Does a single photograph show what was there?

[ColinM]

Can it convey how you felt being there?

Strange question, that arose after I went to see an exhibition of David Hockney's work last weekend.
First, lets confirm the right of Hockney to be discussed in this forum


His work includes both paintings and drawing, as well as ones made with cameras, plus other devices like video and iPad art. There was one striking quote from him saying how he preferred the use of a painting to convey the experience of being in a place, the sense of movement and time.



I'm sure Hockney has plenty of standard photographs in his albums at home. But I still find his use of joiners (going way back to the 1980's) refreshing. Whilst a single photograph may use movement blur to add expression, I love the use of a series of photos to pick up different angles within a scene, or different events as they unfolded over time.



And I love the way that our brains can make use of strands of information to fill in the apparent gaps in a scene


Some of you will already have seen many of these before. It's hard to find versions of these images online that convey the quality of the originals at the exhibition, but I hope you get the idea.

I came away from seeing these with my eyes opened slightly wider to the world around me.
I'd be interested to know if any of you have been tempted to use multiple images to convey a different effect than a single one and to see the results.

[David H. Hartman]

Convey...

2. to communicate; impart; make known:
to convey a wish.

3. to lead or conduct, as a channel or medium; transmit.

Yes, no, maybe...

Imperfectly if the photograph is successful.

Dave Hartman

[golunvolo]

Yes, but not like this. It was an experiment on space that lacked the sense of time I can see on this compositions. I find them very, very interesting, maybe because they are new for me, both the technique and the artist. I'll keep the idea somewhere to be use of needed

  Thanks for sharing!

[Akira]

Apparently his Photomerge is quite buggy.　

Joke aside, his image of the Ryoan-ji stone garden in Kyoto was the one that made me interested in the stitching.  Your post here reminded me of that.

Thanks, Colin!

[Lorne]

Thanks for the reminder, Colin. I remember being fascinated after seeing Pearlblossom Highway in a photo magazine in the late ’80’s. It's deceptively simple technique that has eluded me so far. Time to take another go and see what I come up with.

[armando_m]

Apparently his Photomerge is quite buggy.　　；D

Joke aside, his image of the Ryoan-ji stone garden in Kyoto was the one that made me interested in the stitching.  Your post here reminded me of that.

Thanks, Colin!

LOL!! Good one Akira!

Colin,
 I find this images  realy creative, thanks for sharing

[ColinM]

Thanks guys for your thoughts.

I love the photomerge and stitching comments . I don't know when people first joined photos together in software, or who else did joiners like these, but seeing the original artwork reminds you that Hockney sat there with a seemingly primitive Polaroid camera taking 50, 100 or more images, waiting a minute or so for each to self-develop then played with them like incomplete jigsaw pieces till an overall picture emerged.

I'm guessing he had far more experiments that didn't quite work out.
He later tried the same approach shooting direct on 35mm film and arranging the results "when they came back from the chemist". These didn't feel so effective and I'm sure the lag between taking and seeing the results was a factor.

And curiously, he later took the technique back into his painting and built up pictures from a series of separate images



And whilst I'm not usually too connected with actual moving images, it was interesting to stand in a room where the unfolding of winter, spring, summer and autumn was taking place on each of the four walls around you.

This is just 5 minutes and shows the use of multiple video cameras

[ColinM]

Here's a longer documentary on Joiners from several years ago.
It describes some of the reasons why Hockney experimented with the still joiners shown in the first post above, and how he approached it.

25 minutes, not for everyone but might give you some ideas to play around with.
If you want the short version, skip to 10:00

(and by the way, thank you to NG for giving us this "Life, the Universe & Everything Else" space

[Lars Hansen]

Very interesting Colin - thanks for sharing!

15 years ago I went to a Hockney exhibition here i Denmark - I saw his huge Grand Canyon paintings also made by a series of separate paintings. The scale was very effective when standing in front of them. I was also fascinated by his special use of perspective in his English landscapes and a Mexican hotel courtyard. His flower paintings was also interesting.

Whilst a single photograph may use movement blur to add expression, I love the use of a series of photos to pick up different angles within a scene, or different events as they unfolded over time.

   

I agree - very fascinating with those extra dimensions.   

[ColinM]

15 years ago I went to a Hockney exhibition here i Denmark - I saw his huge Grand Canyon paintings also made by a series of separate paintings. The scale was very effective when standing in front of them.

Thanks Lars.
I feel with both photographic images and paintings, there's something special in seeing them in printed form, ideally big enough to allow you to immerse yourself in them.

I was also struck with the extra detail and richness of colour in some of the paintings I saw 'live' compared to the versions both in books and online. Luckily my budget will never make this a decision I have to worry about

[Les Olson]

In Martin Gayford's book of conversations with Hockney, A Bigger Message (p118), there is a story about Hockney meeting Annie Leibowitz in the 1990s and asking her if she was using digital cameras, and she said, yes, you had to to do magazine work.  And Hockney replied, "Isn't it nice to be back painting again?".   

Hockney's idea was that digital imaging is more like painting than like chemical photography: "Photography is just a blip in a longer history.  Now it's coming to an end.  We are moving out of what we thought photography was and back to painting". 

To answer your original question, why would I be interested in how you felt being there?

[ColinM]

Thanks for the background Les.

To answer your original question, why would I be interested in how you felt being there?

I guess it was clumsily worded. After looking at the techniques above, I felt that in some cases, the end result conveyed more than a single image would have done. Of course joiners would look messy in a newspaper/magazine, or on a web page where single images excel.

Just interested in what other people thought.

[Lars Hansen]

I was also struck with the extra detail and richness of colour in some of the paintings I saw 'live' compared to the versions both in books and online. Luckily my budget will never make this a decision I have to worry about

No worries here either... 

Yes, the rich color also struck me. I'd really like to experience his paintings once more - including his big four seasons you refer to.