Showing posts with label Aaron Siskind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aaron Siskind. Show all posts

Saturday, April 21, 2012

PHOTOGRAPHS THAT SING


"Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination." - Quote from The Moon and Sixpence by W.S. Maugham

For some reason Aaron Siskind's photographs intrigue me. 


My first glimpse of Siskind's photography was an image from his Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation series (see photo above).

"Siskind froze the motion of athletes by using extremely fast shutter speeds that left crisp outlines. He captured the figure at moments that emphasized their abstract shape, pinning their dark form against a cloudy-bright sky so as to put the abstract-ness of their shapes into higher relief" - Kara Fiedorek


The Levitation series was impressive but it was only when I discovered his more abstracted images that my heart began dancing to the melody and I set out to find out more about this amazing photographer. Read a quick biography here.

Many of his photographs reminded me of Fanz Kline's paintings and upon further investigation I discovered the Homage to Franz Kline series. No surprise that Siskind and Kline were friends!


"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything". Aaron Siskind