Sharp Focus February 2023

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Greetings, everyone

In my February article I wrote that those who had joined us for the ‘Beach’ outing were going to meet together on Saturday, 18^th to have some wine and snacks and to look at a selection of our images and choose what we thought were the best individual images, and who presented the best set of six images. The set had to be made up of the following topics chosen by Coral: Abstract; All creatures great and small; Colour; Reflections; Sand Patterns; Simplicity.

We had 33 images to choose from. Each person present had to choose what they thought were the best three. Well, the winner was Ceridwyn with her image for Simplicity, with 8 points. Jane came second with her image for Sand Patterns, with 6 points. Marian was third with her image for Reflections, with 3 points. Each one won a bar of Chocolate (of which I’m helping Ceridwyn devour as I don’t believe too much chocolate is good for her.)

The winner of the full set of 6 images was Jane, who won a window mount ‘StediLens’. Congratulations Jane, I hope it comes in handy for your trip to Addo.

 

For our March Theme ‘Abstract’ a photo shoot at Rhodes Memorial restaurant was arranged. Sadly only five of us turned up, but happily the weather and the cycle race were kind to us, and we were able to get to the restaurant and had a great time. It was so depressing seeing what was once a thriving restaurant now just a burnt out shell. What also added to that sense of depression was to see how neglected the Memorial had become.

I want to thank Marian for suggesting the venue and especially Coral for the way she organised the ‘Beach’ shoot, and also catered for both outings – one with wine and snacks, the other with coffee and hot cross buns.

See you on the 27^th if Eskom is kind to us.

Geoff

From the Editor’s desk

Hi, all

This month’s theme is “abstract”, and we already had an outing to Rhodes Memorial last week towards this end. For those of you deciding on which image to submit, or yet to go and get a photo (yours truly), here are some considerations. Please keep in mind that these are very much my view on the subject, and there will (always!) be judges who have contrary view-points. Also, forgive the lengthy explanation: I love the conceptual nerdery around the idea of abstract art.

There are two facets of “abstract” that often get conflated, but should not be – one is when something is abstract, the other is when something is abstracted.

abstracted
Let’s look at the latter first: abstraction (i.e. when something is abstracted) is when something is not entirely realistic, generally as the result of the medium or process interfering with clear imitation. Which implies that a noisy, or a slow-exposure, photograph has already started the journey towards abstraction!

Here’s a useful short explainer video that walks you through the concept of the abstract / abstraction in the fine arts: “…abstraction implies that the work still has roots in the physical.”

abstract
The video linked to above continues to explain pure abstract art in the following way: “…abstract art … has a clean break from reality, it is non-representational and does not represent any physical object”. The narrator does continue to posit that not everyone agrees with this interpretation, however – but let’s not go down that road at this stage.

Now as you know, the theme for this month is “abstracts” and not “abstracted” (or “semi-abstract” as an early Mondrian, late Picasso or a De Koonig [see first image below] are often called), which implies that what we want to see is a totally abstract image.

the rub
But here is the rub: if photography is pure representation (uniquely amongst the visual arts, traditional photographs are an all-too-real “footprint” of “that which was”, i.e. they are the result of the light radiating off something that exists and being captured by the light-sensitive elements within the camera, much as a footprint in the sand captures the actual passage of a foot), how does one attain total abstraction through photography? How does one attain this “clean break” from reality?

Well, one obvious step is to obscure realistic representation through technique, be it:

• slow exposure delegating recognisability to secondary importance (2nd image below) or creating unfamiliar results (3rd image below),
• unfamiliar juxtapositions (oil droplets on a CD, 4th image below) and/or scale (the Andres Serrano image, 5th below, combines the unfamiliarity of mixing body fluids together with the unfamiliar intimacy brought about by scale)
• framing that separates the visual result from context (last image)
• the use of post-processing to render the familiar unfamiliar (no example included) – for me this is often quite contentious, as it is not photography-as-design, but rather design-after-photography, though it must be acknowledged that normal procedures such as cropping, colour changes or contrast enhancements are essentially design changes applied to the photograph afterwards

And finally, there is:

• shooting “found” elements that immediately make us engage with their formal over their representational qualities (last image). This last one is a common approach in photo club – you will all recall last year’s wonderful craquelured paint photos from the car museum.

While one of the results of the techinques described above is to take us away from the immediacy of engaging with what was captured, it also has a much more important effect of making us engage with the formal elements of the image, i.e. as pure design. You are familiar by now with the formal properties: line, colour and tone, form, shape, texture/pattern. If you look at an image and are immediately guided to the interaction of these formal elements within the image, even when it is clearly representational, you are engaging with the formal, or abstract, qualities of the image.

This is not the same as when formal elements are used within a composition to guide your reading of the representational (such as a scape with lead-in lines), as in such instances they are in service of representation rather than emerging as elements within their own rights.

Finally, I wish to return to the fact that all five of the abstract photos below are seen as abstract despite being clearly representational: the important thing that happens with them (especially the last 4) is that you first apprehend, and engage with, their formal qualities before you engage with their representational qualities. Only then might you ask, “what could this be?”, or come to recognise how the technique enhances that which is represented (2nd and last photo) – but then you return, in the end, to engaging with the formal elements within the image. Essentially, you cannot get away from the representational aspect: just as the quality of the paint itself (i.e. the medium) is an unspoken formal element of painting (that is often center-staged through abstraction: think Jackson Pollock or Mark Rothko), the “footprint-in-the-sand” aspect (called indexicality) is a formal property of photography, i.e. it is an unavoidable truth about photography that it is always of something and, in that sense, the “clean break from reality” that was mentioned above, is not possible.

spotted in the wild
For those of you who, like me, were out shooting the Cape Town cycle race last week, you may have spotted a familiar face: our own Soulby Jackson. Hope you have recovered, Soulby!

Cheers
Peter

Winners of Image of the Month (October 2022)

Evaluation of Digital Photography
Digital Entries
Title	Category	Author	Star	Score	Award	Points
An upside down world	nature	marielouise cardwell	2	12	COM	4
Balance does it	Open	Maureen Miller	3	10	Gold	3
Building a home	Nature	Geoff Jamieson	4	11	Gold	3
Change of direction	Wildlife	Peter Franklin	3	13	COM	4
Diamond Cobweb	Nature	Marian Shinn	1	9	Gold	3
Dock of the bay	Open	Jane Bursey	3	10	Gold	3
Double collared Sunbird	Nature	Ceridwyn Jamieson	3	10	Gold	3
elefriends	wildlife	Lorne Sulcas	4	12	Gold	3
Evening on the beach	Open	Jane Bursey	3	10	Gold	3
Evening Reflections	Landscape	Ceridwyn Jamieson	3	11	Gold	3
Evening Stroll	Open	Geoff Jamieson	4	9	Silver	2
Eyes on Long Street	street	Marian Shinn	1	9	Gold	3
High rise	Architecture	Mike Wesson	1	8	Gold	3
Kalahari Drama	Nature	Didi Franklin	3	11	Gold	3
Kalk Bay Mountains	Landscape	Derek Goldman	4	11	Gold	3
Kestrel in waiting	Open	Peter Franklin	3	12	Gold	3
Lethal Weapons	wildlife	Didi Franklin	3	11	Gold	3
Love my Dog	Open	Johan Kloppers	MB	13	COM	4
Misty morning	Landscape	Derek Goldman	4	11	Gold	3
on patrol	wildlife	Lorne Sulcas	4	12	Gold	3
Peace Lily	Open	Lynn Toms	3	11	Gold	3
Peeping Eyes	Portraiture	Johan Kloppers	MB	12	Gold	3
power	street	Peter Brandt	MB	11	Silver	2
Serenity	Landscape	Lynn Toms	3	10	Gold	3
Serious grooming	nature	marielouise cardwell	2	11	Gold	3
State of the nation	PJ	Keith Lyle	4	12	Gold	3
Sunrise USA	Open	Mike Wesson	1	8	Gold	3
Sunset walk	Panorama	John Douglas	3	10	Gold	3
Turquoise pincushion	Pictorial	John Douglas	3	9	Silver	2
Wary	street	Peter Brandt	MB	10	Bronze	1

Evaluation of Theme Photography
Digital Entries
Title	Category	Author	Star	Score	Award	Points
A Peaceful Paddle	Theme	Evelyn Lyle	4	11	Gold	3
Back on the beach	Theme	Peter Franklin	3	11	Gold	3
Beach Colours	Theme	Derek Goldman	4	9	Silver	2
Beach fun	The Beach	Mike Wesson	1	9	Gold	3
Bend it like Beckham	Theme	Geoff Jamieson	4	10	Silver	2
Contemplation	Theme	Jane Bursey	3	10	Gold	3
Dreamy Beach days	Theme	Didi Franklin	3	9	Silver	2
Magical Evening	Theme	Ceridwyn Jamieson	3	10	Gold	3
on the bushveld beach	Theme	Lorne Sulcas	4	9	Silver	2
ready to run	Theme	Peter Brandt	MB	11	Silver	2
Rock walk	Theme	John Douglas	3	10	Gold	3
Sauna on the beach	Theme	Lynn Toms	3	10	Gold	3
Seadog Challenge	Theme	Keith Lyle	4	10	Silver	2
Sunrise swim	Theme	Maureen Miller	3	10	Gold	3
Textured Tide	Theme	Marian Shinn	1	10	Gold	3
The end of a good day	Theme	marielouise cardwell	2	10	Gold	3