"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept"

Late to this thread (I blame Covid), and having browsed the for the most part truly excellent photos on this thread, one thought came to mind. Bourgeois? Who, moi? Well, some says I is, and some says I ain't (to quote Helen Traubel). Jury is out on that one.

Selective sharpness accounts for some of the best images I've ever seen, and the handful of same I've made in my many years as a 'disciplined' shooter fairly obsessed with getting it all sharp. As one does when using Rolleiflexes for 50+ years.

My two cents' worth. Am greatly enjoying all this, many thanks to all who posted and especially for the photos.
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
I think -

Some people say there’s beauty in distortion
Some people find imperfection pleasing to the eye
I believe that art is more than nailing the focus
But, I don’t confuse mediocre photography with art

Just because one has a poorly focused image
It doesn't mean it’s pleasing to the eye.

I was under the understanding that images posted here
Should be technically imperfect and yet something worth
The time of day to be viewed because they were…
Pleasing to the eye.

Beautiful imperfection is the definition of wabi sabi
In my opinion

All the best,
Mike
Click to expand...

I agree absolutely - particularly the point about wabi sabi (perhaps my favorite aesthetic). But I do have a couple of other thoughts too.

Firstly as perhaps in all of photography, with these types of photo specifically there is an element of serendipity or kismet involved - where the image that results from pressing the shutter button just "works" in the eye of the beholder. The result, as they say is greater than the sum of its parts.

Sometimes this is a result of a deliberate intention (shooting through a window to get reflections and distortions, deliberately moving the camera while making the exposure, purposefully misfocusing, deliberately using a slower shutter speed than normal, etc). These "tricks" often do not work - but sometimes they do. This is where the serendipity comes in. But more often than not such images might result from complete, undiluted serendipity - completely an unintended consequence of something done wrongly or unforeseen circumstances. Believe me, I have many like this. So using these photos and turning them into beautiful art can be regarded as "making a virtue out of necessity". (Shhh, don't tell anyone!)

I just tell people they are "painterly" images and leave it at that. And in truth they are - or can be. And that also can be put down to serendipity. For every one of mine like this that works there must be a dozen which do not.

Some of the following are like that. Some look just like normal photos when viewed at the size allowed on this site but when viewed up close they are soooooo soft that in some cases I just did not use them for years till COVID came along and in the absence of the ability to go out and shoot, I instead went back to some old images that I previously rejected as too soft to see if I could make something useful of them. Just for the hell of it and to stop me going insane from boredom and "cabin fever".

In these first two, the RF on my M8 was out of whack and required adjustment though I did not know it at the time.

Through a Tea Room Window by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

The Beauty of Blur - Through a Tea Room Window by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Taken through a window blind

Skyscraper Impressions by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

And sometimes there are hidden "depths" to a photo that even I do not understand. This one probably has more hits and likes than any other on my Flickr pages. Not sure why - its not particularly a favorite of mine other than that I suppose its very unsharpness may contribute in some way to conveying the character of the subject.

Age and Grace by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

And just another shot where something went wrong (not sure what) but in any event I rather like the impression it conveys.

Concentration by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
Another photo from 30 or so years ago, this one also shot on Fuji Velvia and scanned using a Sony NEX 7, a Pentax slide duplicator with bellows extension and a Pentax 55mm f1.8. Underwater shots are always a little soft. I liked this one in black and white to counter the strong blue cast.

zpcINWA.jpg


A somewhat soft image of a friend in intense discussion over a coffee and cake.

uqaPm1B.jpg
 
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida feeling

SDIM5580.jpg


Sigma Sd Quattro H
Sigma 50mm f2.8 EX DG Macro lens (66mm on Sd Quattro H)
Yokohama, Japan - October 2020

All the best,
Mike
 
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