September 2017 – Dietmar Tallroth

Path to the Far North

In Art & Photography / Books / News

Yes I know, it starts to sound like the beginning of a bad habit. Still, I am happy to announce availability of my third book. The book has the title “Path to the Far North” and is sub-titled “A photographic conversation with Bashō”. This needs explaining…

The works of the famous haiku poet Matsuo Bashō have been enchanting me for a long time. Especially his travel diary oku no hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Far North) has been my companion for many years. The character 奥 (oku, the far north, interior of Japan) can also mean inner feelings and one’s own heart. So there is an association with “path to the heart” in the title of Bashō’s text. About these two aspects of the Bashō book, as a trip to the north and to one’s inner core, I wanted to make a photography project.

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Plasticity

September 24, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

Every now and then I come over a photograph where I think “this is perfect”. Some photos by Edward Weston, for example. When I then afterwards try to analyze why I reacted this way I realize that this has to do with a certain way to treat the photographic subject. What I also realize is that the approach is just opposite to mine. And that, I think, is worth a thought or two.

The “perfection” I mentioned springs mostly from the plasticity of forms in a photograph. Photography is a two-dimensional art. A photograph in which forms seem to have plasticity and a three-dimensional look is overcoming this limitation. If one analyses further how this 3-D-effect is achieved, lighting springs to mind. It is the fall-off of light on a form that induces this illusion of plasticity in a two-dimensional picture.

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Rhythm

September 16, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography

In the last post I wrote about poetic themes in photography. I also mentioned that I find poetry everywhere in nature. One aspect of poetry is a connection to music via the notion of rhythm.

Rhythm, it has been said, bypasses the intellect and directly works on older parts of our brain. In that sense it is one of these “triggers” that can extend a picture from something we only perceive with our eyes into something that has a “feel”.

We probably learned already before our birth to listen to the heartbeats of our mothers. But all musical rhythm ultimately goes back to the two-beat movement when we walk. From this two-step pulse all the complex rhythmic divisions evolve. This pulse, often accented by prominent beats, has an element of expectation. We expect and anticipate in a rhythm the next beat – that is what moves our feet when we start to itch for dancing.

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Decoration or Poetry

September 8, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Lose thoughts

Calling photographs “poetic” has its dangers. Some words have been hijacked and are difficult to set free again. “Beauty”, for example, seems to exist mostly in advertisement and or in combination with the female form. As in beauty pageant.

The same has, unfortunately, happened to “poetic” and “lyrical”, too.

If one searches the internet for terms like “poetic photography” one often first gets to the sites of wedding photographers. “Poetic” there translates sometimes into a look like a wedding cake with too much cream. One can even see that there is too much sugar as well.

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Book Launch: Mountains of the Sea

September 1, 2017 By Dietmar Tallroth With 0 Comment

In Art & Photography / Books / Exhibition

In an earlier post I mentioned my upcoming exhibition in Helsinki. So if you are around here on Sept. 12 at 17h drop in at the Laterna Magica Gallery in Helsinki, Rauhankatu 7.

But earlier I also promised to tell more about the project that led to the exhibition and, in addition, I am proud to announce publication of the accompanying book. So, here we go:

The project looks at the fractal character of nature. That will say at the phenomenon that natural processes often come to similar results. While we often tend to think of fractals in connection with small regular forms like fern leaves, the principles apply also to larger forms, even landscapes. The idea to show the big in the small underlies the Japanese arts of suiseki (“bonsai” stone displays) and rock garden design and the project takes a lot of inspiration from these arts.

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