Reinventing Photography (Again): Infrared, the Magic Camera, HDR and Point of View

by Joe Nalven
 

'Travel' Photography in San Diego Art Galleries and Museums
If you walk down Prospect Street in La Jolla, you'll see some truly amazing landscape and animal photography. Thomas D. Mangelsen's and Peter Lik's art galleries indulge large format photographic nature images that are face-mounted with plexiglass.

Around the corner on Girard Avenue, the Joseph Bellows' gallery features rotating photography exhibits, often in black and white and often featuring different times and places. Scott White's gallery occasionally exhibits photography from unusual perspectives.

In Balboa Park, the Museum Of PhotographicArt, will occasionally feature a travel photographer's photographic insights. The same can be anticipated at The Art of Photography Show that exhibits annually at the San Diego Art Institute.
The San Diego County Fair Photography Exhibit embraces photographs from other countries, other cultures.

The Art Concept in 'Travel' Photography 
Why do some look with disapproval at 'travel' photography? Perhaps it is the stereotype of tourists taking photos of themselves in 'foreign' locations. Perhaps there is the too-early discounting of innovation and imagination simply because there is the literal viewing of the location and not the art.

With those biases in mind, I took two different cameras on my travels to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador - one camera was a dedicated digital infrared Nikon, the other a point-and-shoot Samsung that I refer to as my 'magic' camera. You'll understand why shortly.

As most artists claim, there ought to be a personal vision that marks the art style as one's own. This is a Rembrandt. This is an Andy Warhol. This is an Ansel Adams. This is a Joe Nalven. Especially when one goes public and exhibits in public spaces. 

So, how can an infrared image and one from a 'magic' camera be a platform for a distinct photographic vision?  Clearly, the camera is a tool, just like a paintbrush. The paintbrush did not make a Rembrandt, but Rembrandt used a paintbrush to make a Rembrandt-style painting. The same with a camera of whatever make or technology.

There are considerations of lighting, perspective, postprocessing and the like.

Still, there are starting points that can provoke a different conversation about what is it that we are looking at (the curiosity factor) and why (the vision factor). This is part of the challenge of differentiating one's images from the thousands of other photographs of the same location. How can one create an image that goes to the essence of the place in a way that others have missed or not seen? Perhaps that is a bit overstated, but that is where the photographer (and perhaps all artists) would like to travel to - not physically, but part of one's aesthetic.

Here the infrared camera provides a distinct look and invites the viewer to engage with the novelty, which, if done well, rises to the level of 'good' art. The dark early morning sky and the austere light falling on the buildings and surrounding mountains offer a more somber understanding of Quechua culture and its historical isolation. (Note: The 'Inca' are the kings that ruled Quechua culture.)

Joe Nalven   /  Machu Picchu, Early Morning (Infrared, 2013)

Bruce Gregory visited Peru last July with his infrared camera. Here is how he approached the open tombs at Ninamarca.

Bruce Gregory, Open Tombs, Ninamarca, Peru (Infrared, 2012)

Other Approaches:  HDR and the 'Magic' Camera
A quite different approach relies on brash color. In one direction, the fascination is with HDR images. Photoshop uses a filter to approximate the more complex and tedious method of true HDR. Bruce Gregory also uses HDR to set apart his photography.

Of his IR and HDR image treatment, Gregory notes: "I find that the use of a different visual perspective doesn't override the necessity to make an interesting photograph; it enhances an interesting photo, but does not make a bad photo a good photo. Blurring the lines of photography and illustration makes the viewer engage with the image and make decisions about the content and the presentation.  I still work with conventional images but enjoy mixing techniques to enhance the visual engagement."

Bruce Gregory, Napa Water Tower (2013 HDR)

I decided to take my 'magic' camera instead of a second digital DSLR. Part of my reasoning had to do with climbing Machu Picchu with two cumbersome cameras. However, as I learned in the field, sometimes technology can open the door to a warmer conversation with those being photographed.

The Camera as a Point of Entry into Another's Culture

The traveller's-eye view of men and women is not satisfying. A man might spend his life in trains and restaurants and know nothing of humanity at the end. To know, one must be an actor as well as a spectator. Aldous Huxley

 

Example of taking a painting / oil painting app (taken as a vertical image/playback is horizontal)

You've heard of some cultures that believe taking one's photograph is about stealing one's soul. In Andean culture, I noticed a "here comes the North American with his camera" attitude and a turning away from being photographed.  However, with my point-and-shoot, the individual was intrigued with how the image evolved on the LCD screen. (See example above.) It didn't look like a photograph; it looked like a painting. And, it wasn't just seeing the final 'painting,' but watching the painting unfold as if it were being drawn and colored on the LCD screen. "Amazing."  "Wow." A big smile. This camera invited wonder rather than antagonism.  Removing that barrier added to the photographic image in an unanticipated way.

Of course, to rise to the level of 'good' art, the image requires the same compositional strengths that an ordinary camera produced in the hands  of artist.  Same bottom line, but a different pathway. 
Here are two contrasting painting applications that this camera includes. Of course, I could always take a photorealistic image, but sometimes a different look is worth trying out.
I love fools' experiments. I am always making them. Charles Darwin

Joe Nalven, Street Scene, La Paz, Bolivia (Posterizing App  2013)

The mechanical (or electronic) process might be offsetting, but then the image  is subjected to additional processing in an image editing program to further enhance the image.

Joe Nalven, Inaida at Pisac (Oil Painting App, 2013)

These reflections are about discovering and making intriguing images - perhaps by traveling to places we find exotic, perhaps by taking some different image-making tools, but always in dialogue with oneself about whether these are visions worth pursuing.

You can preview a collection of my Andean infrared images, Andes Infrared.

In addition, you can preview my collection of Andean images taken with a 'normal' camera - TheVisible Andes.

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