- cross-posted to:
- photography@fedia.io
- cross-posted to:
- photography@fedia.io
De-Electrification, Philadelphia. PA, 2005.
All the pixels, none of the voltage at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2155416560
#photography
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@mattblaze@federate.social This one really grabbed me, as I was scrolling by. Very nice image.
These (de-electrified) catenary wires were captured with a Sinar P camera and a 180mm lens on Polaroid 55 film (scanned) along the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s “high line” in west Philadelphia near the university.
This abstract composition references a 1936 painting, “Electrification”, by precisionist artist Ralston Crawford; see https://hirshhorn.si.edu//collection/artwork/?edanUrl=edanmdm:hmsg_72.75
Precisionism, a roughly century-old modernist American art movement related to cubism, is a strong influence on my work. Its practitioners included Joseph Stella, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Charles Demuth. Paul Strand was probably the most prominent precisionist photographer.
Precisionism is concerned with structure and geometry as well as the relationship between humans, machines, and the industrial landscape.
I’m interested in how the precisionists might interpret the world as it’s become today.
@mattblaze@federate.social
I’ve always loved this Lewis Hine photo – Power House Mechanic (1920-21); in fact, I was able to use it as the cover image for my first book about labor in 19th-century literature and culture.
#LewisHine
#Photography
#Work@cindyweinstein@mastodon.world Yes, that’s such a great photo, so perfectly composed.
@mattblaze@federate.social
Thank you for sharing your expertise I didn’t know about “precisionism” but thought this photo might capture what you were getting at. Does it?
@cindyweinstein@mastodon.world It also always reminded me of Demuth’s “I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold”. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488315
@cindyweinstein@mastodon.world It does!
@mattblaze@federate.social
yay. I wonder if you think any Surrealists – I’m thinking of Magritte, in particular, what with all of his lines and frames within frames – fits your understanding of precisionism. I am very interested in photography and have spent time thinking and writing about Riis and Magritte, which is why I’m asking. Thanks, in advance.
