoveries left”. Too bad I did not have her legs in the frame to make a complete analysis…

Man, woman and poster, Singapore. It all seems to fit together.

A street embrace. One does not need to read the sociological literature about body posture to understand this photo.

Cowboys and Saloon ladies, Arizona. This was an enactment yet I find it interesting that both ladies have crossed their right legs over the left ones. Is this the “anti-European” cross?

The dreamer posture. This time the toes are inward. Is this the “I do not notice those around me” posture?

After looking at the last photo, I remembered one taken by someone else of me on the stage with a colleague in Taiwan. This was during my “previous life” as an academic as I had just finished my talk at a conference. 

I could not resist including this picture, as my feet seem to be placed in the most non-nonchalant way, while her toes are turned inward. I did not know that I place my feet this way, and now have to do some research on what this means about my attitude to life!

June 8, 2016

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016