Does humour belong in Photography?

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pentaxuser

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And sadly, if you read through it, there are a bunch of the original participants who are either no longer here, or no longer on this earth.:sad:

Matt, I had never seen this thread before but those were my thoughts as well. I recognised at least two people who are now deceased and others that I cannot recall seeing in many years. A little depressing in a way

How does anybody see a thread today that after 12-13 years must be "buried miles underground"? Just curious as to the actual mechanism that brings it to the surface again so to speak.

Thanks

pentaxuser
 

Sirius Glass

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Where did this thread come from some of the people haven't posted for thirteen years?

It rose from the dead.
hqdefault.jpg
 

removed account4

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Matt, I had never seen this thread before but those were my thoughts as well. I recognised at least two people who are now deceased and others that I cannot recall seeing in many years. A little depressing in a way

How does anybody see a thread today that after 12-13 years must be "buried miles underground"? Just curious as to the actual mechanism that brings it to the surface again so to speak.

Thanks

pentaxuser

hi pentaxuser
i was something in the open like a rake i stepped on
and it appeared in my similar threads box so i looked
it was right there ready to read and laugh or cry with.
 

MattKing

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The real question is whether John's "Similar Threads" list is unlike anyone else's list here!:whistling:
 

RalphLambrecht

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Recalling the recent thread about Aperture and how the current output of contemporary artists seem to depress some, and/or baffle others, I would like to ask the question: Can a photograph be funny AND be a work of art at the same time? I stand on the ground that a photograph can be a work of art, but I could not for the longest time think of having ever laughed during an exhibition. Many great photographs are contemplative, touching, moving, provocating, but which of them make you laugh? Have you ever peed your pants watching a great print? If not, why would laughter be evacuated from the range of emotions that good photography and art in general should convey to their viewers? Is it even possible to tell a joke with a picture?

James Joyce is one of my favorite author not jut because I'm a geek and actually bother to follow the arcane details of his writing, but also because he's so damn funny while being a brilliant writer at the same time. Great satirists like Swift, Sterne (also Irishmen, come to think of it), Voltaire, Dickens can be hilarious, but writing and other narrative art have the benefit of temporality, which is often essential to buildup a situation leading to a punch. Photography is not essentially temporal, though you may appreciate separate elements of the picture in a succession ("diachronically" if you will) rather than simultaneously ("synchronically"). I presume it is harder to create a reaction like laughter, that needs a buildup, with a medium in which everything is visible at once. However, I stand convinced of the humorous expressive power of pictures after having seen a great photo spread of the Little Britain actors in UK Vogue last month (for those foreign to the series, LB is a BBC sketch comedy act figuring various impersonations of British type characters).

So who laughs in the museums?
humor belongs everywhere; would be a sorry life without it.
 

Theo Sulphate

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...
How does anybody see a thread today that after 12-13 years must be "buried miles underground"? Just curious as to the actual mechanism that brings it to the surface again so to speak.
...

Two ways: either someone does a google search on a topic, which finds the thread, and they reply to it, or they attempt to post a new thread, type in the title, and a list of previous threads appear, one of which they reply to.
 

pentaxuser

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Thanks, both, for the replies. After 13 years here there are still a lot of mechanisms on Photrio I am unaware of. I like the by accident analogy of stepping on the garden rake in the open :D

pentaxuser
 

Arklatexian

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Cannot believe no one has yet mentioned Philippe Halsman. His "Dali Atomicus" made me laugh the instant I saw it, over 50 years ago.

What inspired that photo and the day-long process it took to produce it is quite a story.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Salvador_Dali_A_(Dali_Atomicus)_09633u.jpg
I remember those pictures. Philippe Halsman was one of my favorites. He took my favorite portrait of Jean Simmons with a Rollei (at least that's what Rollei said in the book I bought on how to use a Rollei). ......Regards!
 

Arklatexian

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humor belongs everywhere; would be a sorry life without it.
Humor is very tricky when sharing it with people in other places. A funny joke here in the USA is almost never funny in Germany, England, France. A Texas A&M Aggie joke that is funny all over Texas and most of Louisiana falls flat in Germany. I know, I've tried and I see no reason to think a funny photograph would be any different. How many "funny" paintings have any of you seen?......Regards!
 

Theo Sulphate

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...A funny joke here in the USA is almost never funny in Germany ...

That's because the USA joke doesn't reference a snorkeling device.
 

Bill Burk

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That's because the USA joke doesn't reference a snorkeling device.
Reminds me of a line in “99 Dead Baboons,” Tim Cavanagh translated the German song to English and one of the lines he wasn’t sure of was... “What a happy snorkeling device”
 

Vaughn

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Many of Ted Orland's photographs have a humerous side...images that often require the title to complete the humor. Such as "One and a Half Domes". And then there are the visual puns of John Pfahl. Work that bring a smile.
 

Theo Sulphate

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Reminds me of a line in “99 Dead Baboons,” Tim Cavanagh translated the German song to English and one of the lines he wasn’t sure of was... “What a happy snorkeling device”

Good catch, Bill!

I remember that song parody - I'm a longtime fan of Dr. Demento and I still have a few audio tapes of his show when it aired in Portland in the mid-1980's.
 

Arklatexian

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That's because the USA joke doesn't reference a snorkeling device.
I didn't mean to pick on just Germans. Outside of some Monty Python humor, have any in this group living in the U.S. and maybe even in Canada ever found English humor funny?.......Regards!....Other than some Alec Guiness (sp) movies, that is?
 

Vaughn

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I spent a year at uni in New Zealand in 1975. Television was limited, but Benny Hill was funny, borderline stupid. The Two Ronnies were good.
 

MattKing

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I didn't mean to pick on just Germans. Outside of some Monty Python humor, have any in this group living in the U.S. and maybe even in Canada ever found English humor funny?.......Regards!....Other than some Alec Guiness (sp) movies, that is?
Regularly. However, just as in Canadian humour and USA humour, some of it I find funny, some of it I find unfunny, and some of it I can't understand at all.
Only an English comedic actor could make me laugh at the sight of a man stuck head first into a turkey.
And only an English actor of true genius could both make me laugh and fill me with a mixture of wonder and dread by climbing a crucifix and appearing to nap.

Anyone here recognize the references?
 

chris77

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raymond depardon (magnum)
just saw his exhibition in arles, yesterday.
 

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