Mowing Lawns and Firearms and Other Things

[Rick Waldroup]

Every now and then I come across some ususual work. Found a link to this guy's photographs on photonet.

What do you guys think?

Is it art?

http://www.gregstimac.com/

[Paulo]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. I like the 'roadside memorial'... Personally, I'm a believer that art is simply a form of individual expression. It will appeal (or not) and bring up emotions (or not) differently from one person to the next. Though I may not be inclined to purchase or even print/save these particular images, the natural simplicity of the recurring theme was intriguing.

[Rick Waldroup]

Yep Paulo, when I first looked at them, my first thought was the simplicity of everyday, mundane things, such as mowing the lawn. That was the series I liked the best. Also, I found the series on the guns just down right creepy in a certain American way, if that makes sense. Apparently, he has several exhibits going with this body of work.

Then again, I showed these to my wife and she thought they were no more than snapshots, and bad one's at that.

[Paulo]

That's SO funny you said that about the series on guns. That kinda creeped me out too!!!

[johnastovall]

Absolutely, it's art and good art at that. He has defined a theme and vision for each series and then carried that out through a series of images.

To not call it art would be to reject Bruegel for painting the lower classes doing what they do or Winogrand for just taking pictures at the zoo.

The gun pictures are derived from a book that came out some 20 years ago, "Portraits of Gun Owners" or a similar title. I wish I could find the exact title. In fact I thought I had a copy.

The Lawn Mowing series was to me the best. A very mundane thing, which unless presented as he did we just don't see. I thought the 'snapshot' style was just what it needed to express that. Of course he could had done rather formal portraits of each mower standing beside his machine in the manner of Grant Wood's 'American Gothic.'

[Patti Edens]

I really liked the idea of the series and can appreciate the thought and effort put into taking all the photos and displaying them. However, I thought the photos themselves were "snapshot" quality.

For just one example: Almost every one of the roadside crosses (and the subject in every series actually) were smack dab in the middle of the photo. That just bugged the heck out of me. I couldn't enjoy looking at them for wondering how they would look if the rule of thirds had been followed. I'm all for breaking a rule now and then, but this was distracting to me.

Patti

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Patti Edens

I really liked the idea of the series and can appreciate the thought and effort put into taking all the photos and displaying them. However, I thought the photos themselves were "snapshot" quality.

For just one example: Almost every one of the roadside crosses (and the subject in every series actually) were smack dab in the middle of the photo. That just bugged the heck out of me. I couldn't enjoy looking at them for wondering how they would look if the rule of thirds had been followed. I'm all for breaking a rule now and then, but this was distracting to me.

Patti

Consider he maybe looking for 'snapshot' quality and that's what he was doing. I don't think Avedon used the rule of thirds much in his America West. The very fact it bugged the heck out of you shows he was getting you to respond to the images.

[Hogleg 44]

Whatever is or isn't Art is strictly in the eye of the beholder in my opinion. What is considered Art to some is Junk to me, and vise-versa.
I thought the roadside memorial series was kind of nice as a tribute, but I would not want to hang any of them on my wall. Perhaps he lost a loved one that way???
I looked at the first lawnmower and x'ed out. I like just about anything that runs with a motor...except Lawnmowers!!!
Personally, I kind of like the snapshot stuff, as long as the subject matter interests me!

[Casper]

I felt the series on campfires was a bit odd. There were no people or signs of who made the fires.

I like the gun photos, I wouldn't mind living next door to those folks.

Thanks for the link. I like the way he put together the photos. I agree that if I like the subject, then the series appealed to me.

[ChuckW]

Thanks for posting the link. That photographer's images are a great example of how photographs can have considerably more of an impact when displayed as a series. I doubt that any one of those images, displayed by itself, would have done very well in our recent TPF contest.

[SaundraU]

Creepy and Scary were the first and the most mild ideas that came to mid with the Gun Shots.

The others just came up with boring.

Defiantly interesting to look at.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Guy is just snapshot at the moment type shooter, yes he has themes but nothing much more stands out.

I agree the gun shooting stuff creaps me out since he was standing on the side the guns were being aimed at-hopefully he had a tripod and remote trigger and would compose the shot then get out of the shot and behind/to the side of the shooters to take the ones that were taken when the guns were being fired. (set up the camera to take a 3-5 shot burst and fire away and pic the best shot).

As to the portraits of the people with their weapons in hand the compositions just don't do anything for me-just snapshots.

As to the crosses along the highway some were fasinating some just snapshots-wonder why the one spot had so many that looked the same, major wreck?

I wouldn't buy any of his shots but I have seen gallery shows of these type of works and people have bought prints. Usually these type of gallery shows have a very limited number of prints done-I remember one show that was done with polaroids -the assumption of one example only of the shots which they may have been and the photographer sold many of them on opening night (had the restriction that the works could only be picked up after the show was over so that all the pieces could be viewed in mass for the couple weeks the show was up) and the prices were realitively cheap-think that after framing and gallery fees the photographer may have made $20 a piece but they did sell out most of their works 30-35 pieces I believe.

[JPalmer]

I don't much care for his style.....but the concepts were pretty good.

There are a lot of different ways you could approach the gun owners' portraits...I personally wouldn't have chosen the same way he did. But I guess that's why it's called art.

[Duffy Pratt]

No single picture stands on its own. If anyone showed me a picture in isolation, I'd shrug my shoulders and think nothing of it. The themes are interesting, but they tend to be pretty narrow in their approach. Everything is distant. It always seems to be the same distance and the same approach to each subject. It's possible that John is right and this is all deliberate choice. It's also possible that the guy just doesn't know what he's doing.

On the other hand, the gun shots are creepy, the mower shots are mundane, and the memorials are kind of touching, when taken as a group. So I think he's got something going for him.

Duffy

[Casper]

I read your post after mine and noticed that I missed the "recoil" series of gun shooting. That series is a little boring, like Paul said it was probably done with a remote.

Steve