This month, another bonus. The Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper features two scenic spots. The first is the harbor at Mackinac Island.
And also featured for the month of September was previewed last month. The view of Au Sable Falls that is up close and in there. Refreshing and abstract.
Technically, most of September is still summer. Try to enjoy!
August means summer exploring. If you are exploring the Upper Peninsula, you may very well be exploring waterfalls or the Pictured Rocks. If that’s the case, you will certainly find yourself at the Au Sable Falls.
So in a twist of irony, let’s make the September calendar feature the Au Sable Falls.
This month, we feature the Round Island Lighthouse, near Mackinac Island.
And we have even more exploring from here. If we are at Au Sable Falls, keep going down the stairs to enjoy a secluded beach on Lake Superior! Or if we are near the Round Island Light, that can only mean we are most likely headed to Mackinac Island. That too will be featured at the Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper.
The following paragraphs are footnotes and afterthoughts to expand this video from the three-part series on Edward Curtis and The North American Indian.
I’m not sure if this video is too long or too short. It’s a bit long as a YouTube standard.
But a lot of information was cut to keep it manageable.
The particular focus here is the topic of pictorialism.
To reemphasize, the Pictorialism Movement (around 1890-1910) was first and foremost about the presentation of photography as ART. The common thread of these “pictorialists,” was not about photographic style, but about artistic expression.
Today’s sources of information place an incorrect emphasis on a style of photography. Their thesis statement would describe the Pictorialism Movement as a style that is blurry, fuzzy, out-of-focus, heavily manipulated, and romanticized.
Also noteworthy, today’s experts consider Alfred Stieglitz as the primary influence of the Pictorial Movement. In America and New York City, that would be correct. However, The Pictorial Movement was a global movement.
I can appreciate how the experts today would come to their conclusion. It is very easy to find a few quotes from that time period that backs up their thesis. And that conclusion is entirely incorrect.
My thesis statement is that pictorialism in photography is NOT a style but rather a branch of photography, contrasted by straight photography.
Pictorial Movement was rooted in London. Paris, Vienna, and many other locales were also squarely in the middle of this movement.
Remember, in definition and regular usage, the term PICTORIAL was synonymous with ART. So in Paris, it would not have been called Pictorial Photography. It would have been called L’art Photographique.
Simple. The main challenge here, is that picture and pictorial have different meanings today then 125 years ago.
Moreover, the experts will expand the timeline by saying the Straight Photography Movement followed.
In that timeline, call it a hundred years ago, it technically was not a movement. The era was witness to the same debate. With different figures leading the charge. Pictorial vs. Straight photography. Artistic vs. Mechanical Duplication photography.
It could be said there was a Pure Photography movement. Maybe. Those that were interested in pictorial photography continued the pursuit of the naturalistic representation of nature.
As photography was becoming accepted as ART, the “impressionistic” or “painterly” style of photography was beginning to fade. I’m referring to the style or treatment of photography that is improperly called pictorialism: fuzzy, blurry, romanticized, heavily manipulated.
It’s easy to see when looking back in time. Painters saw the photographer instantly and automatically portraying the natural delicacy of blending light into shadow and the perfect accuracy of linear perspective.
Photographers were imitating paintings less and less. Likewise, Painters were imitating photographs less and less.
I will simply conclude with my opinion of the era commonly called the Modern Art Movement. It all got muddy.
Painters found trend and fashion in breaking away from the trends and fashions.
There was brilliant art being made a hundred years ago. And there were also groups with different agendas making statements in the name of art. Statements, creatively stated. But was it artistic? Was it art? It’s like they were singing an interesting lyric, but the melody sounded like playing the piano while wearing boxing gloves.
Stay tuned. This discussion on pictorialism in photography is to be continued.
The History Channel is home to such television hits as American Pickers and Pawn Stars. I thoroughly enjoy that one show where a couple of Michigan boys are hunting for treasure — The Curse Of Oak Island.
And likewise, the spin-off series, The Curse of Civil War Gold. This series hits close to home. By that I mean three miles from where I am currently sitting, my back yard. Muskegon Michigan is the epicenter of this treasure hunt.
This story begins at the end of the Civil War. Confederate Union president Jefferson Davis is captured by the North, and it turns out all of the bank vaults are empty. So where did all this gold go? Civil War buffs will discuss this topic with the same enthusiasm as the topic of Batman at Comic-Con.
This fresh theory is introduced by a deathbed confession; an eyewitness account of a boxcar plunging into the water from a Lake Michigan train ferry.
Enter: Charles Hackley. In a nutshell, Hackley came to Muskegon in its early days as a lumbertown, became wealthy, and shared his wealth with Muskegon as a well-known philanthropist.
The belief is that Charles Hackley had something to do with this Confederate gold and it may have contributed to his wealth.
The video at the top of this page is one that I made as a lighthearted parody/satire. The germination process of the idea was completely involuntary. Therefore I carry no responsibility for its content. Besides, it’s all in fun.
Without any “spoiler alert” warning, I will add that there really is no treasure map. However, there is an Easter Egg. 🙂
This month there are two choices for Picture Michigan desktop Wallpaper.
Traditionally I would make July wallpaper from a fireworks scene. That is the case again this month, but with the option of another choice to split the time or simply choosing one over the other.
The second choice is an abstraction of the Presque Isle Light meat Alpena.
The month of March can offer any of the four seasons on any given day. That is, depending where you may find yourself in Michigan.
This visit to the Grand Haven Pier was a memorable one. I’ve walked this pier hundreds of times in all the seasons. The natural decorations were breathtaking! Muscular ice wrapped the entire structure like it was science fiction!