“The first time I really noticed a ceiling lamp was in a hotel lobby in Uniontown, Ohio. I was intrigued by how it looked when I stood directly below it; from that perspective it was an abstract kaleidoscope and didn‘t resemble the functional object that I had viewed from the side. As I lay on the lobby floor, studying the lamp, I decided to produce this portfolio.
Whenever I consider this project completed, I see another lamp that excites my imagination. Everywhere I go, I still find myself looking up.“
Cole Thompson
please go now and see this series… http://www.flickr.com/photos/80238150@N00/sets/72157623172073777/
I took the photograph above (ISO 400, 1/250, f 8), but I did not have the idea. Cole Thompson had the idea. He has made a beautiful portfolio of photos of ceiling lamps. Please go to his blog and his website and check out his work. His blog is here: http://www.photographyblackwhite.com/. His photographs are soulful and thoughtful. On his Flickr page he was asked how much retouching is done to make these photos of ordinary ceiling lamps looks so beautiful and clean. I decided to see what was involved. The photo above is hardly retouched at all. I simply pointed the camera up, focused and fired. I edited out a small amount of ambient light around the light (very little) and adjusted the contrast a bit, no more than I do for any photo on this blog. I find this photograph very satisfying even though I didn‘t have the idea.
The feeling I have is the same I would have if I sang Let It Be well. It feels great to make a unique image and have a new idea, but there is still something valuable in making any art. Something in me rises to meet the opportunity to be creative. Another artist I admire is Andy Goldsworthy. There are whole websites devoted to people recreating and refashioning and spring-boarding off his amazing art. Very little art, and no science that I know of, arises in a vacuum. It is all derivative, and that is one of its greatest strengths. Art and science are both wholly human activities, because they both reference previous work. In other words, art connects itself to what happened before. I love that.
In September of this year I photographed a Les Lyden painting that hangs in our home (http://www.bendlight.me/2010/09/). I sent Les (I feel I can now call him Les, which is the big point I am slowly driving to here) a note about the posts. We had a great conversation about his work, mine. We got to know each other a bit, connected.
This blog, my writing, art (for me), life, is a process of connecting. I am looking for myself, my heart. I am looking for you. I am looking for that which holds us together even as we live our lives alone together. In the end (and in the beginning) it is the process of giving and receiving love. I am grateful for Cole Thompson‘s work, for what it stirred in me and for what I did after experiencing it.
do you have a photo of the lamp from the side?
Hmmm. no i don’t. would probably help to be able to visualize this.
Amazing photo and I love the piece on creativity.
Connecting, light, shape, form, very nice…
B