Epiphany in Photography -- the Role of Apophenia and Pareidolia

 

A psychologist friend of mine sent me an email with an attachment. “It is a Rorschach ink blot,” she wrote. “Tell me what you see. I want to see if your personality has been affected by the pandemic.”

Well, I saw a horse, a naked woman on a horse just like Maureen O’Hara in Lady Godiva. Or Heddy Lamarr. Or Bo Derek.  In some instances the horse was black. In others it was a pinto.

“Ok, I see you personality has not changed – good. Now tell me if as a photographer you have experienced pareidolia in framing your pictures. I know you probably have experienced it as a poet, but tell me about the photographer.”

Epophenia and pareidolia – somehow related to schizophrenia in seeing connections between unrelated things. But pareidolia where a person sees hidden messages in a cloud or a group of people in the street is probably not that uncommon for photographers. Sure, both have serious psychiatric meanings, but any artist who tries to see a connection between shapes and meanings somehow gets “diagnosed” as one way or another!

… But her question did trigger an interest in me that I could explore looking through scanned photos.

So I did.

First, I recalled a photo that I had not published before which I took during a mountain hike. I recall I had my Pentax 1000 with me loaded with a Croatian Efke ASA 25 film. I usually like this combination when I am hiking since the camera is a very basic model and I am pretty sure that it will not stop working when I need it. The ASA 25 is a perfect speed film for detail when playing with light and shades.

Anyhow, this photo, the one at the top of this entry, immediately captured an angle where the rock seemed like a face “speaking” to the mountain ahead of it. The trees were perfect for frame and detail.

Here is the cropped section of that negative – see the face?

Second, clearly there are structures that remind us of common things. For example look at an ironing board that was in the hallway of a motel in Cape Town, South Africa. I do not consider such resemblances appreciated through pareidolia.

Third, there are unpurposeful and unarranged arrangements that have an inherent anthropomorphic identity. See the two chairs in a conference room. Again, to recognize their resemblance to two people conversing has nothing to do with schizophrenia!

Fourth, and given my childhood around the Mediterranean Sea, for me the most plausible and culturally celebrated association between epophenia and pareidolia is reading the coffee grinds in a demitasse. Indeed, finding patterns and messages and interpreting them as a forecast, a warning or a blessing from above is as old as any human culture. Perhaps the oldest is interpreting cloud shapes. Or reading animal entrails. Or reading tea leaves. Or coffee grinds. No matter, I lovingly remember all the times when after dinner coffee was served and a designated person was given the demitasses after the coffee was drank. Then started the delightful ceremony of seeing faces, shapes, roads, presents, and anything in between.  A true art these grind readers had for imagination!

Well, not around the Mediterranean anymore but my old habits to die hard. Or never. So I still make my own boiled coffee and read my own demitasse!

Here is the coffee pot:

It is a cherished cultural moment especially when I use the handmade copper Armenian coffee pot with a wood handle my mother used. This one is from the Soviet days, adding a bit more history to the process.

And the coffee grinds. How can one not see the man and woman who will in 4 or 40 days come to visit me? I can even see a face mask since I am sure they are very careful about safety during a pandemic!

.. So, I shared the draft of this post with my psychologist friend for reaction. She wrote:

“This is like a symphony where you used different dimensions as instruments to make your point. But I still think that the poet and photographer work best as a team. More like a sinfonietta.”

And she followed it with another email:

“Ha! I am surprised you did not see the naked woman riding a white horse in your demitasse!!!!”

December 5, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

 

PS/ Le Moment Decisif

There is not a single photographer (I have to assume) who has not heard about and experienced the famous description of timing proposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment is the intimate partnership between a camera, a photographer and the evanescent moment to be captured on film (or via pixels).

What I am about to say may be controversial or at least uncommonly encountered – I believe that the photographer has to be given credit not only for anticipating the moment and clicking at the decisive moment, but for doing so though the recognition of patterns in that environment that would come together only at the decisive moment.

In other words, a great photograph has the essential context of pareidolic existentialism (my coining of terms.)

Ok, I know many will find this statement “unusual” but in my 50 years of street and portraiture photography I have often experienced the making of a “message” in the environment that said “be ready when X and Y synthesize with Z. That is when you click.”

I will leave the readers decide…

Wine and the 2020 Pandemic

I was walking my dog on a back street where a number of bars have their second entry door. I saw the sign about wine and wanted to take a picture. At that very moment a woman came by and asked if she could pet my dog.

It is a totally unscripted shot but one that may say a lot about how people are coping with isolation.

November 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020 

En Plein Air Painting -- The Impression Impressionists Have Left

 

 

I have the frequent need to dig out old cameras from my collection and see how we still, together, can capture a moment.

In the past weeks I have been playing with a late 1940s Praktica FX3 that I have had for many decades. It is a sweet camera if you have time to frame, focus, and figure out why the pictures go from left to right in the e waist level view finder…  Yes, it is a 35mm waist level viewfinder camera with some serious sophistication. One of them is that it takes M42 mount lenses and has an internal, albeit obscure, switch to actually use semi-automatic lenses from the 1950s and 1960. So, instead of the cumbersome pre-set lenses, I like to use Honeywell Pentax lenses that are truly magnificent.

So, here is my FX3 with a 135mm on it and a 50mm Pentax Takumar lenses:

As a collector and a user, cameras with a historic background have a special meaning. This Praktica was made in Germany during WWII when Germany was under Soviet invasion. Here is the encryption:

I have been keeping this camera and lenses in my car in case I see something worth of street photography. Indeed, a few days ago I was parked my car in a state park to walk my dog and saw painters practicing the lovely tradition that impressionists like Monet made so popular – the joy of taking your easel out to the field and capturing landscapes.

So, the first picture I took is at the outset of this page. The film is ASA 100 so I do have some latitude with the lagging speeds of the camera:

Then I saw another painter perhaps 100 meters away. Here is the capture with the 50 mm f1.8 Takumar:

Of course I had plenty time to shift to the 135 mm lens for the following shot:

 

When I developed and printed these shots, I could not resist thinking about the Impressionists’ influence on framing this shot. Sure, it is amateurish, and it is influenced by the digital scanning of a film-based print, but still it does have that feel of the “plein air” painting that many artists dream to have the time to practice.

Here is the digitally ultra enlarged crop showing the painter and easel:

So, a 65 year old camera and Impressionistic themes – what can be better when the original goal was to take a 100 pound Akita for a walk on Halloween eve!

October 31, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

PS/ I got an email from a viewer who asked how the 35mm waist level viewfinder compares to the medium format viewfinders. It is a great question since given the size of the negative, medium format camera waist level viewfinders are larger, hence easier to frame and focus. 

But the 35mm ones can be very bright and with some practice as easy to use as their medium format counterparts.

Here is a comparison between my Praktica FX3 and the venerable 1948 Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera.

And their viewfinders

Sure, the 35mm has a smaller viewfinder  but I like the brightness of it.

A Look at Today Through Vintage Soviet Lens and Camera

 

A fine gentleman, after visiting my photography blog decided to donate his 1954 Zeiss Ikon Contaflex to my collection of vintage mechanical cameras. He was surprised and happy to find someone who still uses film, and I promised to take photos soon since he had not used it for decades,

As I was making room for the new camera on my selves, I came across a 1950s Soviet FED lens in Leica 39 mount. It is called Industar and a humble lens in performance and it was attached to a delightful FED-2 camera I bought many, many moons ago. I had never used the lens knowing its limitations, but decided to give it a chance after all these years sitting in the back row to lenses that have made my love of B&W photography so intimate.

So, I put the FED 26M on the FED-2 camera, loaded 10 frames of film (yes, I still load my canisters so I can decide on how many frames to load depending on the purpose) and took it with me for my dog’s morning walk at a nearby lake.

Here is the camera and the lens I had never used. Both are Soviet made in the early 1950s.

Of course using a 65 years old Soviet rangefinder camera while having a 95 pound Akita pulling you on the trail is a formidable task! But I managed to take one shot in contre-jour when he jumped atop a 10 meter boulder and pulled his tongue at me! I just wanted to see how the lens behaves in various light situations.

Well, it did poorly, of course. But it does have that feel only vintage glass can give. Technically deplorable, but full of that character folks like me pursue through the use of old lenses and mechanical cameras.

Then, as he was rushing to the lake for a drink, I tried to stop him long enough to focus and shoot one other frame. It is the one at the outset of this posting. The couple provided much character in their posture. The woman was using binoculars for birdwatching, and he seemed patiently waiting for her explanations about ducks and geese…

I like this vintage-feel photo. The corners are soft, the contrast is minimal, and the sharpness is non-existent, but somehow the composition benefited from this old Soviet lens the design of which is a variant of the 1930s German Tessar lens configuration.

…Then, my dog walked into the lake the shores of which are deep and black mud given the lack of rain this summer. When I pulled him back, his legs were already halfway black and he looked like a different dog. I tried to take a quick shot. When I developed the film, I could see under the loupe how uneven the focusing was – his eyes were in focus but his back and tail were not! That is a major flaw of the lens of course, but if used with that limitation in mind, could produce some creative photos…

Anyhow, here is that shot:

 

Needless to say I returned the Industar to the end of the shelf and made space for the Contaflex.

 

October 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

Doctor Who and the Weeping Angel

 

On our daily path away from the city square, my dog stopped and looked intensely, as he does when deer or coyote are on the path. After a few seconds he decided to check this “intruder” out and we got closer.

To my surprise, someone had decided to design an upcoming Halloween scene in this secluded area where mostly dog walkers use.  A weeping angel surrounded by raven (or crows) was next to gravestones.  Even my dog was confused as he looked at me wondering if he should chase the raven away or be touched by the sorrow of the angel…

Of course, my mind flew to the Protestant Cemetery in Rome where the original Weeping Angel was carved by William Wetmore Story and placed upon the tomb of his wife Emelyn in 1894. Since then, variants of a crying or weeping angel can be found in every cemetery of our planet. Those of us who have seen these weeping angle statues in various countries’ cemeteries I believe have a favorite or at least a favorite posture of the angel. While most are shown covering their faces, there are those that have their wings unfolded and their faces fully exposed. That posture is my favorite as it shows the extent of the sorrow and pain. The most remarkable may be the Haserot Weeping Angel in Cleveland, OH as her fully visible face is covered with what seems to black tears while sitting on a marble gravestone.

Then my mind meandered back to the 1960s when I first watched the British Series “Doctor Who”! And I almost thought that I saw his time travel ship, the TARDIS, fly over the city square… Hmm. Well, the Doctor was this extraterrestrial with a human appearance and he did good deeds around the world. For the youngsters who could not always separate fact from fiction, this BBC production made us think about the surreal but with implications for our behavior in the real world. And it was in this series that Weeping Angels were introduced as the moist malevolent life-forms evolution has ever produced. Indeed, these angels were angels of death, of grief and of sorrow. They covered their faces because if they looked at each other’s eyes they will be petrified for eternity. In other word, they will become statues.

… It was before my morning coffee but my dog wanted to walk another 2 miles but I had already walked back 60 years through the serpentine paths of memory.

On the way home, I was still wondering why whoever put that Halloween set-up put it there. Was the angel weeping in grief the hundreds of thousand deaths from Covid-19? Was she in sadness remembering the “easy” days of the past when people hugged, kissed and held each other when they met for dinner on a warm summer evening?

If Doctor Who flies over the city in his TARDIS, I will make sure to get his attention and ask these questions!

 

October 11, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero

 

So on an empty city street right after sunrise the raven had found an open public dumpster and decided to enjoy the moment. I stayed there with my dog watching them -- one would go in, while the other 2 or 3 would keep an eye on me and my dog. They found little to eat in there, as most of the trash seemed paper goods including soda cups that one raven seemed to enjoy tasting whatever was left in them.

And just when my dog was getting impatient and I decided to move, as if to tell me something about Carpe Diem, one raven went in, came out with a toilet paper roll and let it unfold like an ancient scroll! It did so meticulously by puncturing the paper at equal intervals and pulling it forward. These punctures can be clearly seen on the photo. And throughout this process the rest of the raven seemed to laugh through their cawing and calling.... 

So that was my moment. Soon a city worker will clean up the mess, some people will walk their dogs and the raven will retire to their high perches in the cottonwood trees. The future will thus be predictable and boring. 

But I had this moment and cherished it. Like many I was lucky to have which somehow would have lost their charm and grace if these moments had had a future. Trains do not use the train station for  parking -- eventually the rails call for travel.

But after so many years, I wonder what stays in us -- the travel or intimacy of the train station. 

September 26, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

The Morning Before Labor Day, Downtown Prescott, Arizona

The pandemic is still with us, but the city has opened to most outdoor events. So, Labor Day will see artists displaying their works around the city square. People will be out with their dogs and their hopes of returning to a lifestyle that has made this cowboy citya cherished spot 5,500 feet high in the mountains.

This morning, I took my dog for a walk just before sunrise. The city was mostly asleep and the downtown still empty. I took my Nikon F3 and a 1970s Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens with me. I consider that lens a specialty lens since the 1.4 opening has to be used for special moments only. It has aberrations, the bokeh/ackground blurr is not smooth, and it is almost a spot focusing lens. But since it was still dark outside, I wanted to see what I can do with the quickly changing light.

… On early morning walks in any city one finds empty bottles of beer or hard liquor, testimony of a night when someone had tried to drown sorrows or celebrate the moment. This morning, instead of the bottle, there was a discarded facial mask. A vivid example of the new times.

This is a taxidermied Mexican wolf in the window of a historic Trading store. With the first rays of the sun, I wanted to see how the Nikkor lens would capture the reflection of light through glass.

Finally, when the sun hit the store walls facing west, the memorial statue of fallen soldiers from Prescott seemed to welcome the day. I like the photo at the outset of this page as it seems to give a different meaning to the statue, given the angle of view and the interplay of light and shade.

Street photography before people arrive to the street!

September 6, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

Rainy Season in the Arizona High Desert – The Monsoon

The past 4 months have been difficult for a street photographer. Indeed, streets are mostly empty except for people walking their dogs early in the morning. Then the summer heat takes over, and along with the pandemic, keeps people inside.

I have 35mm cameras and medium format cameras loaded with film but hardly have I clicked and rewound.  And while sunsets atop the mountain are breathtaking, I can hardly see myself taking pictures of colourful sunsets with B&W film.

But the rainy season started in Arizona. It can go through September and if rain is steady would give the desert fauna and flora the moisture to survive the rest of the year.

Suddenly, the usual 8-10% humidity pushes up to 50%, and amazing thunderstorms break the big skies. In the afternoon, heavy rain can happen along with lightning and hail. The winds can gust to 40 miles an hour, and dust storms called haboob would turn the day into a dark night. Add to all this the flash flood and the monsoon season in Arizona becomes one of the most amazing time for the desert to metamorphose.

So, I decided to take a few photos of the first rain. There are photographers who wait for this season and travel the state, including the Grand Canyon to capture the spectacular lightning storms. My mechanical cameras are not apt to capture these, so my appreciation is not imprinted on 60 ASA film but my memory.

Still, the clouds and the rain let me use B&W film to show the magic of a desert storm.

PS/ The above photo is posted in a large size so the tonal range of film can be appreciated with the various shades of light in the clouds. Please look at the photo full screen to appreciate why some of us still cling on to film!

 July 22, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

July 4th, 2020 in Prescott, Arizona

The Covid-10 pandemic made street photography impossible. Well, unless one wanted to take pictures of empty streets, the past 3 months have seen no gatherings allowing a street photographer to capture moments of peoples’ behavior.

And that is good, of course.

However, lately many states in the US have relaxed the rules regarding celebrations and gatherings. The 4^th of July is a special national holiday and our cowboy town in Arizona allowed its celebration. So, I put on my mask and took my 1954 Leica IIIF RD with me.

Since there was no parade, my goal was to capture a few moments that made this 4^th of July special.

This photo captures the “attitude” in Prescott in July 2020. I wanted to have the riding cowboy statue on the right as well as the flags flapping in the wind on the left. The focus was on the two people wearing masks while blurring the background showing the crowd. I used a f5.6 aperture and a 1/100^th second shutter speed. Given the strong sun, I was hoping to get the blurring with the flags movement and the background.

In fact, it did work out that way because I love using FSU lenses that are still cost friendly and full of unpredictability! Yes, my Leica came with a Summar lens but I never liked its softness. So the lens I took with me on this 4^th of July is a 1954 Russian Industar. I like the softness on the edges it provides when open wide.

Ok, no B&W photographer can resist taking a picture of a spotted Great Dane! Again, I wanted to push the lens as far as I could, so this is with f3.5 aperture and a shutter speed of 1/75^th of a second. The very blurry but soft and well transitioned bokeh (background) gives the moment a character of doubt. Perhaps many who were downtown on this day were indeed still wondering when we may get back to the “good ol’ days”. So the Grate Dane photo has a 2020 mood.

Finally, this was the first photo I took on July 4^th, early morning when I was walking my dog. The artists’ kiosks were organized around the town square and this woman was just putting her mannequins out to display the hats she makes. It was a lonesome moment right after sunrise and I wanted to have a 4^th of July without any crowd. Just this artist and her mannequins. I think I took this photo with f3.5 and 1/50^th second shutter speed.

… So, these photos have been as much about the 2020 4^th of July as about the Leica I cherish and my experimentation with the FSU lenses.

But need to mention one more thing about the camera – it is a 1954 Red Dial and timer Leica IIIF with a serial number of 710933. I bought this many decades ago from a collector who could not sell it at the price he was hoping for given the small dent under the “Germany” engraving. 

What is special about this camera is that it belongs to only 5000 out of the 180,000 Leica IIIFs because it was made/assembled in Canada rather than in Germany.  These models are highly collectible and according to the Leica archives:

“Only 1000 Leica IIF ELC/RD serial number 71001 – 711000 were made in Midland, Canada in 1954”

Add a simple Russian designed-made in the Ukraine lens to it and you never know what surprises will slowly appear in the developing tray under a red light!

July 5, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020

Cairo, Egypt -- a Personal View Angle

The pandemic has given me time to organize my studio. In the process, predictably, I have found printed photos, documents and film negatives that I had stored away for quite a while.

A couple of days ago I was delighted to rediscover 35mm negatives from my trips to Cairo, which were for professional reasons. As in all my trips around the globe, I always found time to walk the streets for ethnophotography, or at least street photography.

Using my 1950s enlarger I decided to print a few of the photos, thinking that after almost 20 years much would have changed in that ancient city and some of the shots may be almost documentary.

The photo at the top of this page is a typical composition. Using ASA 60 film and a 1954 Canon L3 rangefinder camera, the feel is typical for film photography.

The hot summer evenings are hazy in Cairo. Yet the street walk remains delightful and gives the feel of walking in a different time, at a different tempo. I probably took this shot at the slow speed of 1/25^th second.

The modern and the traditional mix well if one has the curiosity to see and appreciate it. This young man on a bicycle and the movement of the car frozen at again slow shutter speed give a contrast to the leisurely walk of perhaps a family in the background.

The Nile and its tributaries have been the lifeline for Cairo since the beginning of times. This photo, with all the shades and tonal transition only film can deliver so smoothly is of a woman in a house boat. Again, a shot taken on a hazy evening just around sunset.

But there are also more luxury boats on the Nile. This one seems like a floating restaurant.

The city, its people and the traditional ways of going through the days are shown in the next two photos. First, a street sweeper who always takes his time – after all, there will be dust and debris every day, why hurry?

And a look at the rooftops probably from my hotel room. This was the era of satellite dishes that bloomed like wildflowers in the desert.

The museum is a central attraction. The sarcophagi, carvings, paintings, statues and other artifacts of Egypt’s rich history are there for a moment of transport into times we still do not fully understand and explain. While photography inside the museum is not allowed, this shot from the outside of the building give a perspective often not found in touristy promotions. The relaxed attitude of the soldier fits well with the heat and hazy surroundings.

Finally, the close quarter living that is so typical of ancient cities where over millennia layer upon layer the city has rebuilt and used every inch of its space to accommodate the growing population. To me, the photo of the horse and carriage, along with the buildings in shape of a honey comb represent the delightful times I have spent in Cairo.

June 4, 2020

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2020