op ed/add: Photography & Pipes - a new Ashtons
Maxim
Recently a customer, colleague, fellow pipe smoker, friend asked me
why the photographs on web sites are not as fine as those in the back
of P&T Magazine. I explained to him that the P&T ones probably take at
least an hour take ego take each one while a site dealer needs to get
up many pipes as quickly a possible. It is isn’t feasible to spend and
photographing on pipe. As an example, professional photographers use a
dulling spray on any shinny article when the takes pictures for an
advert. Who is willing to delustre a smooth pipe for a photo, and then
replenish to sell.
This set me think about photography as art, something I once was
practitioner off. When photography as being considered as maybe an
art, (early WWI period), one argument against it was the fact because
many prints could be made from a negative this reduced its value as an
art form. Of course, nobody was crass enough to say that if there were
many of an object (reproductions in some form) its monetary value was
less because the rarity value wasn’t there. Later this argument went
by the wayside as photographers brought out limited number edition of
prints from the same negative and in some cases destroyed the negative
after x number of prints.
Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Brassi etc. were artists, no one could
possibly say all photographers are artists or all photographs are. My
pictures of my nieces 10th birthday may be very nice mementos but they
certainly are not art. The essential question was does, in the plastic
arts, a piece have to be one of a kind before it can be considered
art. Like all things in art the answer is maybe, If Michelangelo made
six sculpting from one casting then that is one answer but if had made
6,000 that's mass production.
When it comes to pipes I think we can safely say, many people make
pipes but few are artists in briar. Albeit each pipe is a one of a
kind but does that make it art. The best term I have heard for
describing great pipes is "functional art".
This is what the Bauhaus Design School was advocating back in 1920’s
Germany. They also argued for more “handwerke” in objects. Funny, they
designed chairs, tables, invented the modern metal glass office
building, most of which are ugly as sin, some are beautiful, but never
considered that humble utilitarian article called a “pipe”.
The idea of the Bauhaus was to end what Walter Gropius, one of the
schools founders called the “arrogant class division between artisans
and artists” A pipe is definitely one of the few articles in which
there is no class division between the idea of artisan and artists.
And when attending pipe shows there are no class divisions, as in
normal life, between smokers - all pipe smokers are equal. Whether
it’s a Bo Nordh or a no name pipe you have, you are part of the
community because you are a pipe smoker. What could be more
egalitarian or Utopian than that?
New In Pipes:
Ashton – we added over 15 LX and ELX pipes, including a very rare
bamboo shanked Ashton.
Peter Heeschen – on sale , a very are occurrence in the pipe world.
Estates – we added a nice new bunch all unsmoked.
We had a huge number of pipes come by FEDEX last night, too late to
put up, so we will be adding more pipes all during next week.
Ashtons, Cavicchi’s etc.
Be Well
Smoke Well
Maxim
--
Frederic Bastiat, (1801-1850) French political economists in The Law.
“If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe
to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these
organizers are always good. Do not the legislators and their anointed
agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they
themselves are made of finer clay than the rest of mankind.”
mark tinsky
<c8980ebc-a3ee-4289...@f20g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
Maxim <eng...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Photography & Pipes;
A thought provoking essay. Nice job ! MT
Pacosita
> In article
> <c8980ebc-a3ee-4289-8ad3-9ff50d874...@f20g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
>
> Maxim <eng...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> > Photography & Pipes;
>
> A thought provoking essay. Nice job ! MT
Thought provoking? How complete and utter bullshit?
Cup O' Joes
I explained to him that the P&T ones probably take at
> least an hour take ego take each one while a site dealer needs to get
> up many pipes as quickly a possible. It is isn’t feasible to spend and
> photographing on pipe.
This is not true. The simple fact is that the internet does not lend
itself to hi-res images, where printing does. If you were to take a
file, that was suitable for printing, and and put it up on the
internet at full resolution, it would be too big to display on most
monitors. Conversely, I have seen many times where an internet-
suitable image has been used for a print ad and is totally blurry.
It's all about the resolution.
Mickey
I'm glad that's resolved. ;-)
Pacosita
So why do the pictures at smokingpipes look so much better than the
crap that Maxim has on line? It is very easy to say that it is not
feasible when the truth is that you don't know how or dont have the
talent or skill to do it right.
Al Lanman
As a former "photographer" there is some truth to both sides of this
debate.
Early on I was advised by an older pro, never make it look too easy,
or they won't want to pay you an appropriate fee. So as a
photographer you may well do a little bit of showmanship to make the
production look a little more impressive. I have heard it referred to
as "blowing smoke" and various other catch words, but the whole thing
was to sell the "value" of the end product.
Once the lighting of something like a pipe is set up, you could take
pictures as quickly as you can make any changes you need in the way of
backdrops and props. With electronic images you can even easily add
little touches like smoke curling up from a pip in an ashtray. Then
you reset your lighting and shoot the different angles with the most
challenging being one that shows the interior of the bowl, and the
close up of marking.
There is the story told about the painter who has been challenged by
the customer who wanted 500 chairs painted, and he thought the price
was to high. So the painter meets him at the warehouse and gets his
pain and brushes and has the customer time him on how long it takes to
paint one chair. He takes the time and figures out how long it will
take to paint all the chairs and calculates how much it is per hour
and agrees to the price. After he leaves the painter says to his
assistant "get the spray gun out."
It is true that the images used on the internet are much lower
resolution than those used in print media, and for that matter the
capabilities of a professional camera and professional lighting far
outclass those that we would use on our point and shoot cameras we
carry around for family get-to-gethers. Those lo-rez pix won't show a
slight finger print that would have to be touched up in a hgher
resolution picture, but it is simplest if you make sure there is no
smudge before taking the picture, which a competent professional would
notice and prevent from ever being in the image. And the pro would
take the image and then provide to the client in forms suitable to
various uses (print, electronic, etc.)
Al (in Canada)
