Dec 20, 2011

Smile For the Camera!

Tess's Magpie prompt this week is a photograph by Lee Friedlander which seems to break some of the conventional rules . . .




Somebody needs Cartier-Bresson
to give him a snap-shooting lesson.
Her face is obscure -
and that shadow! For sure,
adds up to cheesy expression.

.

 . . but then, as Marshall McLuhan sagely remarked, "Art is anything you can get away with."

Many worthier Magpies can be read HERE.
or read about the French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson.


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15 comments:

  1. Frances GarroodDecember 20, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    Very neatindeed! But are you sure it's a woman? There's something very ...maculine? ...about it. Creepy.

    Oh, and happy Christmas!

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  2. izzyDecember 20, 2011 at 2:15 PM

    I do identify with a complaint about the off-set-snapshot ! But then height does have something to do with it-the photographer was a bit shortsighted -?!

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  3. HelenDecember 20, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    I had to laugh at your Mag ... my mother was NOTORIOUS for snapping photos ~ missing the upper portions of our heads! She definitely needed those lessons!

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  4. Kathe W.December 20, 2011 at 5:54 PM

    off with their heads? great- hilarious and twisted but then.....I wouldn't expect less!
    Merry Christmas!

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  5. dsDecember 20, 2011 at 8:22 PM

    HA!!

    Merry Christmas!

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  6. ChristineDecember 20, 2011 at 8:50 PM

    Good one!!

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  7. IntelliblogDecember 21, 2011 at 2:16 AM

    Yes it was a pretty dodgy image... Good one! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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  8. AnonymousDecember 21, 2011 at 8:55 AM

    Yes, art can be just an excuse for anything.
    Keep the madness going in 2012!

    Jamie

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  9. Ann GrenierDecember 21, 2011 at 2:11 PM

    I really enjoyed reading about Henri Cartier-Bresson. His mantra "the decisive moment" is interesting to ponder and a bit scary... makes you look back for such moments in one's own life.

    This photo is ugly, yet intriguing. Friedlander's breaking the rules of photography was apparently part of his success in his early career, but wore thin eventually(per Wikipedia). How ironic, when so many these days believe they will achieve success and fame in just that way.

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  10. Doctor FTSEDecember 21, 2011 at 2:22 PM

    Thanks Ann. Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" pictures are not so easy to get these days when taking a photograph in the street/shopping mall/public park is considered to be a form of terrorism - or child molestation if there happen to be any wee-ones around.

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  11. jabblogDecember 21, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    Indeed, art is anything you .can get away with - the Turner Prize, for example - not all bad, but some execrable

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  12. JinksyDecember 22, 2011 at 8:10 AM

    If beauty can be said to be in the eye of the beholder, why not art? Guess I don't see eye to eye with Friedlander! *smiles* Your advice to him is sound, if a trifle tardy...

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  13. AnonymousDecember 22, 2011 at 2:20 PM

    Well put.

    I am still contemplating the shadow!

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  14. HelenaDecember 22, 2011 at 8:39 PM

    I knew you'd give me the 'biggest smile, Maggie style.....!X

    ps.....in case I'm not around, I'll wish you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS now....xxx

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  15. philDecember 23, 2011 at 2:15 AM

    Ha! Wonderful.

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