Exploring possible human knowledge
 

Paul Vjecsner

PHOTOGRAPHY

(continued2)

After I was released from the Denver hospital, I secured a job in that city as described here on commercial art pages. At one time I visited nearby Aspen, the famous ski resort, attending a certain design conference held there. It wasn't winter, but the ski lift was operating anyway, taking people high up the mountains and affording a view of the scenery.

I took my camera with me, and the first two pictures below show parts of the ski lift, with me apparently on it. It was on my side no doubt going uphill, because of the bright sunny sky and the perspective in the trees, and tourists are more likely to walk down, leaving seats in that direction empty.

My favorite picture here is understandably the third one, with the imposing Colorado Rockies, which is why I chose the full width of the page for it. These films also became discolored with age, but not to the extent that they couldn't be adequately repaired.

12 May 2004

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PRESUMED IMPOSSIBILITIES, continued1, 2

PHOTOGRAPHY, continued1, 2, 3, 4

PORTRAITURE, continued1, 2, 3

COMMERCIAL ART, continued1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

INVENTION

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, continued1, 2, 3, 4
     
 
     
 

There elapsed about 30 years between the preceding pictures and those following. In the intervening period, if I took any photographs it was not with beauty in mind (if I may use the designation of beauty, unfashionable in today's art world, where what is meritorious is the shocking, without much regard for aesthetics or ability).

The following pictures are themselves ones I took about 20 years ago, with the camera idle since. They are mainly of a twice removed niece of mine, named Zsuzsu (pronounced Zhoozhoo), who is the daughter of my once removed cousin Pali, mentioned as with me in concentration camp and after. She and her mother, her father having died years before, had immigrated to Cleveland, where I took the pictures in three successive years. In the first year, in 1983, I took the following eight pictures.

It may have been noticed in previous ones that I like the play of light and shade, in a natural manner, without artificial means like studio lamps. Many people try to obliterate shadows from especially faces, which, however, can make pictures banal. Also noticed may be that I like trees and flowers to accompany pretty women, and Zsuzsu did have beauty (she probably still does, she lives in Europe now). In these next pictures she was sweet sixteen.

25 May 2004

  
       
 

In these two her locks and dress lent themselves to a baroque style, especially in the second photo.
       
 

With her mother, who was pretty too.
       

Sometimes a shadowy silhouette against a sunny background can bring out beauty.
   

Another such silhouette.
   

A kind of advantageous play of light and shade I like.
   

It can be nice to retain with a shadowy silhouette the subtle distinctions of tone and color.
   
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