Monday, January 17, 2011

Wet day


Light, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Birches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Balloon, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Street, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

It rained today, quite a change from the -15 °C temperature two days ago. The first and second photograph above show the same subject, a bit differently framed, than in the posting from day before yesterday. Can you spot the difference in the mood?

And can you spot the balloon (very much expired) in the fourth photograph from today?

I have been pondering Vivian Maier - not the exhibited photographs, but those which seem to be bypassed by Maloof. This pondering was caused by the interview of Maloof, which contained this: "From the mid 1970's through 1995, she definitely has a change in style. She switches to color in the mid 70's, uses a 35mm camera (mostly a Leica), and I get the feeling that she is seeing the world differently at that time. Her work becomes more abstract in some respects, but also very literal in others. I'll explain. Her abstract work often involves found objects either on the curb, in a garbage can or a similar setting. Some are quite good but there are so many that just leaving me scratching my head as to what she was trying to get across with the picture."

I would very much like to see these photographs, to try to see what see was aiming for late in her "career". Maybe it was nothing, but maybe it was ... mastery of her art.

Another source for information about Maier is here.

4 comments:

Markus Spring said...

Juha, "snow" reminded me very much of Astrid Lindgren's story "The Tomten" and its illustrations by Harald Wiberg. Is she popular in Finland, too?

Juha Haataja said...

I haven't seen (at least don't remember seeing) that book. But she is indeed very popular in Finland. I went ahead and reserved the book (in a Finnish translation, "Kotitonttu") from the library, the children might like it.

Markus Spring said...

I remember that my father (he was an arts teacher) brought it from a library, and the family read it together on winter evenings. And it was one of the first winter books I bought for my daughter when she was 3 or 4. So I'd be curious if your kids will enjoy it.

Juha Haataja said...

I just remembered this - indeed, I borrowed the book from the library, and the children did like it, it was a catchy story.

Funnily enough, the same story was in another children's book, this one quite recent, and it had very different illustrations there (brighter colors...). I think I like the old one better.