‘No, I take that back. He’s a “photographer’s painter.” His painterly impulse registers in the relatively short history of photography — especially in the by-now ancient movement known as the New Topographics.’
A little more on the New Topographics here:
‘A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas gave way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance.’
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What’s it all for? From the HyperAllergic review:
‘The New Topographics may have documented the upward mobility of the folks who put money down on the dream package, but to the cynical eye of the loner-photographer, hungry for the authenticity of the street and the volatility of the “instant,” these sterile neighborhoods represented a road to nowhere. This happens to be the nowhere where the Kreimer generation, of which I am a part, was conceived, born, and, in my case, plopped in front of the TV.’
Meh. Addition: From the video:
‘For me, it’s really the antithesis of nature photography. You’re finally allowing the place, of tranformation, of indecision, of bad planning to begin to come in as a subject. which isn’t only political, but radical in its relationship to ideas of landscape photography.’
Oh boy, I smell the ripe bloom of political ideology. Since we’re talking political ideology, couldn’t a libertarian just as easily say: ‘I love the deep metaphysics behind just letting the marketplace do what it does: Creating supply-chains and driving down prices while unleashing the creative energies of consumers, private entities and public planners into a madcap mishmash of competing buildings, spaces and architectural styles. It’s this simple release of demanding that everything must have meaning into which we often experience what is most deeply meaningful: Family, freedom, opportunity, time, boredom. I find beauty all around me, and refuse to demand that it conform to some preconceived notion of political order. postmodern theory and/or radical change’
Addition: Or, you know, ANY political ideology. If that’s what you’re bringing to your own works of art, you’re doing it wrong. Join a school if you must, and be influenced and imitate and learn, but if that school has a political ideology, I trust all people with wits to drop the political ideology like a bad habit…
================================ From Kreimer’s profile page:
‘Landscapes and abstractions seamlessly relate as he explores the terrain between the two. Lush color combinations applied in quick, fluid strokes are built into dense layers to create windows into Kreimer’s environments, both recognizable and contemplative.’
I like artists capable of playing with the ‘forms:’ mathematical precision and abstraction while indulging the eye and calling attention the way the eye and mind might be making sense of the world. Unsurprisingly, I also just like landscapes that remind of the things I’ve known and places I’ve seen. The initial pleasure of recognizing the known and familiar (even if less than ‘pretty’ to look at) and the reassurance of memory keeps me engaged before I’m possibly taken elsewhere. Let’s go elsewhere…look again. Now, look again. Any thoughts and comments are welcome. ***As an aside: Having photographers and artists in my family, I’ve noticed they can bristle against the assumptions viewers sometimes bring to their photos, usually proportional to the effort and time spent in making a good photograph. Composition, color, light, presentation and line can make or break a photo, and just maybe the artist’s desire for the ineffable within that moment in time when it all ‘clicked’ so to speak, cries out for some recognition. I usually forgive such trespass, because I’ve known these impulses myself, and no one I’ve known seemed in danger of becoming an insufferable ‘artiste’ full-time, criticizing the unsophisticated eye of the audience while perhaps simultaneously craving its gaze. Perhaps there’s a whiff of the ‘Is this all there is?’ lament millions of Americans (especially adolescents) understandably come to. They’re hungry for tradition, experience, meaning, broader purpose etc. Related On This Site: Roger Scruton says keep politics out of the arts, and political judgment apart from aesthetic judgment…this includes race studies/feminist departments/gay studies etc.: Roger Scruton In The American Spectator Via A & L Daily: Farewell To Judgment Goya’s Fight With Cudgels and Goya’s Colossus. A very good Goya page here. Joan Miro: Woman… Goethe’s Color Theory: Artists And Thinkers…Some Quotes From Kant And A Visual Exercise A Reaction To Jeff Koons ‘St John The Baptist’ Denis Dutton suggests art could head towards Darwin (and may offer new direction from the troubles of the modern art aimlessness and shallow depth) Review of Denis Dutton’s ‘The Art Instinct’