The Judgement of Paris – a talk at the AGA
Ross King
Yesterday, Sunday October 23rd 2011, I attended a talk by author Ross King at the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) – very enjoyable!
Ross King is the author of a number of art history (and fiction) books, two of which I have in my collection. This talk based on King’s 2006 book “The Judgement of Paris”, coincides with current exhibitions at the AGA – A Passion for Nature: Landscape Painting from 19th Century France and 19th Century French Photographs.
The approach of King’s book and this talk was to compare two French painters in the mid-19th century, the time in which Impressionism was born. King presented a picture of the era, the time of Emperor Napoleon III. It was a a time of change, of modernization but also a time of tradition and a longing for the simplicity and stability of earlier times. The leading French painter of the time was the traditional painter Ernest Meissonier, a painter noted for his highly detailed depictions of battle scenes, a painter who was commanding the highest prices ever at the time! Ironically, his name is pretty much forgotten today while the artists and movement that were developing (and ridiculed) at the same time, are now the most broadly known of all time. I am speaking of Impressionism. King chose to contrast Meissonier with the generation younger Edouard Manet, who would become the supportive father figure to all of the famous names associated with French Impressionism.
The talk was just over an hour long (with a good question session), so King couldn’t go very deep or dig into all of the nuances of the time and these two artists. Still the talk was very interesting and inspiring – I will have to re-read Judgement of Paris some time soon.
Ross King’s other most notable book (for my tastes and interests) was his 2010 publication, Defiant Spirits, The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven which talks about the Canadian Group of Seven and significantly its ties to the French Impressionism. I reviewed that book in this earlier blog post.
Just a Couple of Seconds
The title of this post is “A Couple of Seconds”, as in two-second exposures. For all of the images that follow, I kept the shutter open for a full two seconds. I had recently been experimenting with “long” exposure of 1/4 to 1/2 of a second, during which I panned the camera. I was growing bored with that technique and once I acquired a variable neutral density filter for my wide angle lens I was able to slow down the exposure considerably more!
I was obviously not after nice, sharp images so these photos are also all handheld. Not only was I not worried about keeping the camera steady, I in fact moved the camera in a variety of ways during the exposure! One technique that I discovered worked quite well was to walk during the exposure. I believe that is what I did for this photo:
Abstract Landscape 305-309
No digital filter were used on that last and the next image. All I did was increase the contrast, exposure and color saturation a bit.
Abstract Landscape 305-308
On this next one, I incorporate a twist of the zoom lens during the exposure:
Abstract 305-316
This next one was a horizontal pan of the camera. With a 2-second exposure one must be careful not to move the camera to fast!
Beside the River (305-353)
This next one was produced by a rotational movement during the exposure
Abstract Landscape 305-372
Next a skyline sunset with a diagonal camera movement (still with the 2-second exposure)
Abstract 305-386
A final experiment, where I took the long exposure photo and applied a color infrared film filter from Color Efex 2.0, to further abstract the image.
Abstract Landscape 305-376
Architectural Black and White
Here are five black and white renditions of photos I took yesterday of and around the Edmonton Convention Centre (Shaw Conference Centre). These images focus on form:
Stairs
Edges
Concrete Cuboid
Hall D
Reflection in a Curved Wall
19th Century French Photography at the AGA
Today I paid a visit to the AGA (Art Gallery of Alberta) in Edmonton. The primary reason was to visit a new exhibit, 19th Century French Photographs. The show features 66 photos from the era that saw the birth of photography. I was fascinated by the historical description of the various technological developments in photography during that century. In fact I was a little embarrassed that I didn’t already know more of this history.
One of the things that excited me most about this exhibit is that it includes works by Eugene Atget, one of my favorite photographers. Truth be told, the half a dozen Atget prints were not as great as I would have hoped. He has captured some excellent depictions of French life in that era but I found the subject matter on the photos in this show to be just average.
This exhibit runs through to January 29th on the main floor of the AGA and I will definitely be back for a second look and especially to pay more attention to the photo technologies displayed
Also on display and worth a visit, on the main floor until January 29th is the Prairie Life exhibit, a display of two-dimensional works from the AGA’s collection.
I also made a second visit to the UP NORTH exhibit on the 3rd floor. It is interesting but I can’t say the installation pieces (a number of videos and found objects) really appeals to me like the photographs and paintings do. It is however worth a visit if you are at the AGA before it closes on January 8th 2012.
Randall Talbot - Artist 