Over the weekend a friend texted me from a museum: "I don't understand what makes a good picture." She was looking at a display of contemporary photographs. "Everything is blurry and very candid and seems pointless." "Yep," I replied, "sounds about right."
I don't feel that way about ALL contemporary art, but come on. Some of it just has that effect. So please don't be offended if you love it/do it/make it. I'm sure you don't love all the things I love/do/make, so let's just call it even.
So anyway, I thought about it all weekend as I am wont to do. I thought about what sort of pictures she'd seen. I guessd that they were blurry to the point of being abstract. I could've googled, but sometimes, I like to imagine instead. It's more fun.
Driving home on the 4th of July, I still had my camera on the same settings I'd used to shoot fireworks. I was bored and decided to take some artsy blurry pointless shots of my own without changing any of my settings:
I'm calling them Street Life. Or Night Street Life. Or City Street Night Life Lights. Or something.
Anyway, here are some notes about these:
- All exposures were 5-8 seconds.
- All photos were done in a moving car and (obviously) without a tripod.
- I was not the one driving. (Considering that for 5-8 seconds I couldn't see anything, I can only recommend that you use a designated driver for this).
I feel like in a weird way they capture the essence of city life... the lights, the movement. Oh who am I kidding. I just like pretty lights, abstract or not. So there you have it. My take on contemporary art.
