Klein's Blue and Guillotine Red Photo

Photographer’s Note

This rant might sound a bit dated, but anyhow that'll make a break with BW...

Exactly one month ago, Paris was bustling with the Nuits Blanches event, which, during one night uses the town infrastructures and monuments as a frame to display contemporary artists artworks.

Everything is free, therefore promoting Aaaaart to the poorknowing, non art fluent, meek ourselves, who cannot even guess the cool breeze of freedom that Aaaaaart breathes through our mediocre lives (?!).

Paris was the first city to set up such an event, four years ago, more and more art capitals such as Toronto follow on their own.

I missed the previous Nuits Blanches, they didn't miss me either. This time, I ended up walking the streets to see what was supposed to be the highlight of the night, the cream of the cream, the cherry on the cake. Klein's (a french painter, famous for his...) blue color illuminating Place de la Concorde and Napoleon's egyptian obelisk.

So what?
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Place de la Concorde is where the aristocrats used to be guillotined. I think they haven't finish the job yet.

When coming to see Place de la Concorde, my surprize was that the vulgum pecus (ie. you and me) had to look from down the stairs, while some people had privatized the public park overlooking the place (les Tuileries)to get the best view of it all.

This would be hard to figure for somebody who doesn't know the monuments and avenues of Paris, but the blue color of the obelisk only had a sense when looking from a certain viewing perspective which designed a virtual french flag (blue/white/red) with the carlights going up and down the Champs Elysées avenue. For this night, the french flag was striped with Klein's blue color, carlight white and car backlights red. (in fact, I understood this point of view, because I got lost near le Louvre and happened to view with the "correct" perspective... although half a kilometer away from the real show)

It looked like the happy few were enjoying the view though. Only the people overlooking the place could notice this great perspective : the city hall upper members and the artists crowd who were, that Nuits Blanches event, feeding and getting their year income on our citizen taxes.

I somehow had a bitter taste that somebody was privatizing my town for a big party, which I should be grateful to pay for, while only being allowed to lick the empty plates. I wish they had illuminated a couple of guillotines with a bloody red color to end up with privileges.

So what's the story of this photography?
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I thought at that very moment that the viewpoint was lame, the place was covered with tourist buses, the blue lightings on the obleisk and the fountains looked chaotic and randomly sparsed around the area, my EOS5D AF was anyhow refusing to focus whenever its chip decided to (or not to)... I then decided to put the full hands on my own fate :
I switched to manual exposure and manual focus, as reality sucked big time, I defocused as much as I could.

Here you go about a non event. You may now imagine the blue obelisk.

So what is my conclusion?
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I'd rather chose and pay it myself to see an art exhib.
I'm also happy my daughter wanted to stay home and chat on the Internet, I would have been twice pissed off, as this kind of event seems only set up for urbans in their thirties.
Contemporary art is FUN, I love going to exhibs but that's the kind of events that makes you hate artsy fartsies.

bantonbuju, designsoul, Talia, mlopes, brevbrev14, Curioso, luisafonso, Homerhomer, greg, vts_ch, tcht, Luan, dmarizz, goonivuz, vizion, Brian has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

JohnTurton (767) 2006-11-07 16:45

Interesting story and a fun photograph. Thanks for sharing :)

bantonbuju (48796) 2006-11-07 16:48

delightful!
wish we could see more of this type here on te - carefully carved shape of lights;
no much to tell about this tasty photo, it is too much of a good thing to be spoilt by words,
i mean it,
best, j.

toni_al (15476) 2006-11-07 17:18

Salut Luko
Une image très bien réalisée, qui évoque l'art et en plus tout a fait a mon goût, ou l'imaginaire a une grande place. Je trouve juste dommage que ne comprenant pas l'anglais on doit se passer d'une note sûrement très instructive, mais peut être ça doit rester élitaire?
Amitiés
Toni

vapours (7913) 2006-11-07 20:48

A great looking piece of art Luko. These shots I feel need to be constructed just as well as any other shot, you need the right mix of colours and blurred out objects to create an imaginative and interesting scene...you've done well.

mlopes (492) 2006-11-07 21:02

In the Nuits Blanches event there are several Aaaaaart displays, and then there are those Aaaaaartist that decide to make art on the moove... how? just switch to manual mode; defocus de most you can and click...

... now you can imagine the Obelisk

brevbrev14 (372) 2006-11-08 3:25

Hi Luko.., your art come out strong also in this shot and in all the situation!
great idea and great shot!!
you drawed with the lights here !!!
great!
ciao
Valeria

Philippe (11787) 2006-11-08 3:36

Bonsoir, Luko. De l'art contemporain pour illuster la fête de l'art contemporain. Pourquoi pas? Tous ces petits points colorés qui illuminent la nuit noire me plaisent beaucoup. Malgré le flou, on parvient à reconnaître les monuments à l'arrière-plan. Une photo très originale.

delnaja (7871) 2006-11-08 3:51

je ne peux qu'aimer... Tes photos n&b sont superbes mais celles en couleurs aussi semble-t-il.
J'adore ce flou et ces points de lumière, ces touches de bleu... Un résultat très abstrait sûrement pour certains mais si beau à regarder...

partha (13667) 2006-11-08 4:04

A different approch. One may not dare to upload such a photograph. But it looks nice.
Partha

jinju (14265) 2006-11-08 4:21

Are you becoming artsy Luko? I can imagine you as an artsy farsty guy shooting conceptual photos of the hair on your arm and blowing it up to 3x4m size;) Why not eh? It SELLS, probably better than travel photography. Anyway, this is your first step in that direction, is there a way back for you? Personally I like it, its called doing what you can with what you have.

luisafonso (858) 2006-11-08 4:42

I am sorry Luko, I will completely throw the photo to a second plan and critique only your side notes. Perfect. Didn't need the photo on the left to see it. The blue obelisk, the yellow/orange/green/purple... out of focus little circles, and the black of the night are clearly shining through your words. Never ever I've read a photo with more care than here. You said you wanted a break from b&w...? Well, I am seeing these words in black and white... What a great post!

fixed (3831) 2006-11-08 6:23

hello Luko
élégance, élégance :)
raffiné, raffiné ...
belle imposition de p'tits pois :D
bref, du bô flan ;)
bravo
nono
tit' inspiré aussi ...

Homerhomer (4005) 2006-11-08 8:24

"Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, haha!" as Sasa refers it to, is what I feel about this picture, in a very pleasent and cozy way, infact the little dots are like quiet notes, and the blue are much louder, almost like watching the amplifier in a dark room after few too many shots...
Although I have enjoyed the event in Toronto, I can definetely sympathize with your thoughts, I have been lucky enough to walk around with Mike and Alex, had I gone there by myself it probably would have been quite boring, and a complete disaster had a spouse and my son come with me (although he would have love the ball throwing thingy, see Mike's pic from few weeks ago). Other than that rain, wet, some weird events with tv sets in the yard showing some art that I don't get, tours around the town with no particular purpose etc etc etc.
Having said that I will be going there in the future, all in all I liked it.
Peter

Furachan (0) 2006-11-08 9:23

SPlendid job, Luko. t is indeed good to simply...depart from the norm, fromthe usual measured DOF compos, our bread and butter ictures. This abstractction is beautiful just as it is, even before we read the multi-layered glosses you add to it in your note.
Good one!
-F

vts_ch (2624) 2006-11-08 10:44

Hello Luko,
Ca j'adore et adère parfaitement à cette manière de voir le monde.

Compo parfaite et fond noir tip top.

Bravo

Vince

designsoul (21394) 2006-11-08 14:22

I smile at the Klein reference Luko, I bet they didn't use Klein's women to illuminate these landmarks! Enjoyed your little take on the famous aaaart event, but even more your eventual placing yourself in fate's hand and setting up manual focus with the softest blur imaginable... I do that too sometimes, and am more pleased with the result than as if the camera had behaved. THis has turned out magically, a very nice scene with lots of little glimmers of light. A lovely scene, and in a welcome experimental vein--the result is soft and sensuous...

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, haha!
tc,
sasa
will be back with an International Klein blue smily.

naxius (16679) 2006-11-08 14:32

il faudrait tout de meme penser a nettoyer ton capteur Luko..y a des taches!
sympa le crop et ce bleu, tout klein
Alex

tcht (7298) 2006-11-09 15:58

Hi Luko
those colours are fascinating. especially that softish blue of the structures, which contrasts so well with the solid spheres of the rest. and your note also gives me a very enjoyable read, so tfs lots :)
Best regards
CheukHin

athos99 (6894) 2006-11-09 17:01

Salut Luko
J'aime ce genre de photo, je trouve que l'on ressent les sensations de toutes ces lumières de la nuit sans se perdre dans des détails. Même si c'est flou, on reconnaît les monuments. De plus c'est très esthétique avec de très belles couleurs.

Luan (15935) 2006-11-10 7:34

Hello Luko,

quelques soucis avec l'AF ;o), tiens j'ai trouve ca soeur ici sauf que le delire phallique etait revetu de rose ce soir la. Je trouve que le contenu de ton image manque cruellement de pastilles vertes, je t'apporte donc ma contribution.

A+
Luan

Polonaise (5638) 2006-11-10 15:05

I will spare you Luko, my thoughts and divagations about this photo.
It's just pure, visual enchantment, and sooooo Parisian!
It says that the emotions play an incredibly important role in your creations.
White frame !!!!!!!!!
I LIKE IT A LOT
It fits (as long as it's not pinkish-rose tutu).

Great weekend for you, pal.
g.

PS: 'It fits' applies to this event only.(:-)))

marietom (32076) 2006-11-10 17:11

alors là, chapeau ! C'est génial ! Grande idée.
Marie

ALSOM (6616) 2006-11-14 5:46

Mon billet d'humeur.

J'ai fais cette Nuit Blanche et celui de l'année dernière.
Je crois que j'accroche toujours pas sur certaines oeuvres, pourtant je me donne le temps de les faire ....

Tout cela me parait bien abstrait, limite foutage de gueule pour certaines réalisations ... La pire aura été cette projection sur les toits des tours Grenelle ... Faire sortir les gens dans ce froid pour mater un semblant de je ne sais quoi ... Ah oui il faut rentrer dans le monde de l'artiste ... bon, c'est 2 mondes à part pour l'instant, bien disjoints en ce qui me concerne ...

Même pas le courage d'aller jusqu'à Concorde pour voir cette turgescence qu'on aurait pu croire sponsorisée par un laboratoire pharmaceutique connu pour ces pillules contre les déficiences sexuelles ... Je vois ou vont nos impôts ;o) ...

Créer un photo artistique, à partir de rien me parait beaucoup plus intelligent et abordable que ces artistes qu'on oublie (à raison d'ailleurs) et qu'on ressort le temps d'une nuit.

Une photo festive, colorée avec des confetti, il ne manque plus que les siflets, le chapeau, les tortillons ...

Un flou de toute beauté ... finalement tu vas l'aimé ce 5D !

A jeudi prochain ?
Alain -

dolin (15647) 2006-11-15 6:56

Ca c'est de l'original.
C'est pas du tout dans ton style habituel, mais ca me plait bien.
Pis même si j'ai pas tout tout capter la note, vu mon anglais moyen, j'ai quand même compris un peu ton pdv sur le sujet et la facon dont tu as pris la photo... ;)
Bref, au final, ca donne une image assez spéciale et très intéressante.
Fred

alimo3 (6826) 2006-11-15 17:37

Bonsoir Luko
Comme tu me l’as fait remarquer hier je ne suis pas très actif en ce moment,
J’ai donc raté quelques une de tes images où la qualité est évidente mais je me suis arrêté sur celle-ci qui attire sûrement mon côté enfant avec son aspect kaléidoscope ou plutôt bonbons Dragibus qui s’envolent !
Oui il y a un sens poétique ,une vraie beauté et une composition qui fonctionne bien et cela en toute simplicité.
Une mention spéciale pour les couleurs magnifiques mais surtout pour le dosage du flou .
Une image audacieuse et rafraîchissante.

Tom
Dommage on entendra plus la Takataketique de notre Jean Darme ;-)

Elaine_Blath (6170) 2006-11-17 11:24

Hi Luko,

I really love here like the blurred lights create a very special atmosphere...

Take care, Ivana

dmarizz (2388) 2006-11-19 14:39 [Comment]

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Steely (895) 2006-12-02 7:47

WOW ....

I haven't seen so many platinum crtiques in one place ... WOW is the only thing I got for ya Luko :D

yanseiler (20) 2006-12-05 12:02

Salut Luko, ça me plaît bien ton tableau abstrait, outre les superbes parties bleues j'aime beaucoup toutes ces lumières qui forment de jolis halos... et quelle note... Du moment que j'y suis j'en profite, quelques endroits à voir ou à éviter au Laos ?
A+
Yan

vinser (6) 2006-12-17 2:36

Bonjour Luko,
Très chouette tous ces points colorés,c'est artistique et abstrait,j'apprécie.
Je te remercie pour ton commentaire mis à toto,car je ne suis pas le seul à penser cela de toute sa galerie qui commence à me saouler également,il n'y a franchement rien d'intérressant à y voir et bien sûr aucune qualité technique.
Serge

goonivuz (170) 2007-03-13 20:11

The image on its own is a great funky image.
However your note fills the image with irony. The image has an impressionist quality; whether this was intentional or not, it questions contemporary art VS traditional art values; And given the fact that you are photographing an Aaaaaart event, the lack of focus in the image seems to be a satirical comment on the event itself.
Very well done. A purposeful photograph!

gelor (3224) 2007-05-10 2:36