Blurring the lines...

Just thought I'd post a few shots, one from a couple months ago as part of a shoot geared for the Dirty Show, one from the heat of last summer, and one from last weekend. Photographers will often call up an ages-old technique and apply it in their own way. It's tradition, and there are just some things that are in the common "vocabulary" of photography. Been playing around with some in-camera blurring techniques lately, but I have only posted one of these before, so I just thought I'd "date stamp" them.

Coincidentally, earlier today, I purchased a book that my Amazon "Gold Box" suggested... I wasn't familiar with the work of Francesca Woodman, but she is a fascinating figure, kind of a combination Sylvia Plath/James Dean for photography. She started taking pictures when she was 13 and managed to create a substantial body of innovative and influential work, largely self-portraits, before taking her own life at age 22. I'm looking forward to reading this book and learning more about her work and her life. The coincidental part is that one of her frequent techniques was using motion blur to create very ethereal and surreal images. The image shown here is Space² from the late 1970s, but it certainly would look right at home in the portfolio of many of today's art photographers. It's a timeless image made using a fundamental technique and her personal vision, which is about the most any of us can aspire to.