Thursday 26 March 2009

















At first I wondered why I liked these (boring?) images, but then I realised they reminded me of Corot. So I am posting them to check on that :-)
And while doing some research, I discovered that Corot was a passionate photographer himself. It is believed that his experiments with monochrome prints led to an even greater sobriety of colour in his paintings. He confesses to disliking vivid colours:

“What there is to see in painting, or rather what I am looking for, is the form, the whole, the value of the tones…That is why for me the color comes after, because I love more than anything else the overall effect, the harmony of the tones, while color gives you a kind of shock that I don’t like. Perhaps it is the excess of this principal that makes people say I have leaden tones".


to find out more about his photographs, go here:

http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/2008/01/hand-drawn-negative.html

14 comments:

  1. Yes, now you mention it, there does seem to be some affinity with Corot, but I'm not sure I would have thought of it - though never would I have thought them boring! It strikes me as being in his realisation of form and distance rather than colour that he approaches Corot.

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  2. Sometimes I like making things more VIVID with full colors of high contrast and some other times persisting totally dum approach of ALL or Nothing dichotomy.. and another sometimes, being obsessed with the tones.. I rather try to thrive upon the full variety in which we can get as much as our perceivable spectrum can reach than choosing one or another though I am not diminishing the value of any vegitarian approach than carnivours myself.. :p

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  3. I see Corot here, yes, but with or without that affinity ... I love these ... especially the first ... all three, but I think "Wow" of the first...

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  4. elles sont si belles.... j'adore la perspective tout à fait différente!!

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  5. Roxana tu est vraiment une femme très cérébrale ; tu parle de Jean-Baptiste Camille COROT ; c’est vrai que l'impact de Corot sur l'art du XXième est grandiose un grand maitre de L'Impressionnisme . Cela ressemble beaucoup la photo ; tu dis que tu n’aime pas la couleur…J'AIME la pluie, le vent et les orages…OU J'AIME PAS les ciels uniformes tout bleu ou tout gris…J'AIME le rendu du Kodachrome enfin celui du 200 ISO, et encore, maintenant il tire Beaucoup vers le magenta quand-même. J'AIME les vieux objets rouillés qui ne servent à rien mais qu'on garde parce qu'ils sont jolis… J'AIME les photos floues et les tirages un peu dense et dur…

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  6. thank you for your insight, Dave. when I talked about the Corot affinity, I had form and distance in mind too, not only colour.
    something like:
    http://www.penwith.co.uk/artofeurope/corot_sevres.jpg

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  7. yes, I think I am similar in this, Peter, I like to try out all sorts of things related to colour.
    it's good to habe a physicist here :-)

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  8. James :-)

    then it was certainly worth it, I mean posting them - just to hear that 'wow' :-)

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  9. Allan, hmmm - je pense que j'ai aussi un côté cérébral bien développé, oui :-) "aussi" est important! :-)

    Mais non, je n’ai pas dit que je n’aime pas la couleur, c’était Corot lui-même qui l’avait affirmé, en parlant du „choc de la couleur“. Mais moi j’aime aussi les couleurs choquantes, je pense que tu l’as déjà remarqué (comme dans le fauvisme parfois).

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  10. I never knew Corot experimented with photography...such an interesting link. Thanks! These scenes look so peaceful, like the big, green fields in my state!

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  11. yes, it was an interesting discovery for me too. I'm happy you like them.
    Tara, what gorgeous red flowers in your user pic, are they magnolias?

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  12. yes!!! those are definitely soothing corot-greys&greens (and his limpidness of composition)

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