Photographs Everywhere and Anywhere

...So, time to take a deep breath after the shocking events of yesterday and get back to photography? It's one of the nice things about having persistent interests—as long as those interests are ethical and wholesome—they permit you some distraction or diversion during troubled times. I'm having some trouble this morning. But then I'm sure many of us are feeling disquieted one way or another. Even some non-Americans.

Anyway, one reason I found Peter Lindbergh's apartment a few days ago was because I wanted to write a brief post about finding photographs elsewhere. Other than on photography sites, I mean. I've enjoyed looking at photographs in all sorts of places. When I was young I'd go to museums but also archives and other collections, and a local gallerist (a mentor's S.O.) would let me look through portfolios in her storage room. And several times I got to wade around in large agglomerations of old snapshots, which is, if not exactly fun, certainly instructive.

Now I can find pleasure looking at photographs from many places, some of them where they're not featured as photography—where the photography's not the point—for instance, real estate sites.

We all have genres we like rather more or rather less, and I've always enjoyed interiors. There was a day not so long ago when it would have seemed like the most far-out fantasy to think that I could rove around virtually inside thousands of houses in cities and towns around the world. Not all of them of course, but a representative sampling in the form of those that are for sale. I sometimes take advantage of the opportunity.

A view from a Paris condo....

...And from a condo in Milwaukee, the city where I grew up. That's the War Memorial building front and center, designed by Eero Saarinen. Just to the right of it is the Quadracci Pavilion, known locally as the Calatrava addition, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Not only do I enjoy interiors, but I appreciate being able to see the views from vantage points where I will never set foot in person. In the photos above, I like the way the photographers connect the views to the spaces, and tantalize us with the rich prospect of the visual feasts just outside the window. The feeling of "wouldn't you like to live here and look at this every day" is almost visceral.

I confess I also find it almost a relief to turn to the work of photographers who had a job to do. When you look at too many "test shots" like I do, you see a lot of "PCP"—pointless camera-pointing. That can exasperate me when I'm worn raw for some other reason. Real estate photographers have a no-nonsense brief to fulfill. They know what it is and we know what it is; everybody's on the same page.

How about you, is there anywhere you go to enjoy pictures that aren't being shown as art per se? Astronomy sites? Catalogs? eBay? Fashion magazines?

Just curious. And I wouldn't mind a little useful distraction.

Mike
(Photos courtesy Sotheby's, here and here)

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Book of interest this week:

PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice, Edited by Sasha Wolf
(clicking on the link above takes you to Amazon)

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Wajda: "I like this site [Window-Swap] and you may too, Mike. Best on a large monitor."

Mike replies: That's wonderful. I do like it. I'll probably waste significant amounts of time there. Thanks.

MikeK: "I spent 14 years working as a designer in real estate (well, we just call it property over here). I have seen and edited countless images over the years—and mostly the incompetence of the photographers just depressed me. These weren't professional photographers—just anyone who could hold a camera. They say you can't polish a turd, but I shudder to think how much of my life I've spent in Photoshop trying to do just that."

Mike replies: It depends on what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I just look at high-end properties, because the photographs were often taken by professionals and are anywhere from competent to beautiful. But sometimes the pure whimsical randomness of really bad real estate photos can provide some surprises, a few of them pretty startling!

I'll tell an embarrassing story on myself that might be indicative of something in my psyche—sometimes I look at "daydream" habitations and imagine what it might be like to live in them. But I won't look above a certain price range. For example, apparently I seem to think it's okay to imagine myself living in a $20 million condo in NYC, but I balk at looking at a $70 million one and I'll click right by it. Like it's out of my imaginary price range? This makes no sense but it makes me smile at myself.

Curiously, when Paul McCartney and his wife bought a place in NYC, just by chance I had already seen the listing so I had "been in every room" you might say. That hasn't happened with anyone else. 

You're going to think I look at R-E sites all the time, but I don't. Just now and then.

John Krumm: "Real Estate photography is interesting because these days so much of it is just a realtor snapping a few shots with a phone and you are probably more likely to find funny mistakes. If you spend time browsing Zillow you can find some amazingly bad examples. This website I enjoy uses it to find examples of particularly garish McMansions—it's called McMansion Hell."

Mike replies: You guys are really encouraging me to waste time today. I did ask to be distracted. Thanks?

Jeroen Pulles: "I like to take a close—photographer's—look at the photography in gardening books. Some books have a hodgepodge of images of various cameras and qualities (Phaidon Press's Landscapes in Landscapes), others have a consistent series from a single camera (Vivian Russell's Monet's Garden: Through the Seasons at Giverny with 1990s Velvia shots). As with architecture, part of the challenge is to visualize what the designer had in mind with the garden. And, a perfect garden photo needs to evoke the feel of the place; that needs to shine through in the photo as well."

Rob L.: "Aviation and automotive magazines are a great escape for me—some really great photography in there, often by folks who truly love their subjects. I've also had fun for the last few weeks reviewing submission for Photography merit badge—lots of technically limited, genuinely wonderful pictures. The way families, obviously stuck together a bit more than normal, are playing into the shots has me smiling a lot, as did the photo essay of 'The Cat That Ate Christmas Dinner.' I dunno, stop treating photography as art and more as conversation and it's a lot more fun."

Dave: "How about nasa.gov? Artful photos of space and technical photos of the equipment used on missions. Something for everybody!"

Ed G.: I'm a bird-watcher and I look at the photos in the Macauley Library often. There's a searchable interface at eBird. A lot of the photos are pretty bad because even a dark, blurry photo can often serve to identify a bird, but you can have it sort the search results by 'best quality' (based on crowdsourced ratings), which works pretty well. You can also choose a variety of search filters, to find (e.g.) birds feeding their young, or doing courtship displays, or in particular locations."

Alan Whiting: "Seattle's Fremont district has a weekly flea market, and at least one booth regularly had old, anonymous snapshots for sale when I lived there. Mostly they depressed me; these people meant something once, but no one knows who they are now. But one week I found a stack of 6x9 cm glass plate negatives of ships. I bought them and had them printed, and it turned out they showed the visit of the Great White Fleet to Puget Sound in 1908. I donated them to the Washington Historical Society (but kept prints)."

Comments

[John Krumm]

Real Estate photography is interesting because these days so much of it is just a realtor snapping a few shots with a phone and you are probably more likely to find funny mistakes. If you spend time browsing Zillow you can find some amazingly bad examples. This website I enjoy uses it to find examples of particularly garish McMansions, https://mcmansionhell.com .

[Manuel]

Mike - don't think, even for a minute, the rest of the world ignored what happened yesterday. It came as a shock to everyone who lives in a lawful, democratic country. What we watched this side of the Atlantic was an attempted coup d'état, presumably orchestrated by an incumbent President. It was shameful. I felt as much embarrassed as any American citizen who has a modicum of decorum.
America wasn't made great again in the last four years. On the contrary, it narrowly avoided to become the laughing stock of the world. The Capitol invasion was something we'd normally associate to countries like Mali or Guatemala, not the US. Fortunately American institutions are strong and your democracy is solid, otherwise we'd now be lamenting a banana republic-style coup d'état.
Hopefully things will return to normal after January 20th and the US will resume their role in the world as a reference in democracy. Until then we're likely to have 13 days of madness ahead. Let's see what happens.

[Robert Roaldi]

Tourism sites are obvious ones. When researching B&Bs for vacations (in the past, not so much now) I check out all the photos on individual B&B web sites. Some only show the building itself and the rooms, but some venture out a bit and show you the neighbourhood or nearby "points of interest". If B&B owners knew how important those photos were they'd pay more attention to their web site content.

Bicycle advertizing can be instructive. The good pics avoid highlight reflections on metallic parts, so you know someone took some care. Or maybe they photoshopped them away?

In the past year, I've spent more time than normal looking at museum and art gallery web sites. Most are ok but some need help. If you wan to encourage people to keep paying attention to art while stuck at home, web site photos should be more inviting.

[Gordon R. Brown]

Go to the New York Times real estate section for photos of homes for sale. Monday, three in California; Wednesday, three around the U.S.; Thursday, New York and the surrounding area.

Excellent photos to view on line.

[Mike Cawley]

www.astrobin.com
Long exposures rule here. Some data captures last multiple nights.
(and that's with F2 glass)

[DavidB]

Astronomy sites?

Yes, SpaceWeather.com. I often post my own photos here and have enjoyed seeing the variety of images that appear on the site.

Front page: https://www.spaceweather.com
Gallery page: https://spaceweathergallery.com

DavidB

[Rob Campbell]

Mike, Mike! Fashion photography often is art, but not always.

The events, to which you referred as being of yesterday, were truly shocking. And yeah, across much of the world, which is a price you have to pay when your country has so much influence everywhere.

Are there no security cameras in the Capitol? I'd imagine that if the will is there, lots of arrest could be made with and from photographic evidence. It would be interesting to trawl through that footage and see what aborted sedition looks like as it starts and ends; at least I hope it's ended.

[c.d.embrey]

Unlike Mike, I've never had an interest in photos per se. My interests are in specific subjects. Like many boys, in the 1950s, I was attracted to motor-racing. I read most of the auto magazines in study-hall. Petersen Publishing (Hot Rod, Motor Trend) had a great photo staff, as did John R Bond (Road & Track, Cycle World).

What inspired me was the slow-speed-shutter work of John Thawley.

At first I shot very sharp frozen-in-time photos. After seeing Thawley's work I switched to impressionistic photos. Shooting a fast moving car at 1/90 second shows the speed and fury of auto racing.

[Dan Khong]

I like the "Window-Swap" website that Kenneth sent. It's certainly a breath of fresh air compared to the usual photographs that we all still enjoy taking and viewing.

[Daniel]

Look at the photographs and artwork on the walls - in Movies. Or, check out the cameras used or displayed in movies.
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR has Faye Dunaway with a nice 8x10 camera showing in her abode as Robert Redford hides there.
Many movies have fine framed images on the wall in so many scenes.
Can be an interesting way to get more out of some movies that aren't otherwise that great or have some dead time between more interesting scenes.

[c.d.embrey]

The Law of Unintended Consequences bites us once again. Obama saving Wall Street instead of Main Street made Trump inevitable. Karl Marx could not been more right, History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

The democratization of photography also had unintended consequences. Without digital we wound not have had pointless camera-pointing. This PCP is as pernicious as the other PCP (phenylcyclohexyl piperidine) aka angle dust. Today the internet if filled with pointless, but sharp, photos. Many of the photographers seem to be dusted (PCP users).

Window-Swap is fun. Lots of cats & dogs enjoying the view. Some never-heard-before local music playing in the background. One voyeuristic camera placement allowed you to watch someone at their workbench. Amazing!

[Paul Martini]

+1 on the NASA "Spaceweather" site and gallery, and also (especially) the NASA APOD site (Astronomy Photo Of the Day).

[Dave Sailer]

Name: Overview

About: "Seeing the Earth from a great distance has been proven to stimulate awe, increase desire to collaborate, and foster long-term thinking. We aim to inspire these feelings — commonly referred to as the Overview Effect — through our imagery, products, and collaborations. By embracing the perspective that comes from this vantage point, we believe we can stimulate a new awareness that will lead to a better future for our one and only home." (blah-blah-blah, etc.)

Meaning: Random aerial photos, usually updated daily.

URL: https://www.over-view.com/daily/

Latest: "US Capitol Building"

[Olybacker]

Sadly this year's will be last publication but I enjoy design work that is good and I find that in the Ikea Catalogue. The Annual Awards annuals of the Association of Photographers here in the UK (formerly the Association of Fashion, Advertising and Editorial Photographers) is another source that for me really tickles the nostalgia taste buds.

Mike, if you really are in need of some good distraction, I recommend a film (made for the BBC by an independent company)about the late Brian Duffy. Duffy (known as that) was part of the Norman Parkinson dubbed 'Black Trinity' along with the late Terence Donovan and David Bailey. The film was called The Man Who Shot the Sixties and is available on YouTube. It is an excellent production.

I have watched it several times and it is always enjoyable.

[JimH]

PBS has several good docs on photographers with lots of interesting photography. Then there is this available tonite:

Netflix drops trailer for Martin Scorsese's documentary on Fran Lebowitz

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/entertainment/netflix-pretend-its-a-city-trailer-scli-intl/index.html

[Richard Parkin]

The Duffy program is also on the Duffy archive site: https://bit.ly/39dN4Al and Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/9141202

[Tom Burke]

Two, for me: architecture, and gardens/‘landscapes with plants’. As an example of the former, have a look at Julius Shulman’s images of Case Study House #22, the Stahl house; and for the second, look at images in the various International Garden Photographer of the Year books/site.

(And I love the acronym for that last one - ‘IGPotY’!)

[Julius]

This UK property site has consistently good photography, and the houses they list hit my aesthetic buttons every time.

https://www.themodernhouse.com/