Notes on Ruin porn. Amnesia Discoteque revisited

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Finally I've got to a revision of my first published book on blurb.com. Before making it available over there I'm publishing a pdf version from issuu.com an interesting service for online publication and consultation. Mainly I've revised the book design, now lighter than the former, did a more careful selection of fonts and a bit of editing on the texts. The images have been completely processed ex novo. I'm happy with it for now and need to work on the next personal production. Feel free to point out defects of any kind. The first revision of the book was presented here grouped with some pictures from Corsica.

Italian ...

Sono finalmente riuscito ad ottenere una nuova revisione del mio primo libro pubblicato su blurb.com. Prima di renderlo disponibile pubblico qui una versione pdf su issuu.com un interessante servizio di lettura e pubblicazione online. Principalmente ho alleggerito il disegno, ho fatto una selezione più attenta delle fonti a un po di editing del testo. Le immagini sono state processate ex novo al completo. Per ora ne sono contento e ho bisogno di lavorare sulla mia prossima produzione personale. Segnalazioni di errori e critiche sono benvenute in qualsiasi forma. Ho presentato la prima revisione qui, raggruppata con alcune immagini dalla Corsica.

A first attempt on blurb.com: AMNESIA

AMNESIA by Mauro Thon Giudici

A few months ago I have pointed out my will to exploit the opportunities that on line book publishing is offering. In planning the first attempt, just to see how things worked, I had been looking for something simple and concise with a few pictures just to keep down the time needed to rework every thing several times.

The idea was to get ready in time for the participation to the “Photography book now” (PBN) contest on hosted by blurb with a more demanding work.

Along the way several factors intervened disrupting the road map that I figured out and the PBN project became the testing bed for the first book.

As a move it was not so smart as a way to participate to a contest. I ended up doing everything in a hurry and without the time to rework several things in the book composition that I do not like and I certainly need to do a more thorough photo editing. In the printed version the images lack of contrast, the rendering of the printed photos was one of my main concerns given the not so close resemblance of the preview available in photoshop via the blurb CMYK profile. I do not print either as a choice either cause I am really not interested in prints, even the ones in the galleries do not tell me that much if compared to the ones in a book. So with a very little experience in printing relying only on the photoshop simulation via the blurb profile is not so realistic, and it could not have been otherwise given the different media. The main problem is to catch the proper black point, as for colour, I think that all of us who publish in a blog or rely entirely upon online appreciation have already adopted the habit of not being worried to much by colour inconsistency or shifts. Unfortunately, I suspect, there is little to do except to pick up some experience with the usual "try / test / redo" routine.

But even with all the defects I'm quite happy with it as a first result and certainly to participate gave me a deadline to meet. Let me know what you think about it and in case you like it vote for it.

Refrain from buying :-D I am going to update it with a new and corrected release just after the end of the contest.

By the way I'm back from the vacancies from the Alps. The blog vacancy however lasted a bit more. Trouble is that my vision on the use of the media are still confused. Sometimes I think about the blog as a device to display some ongoing work sometimes, instead, I feel that it has its own peculiar traits. I'm trying to sort this out.

Corsica. Green rocks

The story of the True Cross

Freely inspired by the frescoes cycle painted by Piero Della Francesca in the Cappella Maggiore of the San Francesco church located in Arezzo (Tuscany Italy).

Corsica. Tears

Corsica. The road to Santa Amanza

Golfe de Santa Amanza, Corsica France

Corsica. Burned out

Wildfires sweeping across the Mediterranean coasts are quite common each summer. All of them are man made, what is less usual is new vegetation growing instead of some "carefully designed to fit the environment" buildings. I've found this interesting article on the topic.


In this case we are on the thrown out of the window cigarette, I've got to this supposition given the proximity to a road connecting to a beautiful beach. Generally pyromaniacs tend to operate in hard to reach places.

Corsica. Houses

Corsica. Cork oaks

When it comes to artistic and dramatic pose a few trees beat the cork oak. Its status of domesticity means for us that the species has undergone a heavy artificial selection and domestication process. But, as all the strict followers of Darwinism among you would say, the process of domestication is bidirectional. Domesticating we get domesticated.

Corsica. Nets

I will go on publishing some more pictures from Corsica till I get a solution, or take a decision, on how to present the pictures taken in the Alps. This time I've mostly reasoned in terms of closed theme to be presented in a sequence. A sequence (or slideshow if you prefer) is not well suited as a content for the blog format and the editing time it requires slows down the posting rate. Fortunately in recent times it seems that the required blog post frequency is getting a bit less hysteric. Perhaps tools like facebook or twitter are getting better suited for compulsive Internetters. Producing content still requires time :-D

Corsica. Marine (seascapes)

A Tunnara, Bonifaziu Corsica France

Corsica. Rocks #3

Casteddu de Cuccuruzzu, Alta Rocca Corsica France

Pianottoli- Caldarello Corsica France

Pianottoli - Caldarello Corsica France

PS: Anybody out there who has the idea of how to avoid blogger brain dead processing of pictures of any size ? I'm getting mad at those jpeg blotches appearing every where. Tried to shrink the image at 750px but there seems no way to avoid a processing. I'm not speaking of the embedded one but the image in the popup which is supposedly the original (and the size is the same).

Corsica. Rocks #2

Constable and Landscape Art Theory

Some times it is nice to get back to classic (?) landscape interests. Mostly moved by the lectures I'm pushing forward, in the last six months I've started a study, rather large in views as my usual (not to say excessive), on Constable. The main volume along which I'm articulating the study is the nice and deep "John Constable and the Theory of Landscape Painting" by Ray Lambert. Here is a short pdf excerpt. Among the many virtues the book has is that of not trying to do a psychotwisted interpretation of the man. At last a book on a painter that tries to analyze the ideas, the culture of his time (I'm tempted to use the Zeitgeist) and the cultural background. I've greatly appreciated the "philosophy of science" perspective connecting him with Natural Philosophy. I've supported the lecture with several other online readings.
For the biography I've found a couple of publications in the internet archive from the Leslie's Family. I've already written about the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds omnipresent in painting at that time.

There are several good reasons to study Constable's time frame. To start the area from which he comes was interested by the earliest modifications introduced with the very first steps of the industrial revolution. From the various biographies it is interesting to note that his native area was, at his time, a proto post industrial one, even if in ways and with aspects that may sound romantic in modern times. He was interested in depicting views of his actual world. A world he observed with great care and some obsession. As much as Darwin he was mostly an observer, and a dedicated one. He liked to observe. In his case painting comes after as consequence of observing (a proof he says). This I think is a great lesson for every Landscapist.

On the image making side a good point is made by the relation with the user, with great emphasis on the transmission of the viewing experience. Particularly I've found great interest in the strategic use of blurred areas in the mid plane of the painting so to force the viewer to get around each part of the image.

Back from Corsica. Rocks #1

Each time I visit Corsica I feel a strange sense of being home. The immediate reason, I've got to think, is the presence of the (relatively) high granite mountains you see from any part of the island. I grew from the age of six to eighteen in a place, the Central Alps (Alpi Retiche), where each time I looked out of a window (of any kind) there was some high granite peak forcing my sight up in the sky. But if that was not enough it is the whole human environment that feels that way. Local people is so disturbingly unfriendly and incline to violent behaviour to remind me immediately the general model of relationship I got used to in my youth. I'm not referring here to the apparent benignly that the mountain man reserved to perfect strangers. But even in that benign look you can feel the gauge on the friend or foe relationship starting, with few exceptions, from the foe position. It may be the right suspect against any kind of invader or self acclaimed landlord, and they knew a lot of them. Oh, by the way, local inhabitants like to call it Corsica and not Corse (the French translation). But more on this on a next post.

On the geological side it happens that this island, together with Sardegna, detached from the European continent and rotated counterclockwise to assume the current position. For an exact, and problematic, explanation of the drift see the abstract here.

Corsica. Summer vacation

I'm leaving today for the first part of the family summer vacation. As any year the first part is dedicated to the sea. In the last ten years we've spent most of our sea vacations in Corsica (Corse France). I have no specific photographic plans except for some repeated visits to a megalithic site that has always fascinated me for its atmosphere coming from the place and the associated historical knowledge. The alignments are not so imposing as the ones in northern Europe but the relatively primitive state of conservation and the not to much crowded place compensate more than enough. I'll be back in fifteen days.

Searching ways

After reading some great works of J.B. Jackson I have come to the conclusion that the best work a landscapist could do is to give readouts as plainly and cute as he can. I good way to go is also to tell it in a correct and pleasant way.

Here are two snapshots I took in Corsica. Mostly they regard the way in which vernacular is expected to be consumed.

I am not that happy with them. Using a handheld snapshot camera is not my regular way to take pictures.

Roadsides

Incidents

Incidents

I have to confess that while on vacation i did dot pursue any photo project. Instead i went to follow several directions. I know that this is exactly the contrary of what is usually considered a proficient workflow.
The reasons are multi faceted. First the idea of project is something that has come to mean, for me, a deep knowledge about the subject, which takes time not available. Second i have to come to a place several (distant) times to feel the need to take pictures.

Incidents (French).

"The animal scrutinizes him across a narrow abyss of non comprehension ....
The man too is looking across a similar, but not identical,
abyss of non comprehension"

John Berger 'Why look at animals' 1977