Making Choices – Making Art

This is one of the most amazing videos I have seen in a long time. Truly inspirational stuff! Ian Ruhter has not only made his own camera and dived head first into reviving an antiquated art form (wet plate photography) he is doing it in a large, very expense and unique format. And, most importantly […]

This is one of the most amazing videos I have seen in a long time. Truly inspirational stuff!

Ian Ruhter has not only made his own camera and dived head first into reviving an antiquated art form (wet plate photography) he is doing it in a large, very expense and unique format. And, most importantly of all, his work looks stunning.

I don’t really want to say much about this. Just check out the video and leave your thoughts in the comments section below. And, don’t miss the part where he says that each exposure costs $500 – not each project, or each print, each exposure!

Tagged Photography

The Sounds Of Silence

Responses

Adrian Neville 13 years ago

That was terrific. Thanks Fernando, I don’t think I would ever have come across this.

Apart from the vision, commitment, beauty and, indeed, cost, what struck me too was the fact that each image is intrinsically worth the high price that will be paid for it. I mean, it is just that one single image, like a painting. There is no question of an artificially created scarcity. A digital print can be reproduced exactly the same any number of times at the touch of a couple of keys. But that has to be denied (by photographers and galleries) in order to charge high prices.

Fernando Gros 13 years ago

Adrian – I totally agree.

Toni 13 years ago

It makes me want to ask ‘what is art’?

Last week I manufactured for someone else. What I made doesn’t really matter although what it will be used for may have a long term impact on healthcare for people in Europe and possibly the ROW. But for various reasons to do with both finances and how I do things I ended up doing a lot of the work by hand to create a product that can be used in healthcare development.

I can identify somewhat with what’s going on in the video: when things don’t work you have to ask why – is it because I’ve been stupid, is what I do pointless or poor. Have I just thrown away thousands of $ worth of materials?

So I created something, more or less hand-crafted, that passed the tests required as fit for purpose. I’ll never hang it on the wall or display my successes and failures as a video. But at the same time it feels *to me* that I’m crafting something, and in a way that few people on the planet would be capable of doing.

Art is all in the perception of what we do.

Fernando Gros 13 years ago

Toni – “what is art?” is a very good question. Historically, the line between art & craft has always been blurry. It’s increasingly so for me as well.

I believe there are a lot of things we label as industrial products, that more unique and valuable, not just socially or economically, but aesthetically and culturally, than some celebrated and costly works of “art.”