American Landscape series no. 4 ~

February 18, 2016 / Marilyn Davis / Leave a comment

American-Landscape-series-no.-4

I love glass bricks because I find color and form intoxicating and exuberant. This is one of my earliest and most successful glass-brick photographs; it was juried into the LaGrange Biennial (Georgia), a national art exhibit, in 1998—probably the most competitive show I was ever in. I can only hope to do as well again someday. This photograph was taken at a fast-food chain restaurant in Carbondale; many people may be able to read or recognize the sign. Pentax K-1000.

Steak ‘n Shake table and chairs no. 1

I’ve been having a good time playing with an iPhone photograph I took of tables and chairs at a Steak ‘n Shake in Goodland, Kansas. (I certainly took a lot more iPhone pix on my trip than I remembered having done.) Above is the version I like best. It’s highly cropped, with a watercolor filter applied, vibrance ramped up, blue ramped up. My favorites among the photographs I take tend to be those that look most like abstract paintings or that are clearly influenced by abstract painting. Applying a filter can, on rare occasions, turn an image into something more interesting. It also can, on rare occasions, save an image that is not sharp enough to work as a conventional photograph and make it worthwhile.

Here are two crops without the watercolor filter, and below those, the original photograph. I’m interested in feedback, so vote for your favorite if you’re so inclined. As a bonus, here’s a video of Lucinda Williams singing “Am I Too Blue.”