Alexandra In Washington Square, New York
It seems more and more these days, as I look at photography and art, I am struck by how ordinary it seems. I recently wandered into a gallery on Bowery, and was fascinated by a striking painting technique. I thought: what a genius…the artist had modeled the figures of his subjects with broad paint strokes, visualizing their limbs as hollow interiors, showing a 3D mastery of subject such as I had never seen. I asked the gallerist and….it seems he uses programs and software to do the visualization, and then……he copies. What had struck me as an individual and exceptional method of personal expression and virtuosity was simply a cheat. As people become accustomed to these over the top, stimulatory cheats, they become progressively more insensitive to natural gradations of subtlety. This issue is prevalent in photography as well….especially my beloved street photography. Simplicity is a keynote that, as time goes on and we march into the future, few people seem to grasp these days.
SUZANNE STEIN PHOTOGRAPHY 
Action/reaction. .. flared loon pants/punk skinny jeans. Reaction to ‘tech’ is to keep it simple so ‘keeping it simple’
as a style is a result of tech. The genius of Miles Davis was his producer’s ‘cut and paste’ techniques in 1959. Warhol got others to paint for him. David Hockney now uses iPads to ‘paint’. I have the equivalent of a £90,000 recording studio on my pc that cost £400. Artists embrace tech (DSLR).
We cheat by cutting a corner across the grass. Humans seek out the ‘easy route’, because it’s ‘easier’. No art is bad; it stimulates thought.
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Definitely cheating I suppose when you put it that way! But….some art is bad I think….and you know the truth? I don’t think much about photography as a thought stimulating art form. Painting for me is much more evocative. When I take a picture it’s purely from the gut, with some abstract, detached compositional thought processes working in fore-and background in my mind.
Thanks for reading and commenting Paul! I can’t figure out how to follow your blog….trying!
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Great composition- liked the effective story telling, of Alexandra in the foreground and her friends holding back from joining her.
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