Quest, shuns, and sir

Graphic means a printing process where the same  image can be consistently  reproduced multiple times.

Since computers “a graphic”  has become a common term referring to a visual image often which  appears on an electronic device screen or some kind of a “designed” image unprinted materials, such as a logo.

What about content? Professionally I was a graphic designer, pre and post computer, and for  the  offset printer “the art” were the materials I supplied (into the work flow) called “camera ready art”  which  the printer  used  in another photographic process to make film  used  to expose on the printing plates which were photographically processed, mounted the press, inked and used to print (transfer the ink)  the same image over and over called the press run. It different than the “Art”  in History of  Art class.

/*This was made as a large poster so you cannot see the green sign in the bottom row, second column, which says “No Dogs Allowed.”*/

When people think of a photograph they do not think of a “ printing process” but as an image of something “real.”When most people experience a “photograph” their response is to think “What is it?” Or more precisely, What is it that is REALLY happening in this “REAL MOMENT” of time?

In that sense also the photograph is not something that will happen, but something that has happened, different  from an image printed  on a Tarot card  or naturally appearing  in your tea cup which may be  interpreted to predict the future.

Am I measuring a moment in my life,  doubling it  or just so busy making it  that I miss the experience of life?

Does it matter whether it is 1/125 second or 1/500 second? Or which lens I used?  it might  if the light is different. But what if  I was using words to lie to you? Would you still know the truth just by looking at the image and ignoring the words? Would you consider  using an image in a photograph to lie to you worse than using words?

I could show you photographic images of  a “Real San Francisco,”  then again maybe you would not believe me, you would shout “Fake News, Fake News, Bias, Bias ” and I would say “Don’t look!”

Or close more lookly . . .a real event in a real place once afternoon

When you see a photograph you want to know what it is, you want to have words to describe the experience, but  I want you, when you see it, to just experience just the visual experience, that is for you alone but once you put it into words something outside of you is modifying your experience by giving you answers to questions usually before you have developed the questions—it is defining the experience for you before you can experience your experience.

In a sense this is OK, its the process of culture which arises from human behaviour  an homogenizing process which enables  people to behave similar enough that society can develop and maintain.

If I tell you yo , Chicago, Fall, 1969, SDS Days of Rage, does it make you feel any different about the image?

or  this one , a little earlier, just  around the corner . . .

Using a photographic image to make a pattern can create a different experience, it is a pattern made using an image of my shadow of me holding a camera . . .

Or using a photographic image of a screen capture  to make a pattern . . .

Is a screen capture a photograph?  Using  light it creates a digital piece of information which can be used  to “print” the same image consistently, not on paper but an image using light on an  electronic  “monitor.” And, as an added benefit you can send it to the printer and get a different image.

While electronic monitors may be basically the same, the appearance of the image printed them may be different from monitor to monitor because of many factors.

It boggles my eyes to think all this, maybe, just looking know thinking,  is less confusing.

And a “printed on paper” image while similar when printed from the same printer at the same time, will vary from printer to printer. Is the truth in an image just  in the unique personal experience or the culturally defined experience?  Or a unique combination of both . . .

Where then is there any truth in a photograph?

Which is the more important experience,  the experience of making the print—which the artist gets to do— or the experience of seeing the print? which both the artis and others share.

Is it any different,  for me, to experience my pottery by using it or experiencing  a photograph of it, or a  poster design of photographs of it?

There is the McLuhan story of two women who meet, one pushing a baby in a carriage. The first woman remarks,  “What a beautiful child,” to which the mother replies, “Oh but you should see photograph!”

Can you tell something about me when you see these photographs? Would I murder, steal or rob? Would I lie to you? Would I do a good job  if you hired me? Would you let in your cab? Would yolk me in your bed?

I too used to contemplate these questions . . .

Then again, and again, and again, I forget to remind myself to forget, I am just a passerby, a  mapless soul wondering from this moment to that, I to judge am whom?

There is so much more to appreciate in human beings.