Semi fisheye transformation of seeing into sonority: process work sharing.

[RJ-]

Sharing some process work today.


This is St Lawrence waters imaged on the fabulous Bronica SQAI Zenzanon 35mm f3.5 semi fisheye medium format lens (Agfa Scala on to Imago Positive paper).

A lot of photographers detest the kind of semi-fisheye look on film. I found that the unusual uncorrected peripheral field distortion very alluring.

The fisheye always made an image appear [Full] or fuller than a rectilinear so I thought.

Whilst meditating on the still waters amidst its tranquillity, it dawned on me... that the fullness completes the void.

The void finds its fullness in relation to what is around it. Sometimes, photographic vision - seeing - is the only inspiration -which drives me to create and seeing the imperfection of fullness, I search out the void.


This image made it onto my new album release entitled [Fullness & Void], released in Taiwan today. The music is difficult (I won't pretend it's pop) and borne out of the photographer's perspective of seeing things this way. Years ago photography inspired me to create and exhibit. As it has become more intimate, it inspires me towards music.

It's a free gift to listen x3 times if you can bear - long enough to do a long darkroom printing session



Warm wishes
RJ

 

[AnselMortensen]

I think that's a very strong image.
The circular composition really works, leading the eye around, without being too obviously fisheye.
The balance of light and dark tones, with the leading lines of the branches...bravo!
Congratulations on the music project, as well!

 

[ntenny]

Well, this is quite interesting, both the photo and the music. I don’t claim to understand it at first listen, but I’m certainly hooked for more than one try at it. (Are you actually based in Hsinchu? I’m there once or twice a year for work but never had much luck finding photos there.) Congratulations on the release, and thank you very much for posting it!

-NT

 

[MARTIE]

I like the image and I think it shows that all lenses can work when used well.

 

[koraks]

I think the photo is beautiful; I agree with what @AnselMortensen said about it. Except for the music. Sorry, I'm Ok in principle with a stream-of-consciousness strumming session, but please, please, please tune the instrument before commencing...

 

[RJ-]

I think that's a very strong image.
The circular composition really works, leading the eye around, without being too obviously fisheye.
The balance of light and dark tones, with the leading lines of the branches...bravo!
Congratulations on the music project, as well!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Everything you've described is how I used to analyse and teach composition looking at an image.

I didn't look for this principle, yet was drawn by it. It was one of my students who pointed out to me that the image embodies the principle of Fullness in the Void, and the Void in the Fullness,

After imaging, I can make sense of it. This is what she showed me from the image.

 

[RJ-]

Well, this is quite interesting, both the photo and the music. I don’t claim to understand it at first listen, but I’m certainly hooked for more than one try at it. (Are you actually based in Hsinchu? I’m there once or twice a year for work but never had much luck finding photos there.) Congratulations on the release, and thank you very much for posting it!

-NT

Yes the music label is based at the Jiang Shan Arts Institute in Hsinchu- do stop by the artistic quarter when you come! I totally get what you mean about the city deadening for photos there. Most of the hip photographers engage in metro and street photography rather than the fauna or environmental space where the city has a thriving university population.

I'm not in Hsinchu - mostly in Korea now and back from performing much moore conventional music at the London Wandsworth Arts Festival in England. I return to England mostly for the darkroom which is much easier to manage than overseas.

Thanks for stopping by and digging deeper NT!

 

[RJ-]

I like the image and I think it shows that all lenses can work when used well.

When this Bronica Zenzanon semi-fisheye lens came into my hands, a lot of feedback was highly negative about the optical barrel distortion.

Our tastes are relative to our age and culture. The distortions of Petzval, achromats and triplet lenses, now much vaunted, were seen as inferior to an age of rectilinear optical lens development.

I share your stance in embracing the Fullness: all lenses can work when used well.

 

[RJ-]

I think the photo is beautiful; I agree with what @AnselMortensen said about it. Except for the music. Sorry, I'm Ok in principle with a stream-of-consciousness strumming session, but please, please, please tune the instrument before commencing...

and then there is the Void lol.

I see you didn't survive getting past the first track of the album

The instrument you are hearing on the first track, is the rare medieval Korean Hyang Bipa. It is not western tuned (a western expectation) to equal temperament. It is tuned to an ancient scale which follows the then royal courts of the pre-Joseon era in Korea. It isn't fretted chromatically either. No wonder the instrument died out in the modern era.

This 'out of tune' instrument is only used twice in the album. It frames the start and the end of the album in palindrome structure just as the fisheye lens distortion frames the peripheral visual field. This much is intentional.

The album of music was conceived from the image: so for the uninitiated viewer of the fisheye lens, it does seem rather 'out of tune' with normal rectilinear expectations.

These silk strings are stretched and twisted hence distortion your perception of the already 'out of pitch with western music' deliberately and even further: this is how I see the semi-fisheye optic stretching and distorting the visual landscape.

Thanks for stopping by Koraks. This is a photography forum and its extension into the aural field is peripheral to the central theme of the Visual. Even that has its edges.

Warm wishes
RJ

 

[koraks]

I see you didn't survive getting past the first track of the album

No, I didn't, I'm sorry. I accept your explanation that the tuning is just different from what my Western background expects. I'm not familiar with classical Korean music; I'm aware of other tonal systems than the one I grew up in and the fundamental issues this brings with appreciating the art!