Category Archives: Photography

Jul 17 0 comments
Photographic Sunday, Photography

Photographic Sunday – Cranbrook, 1981



Hello to all my Napkin Kin!  A few weeks ago I finished my very first short story, ‘Sunday in Sunrise’.  I published it here on successive Sundays for about 3 months.  I am editing it now and will be offering it as an e-book in the near future.


Now I would like to set aside several Sundays to show you some of my photography. I used film until 2005 so any images predating then you can assume are film images, any after that will be digital.



I would love to answer any questions you have or hear any comments about the images or the stories attached to them.  Comments make my world go ’round so don’t be shy!
Let’s get started, shall we?  

Portrait with Oval

In 1980 I started graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  There was a young woman manning the gift shop at the museum and she allowed me to do a series of portraits of her.  The best of the bunch were the oval series with the ceiling light alcove being the only other thing in the image.  

Portrait with Triangle

I got a work-study job in the Cranbrook Museum, helping to install exhibitions.  One of them was a conceptual art exhibition that took up the entire museum. One of the rooms was a series of geometric wall drawings in pastel by Sol LeWitt.  We did the actual drawings with specific instructions from LeWitt as to how they should be realized.  When I had some time off from the project I brought in a fellow student and took some photos of her with the walls being prepped as a background.

My wife at the time had a job at a restaurant in the nearby town.  A fellow waitress was hoping to do some modeling so we took some time to do some portfolio shots. We also did some shots on a very gray, foggy day that were mysterious and moody. These were my favorite shots from that year.

© 2011 Marty Coleman – All rights reserved.

Nov 05 2 comments
Art, creativity, Oscar Wilde, Photography, portrait

>Every Portrait That Is Painted With Feeling

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I should take a pic of day #5 of ‘Photography Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily
In photography or any other medium an artist is the one who is not trying to copy.  They have in their head a vision, an idea, a concept, an attitude that compels them to create something out of it all.  Something that is not just a news record of a person or event or place.

If they don’t have anything in their head when they start the process they know how to find it.  They find it by being curious and fearless, by going places not easily arrived at, looking at things not easily seen, asking questions not easily asked. 

What they come up with may start with the scene or person in front of them but it goes well beyond that to include who they are as well.

Here are some portraits I have done that I think are more about me than about the sitter.

The Woman in Dallas Let Her Hair Down – 2009



The Storm Inside



The Journey to the Interior

Drawing and photographs by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer and raconteur

Nov 04 0 comments
Ansel Adams, Photography

>You Don't Take A Photograph

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I am making this day #4 of ‘Photography Week’ at the Napkin Dad Daily
There has been a debate within the photography world ever since the advent of the digital camera and software such as Photoshop that can be used to work on photographs.

The debate is between ‘purists’ those who believe what comes straight out of the camera is the final product and any manipulation of it after the fact is a no no.  If one does manipulate the image, then it is an indication of them being an inferior photographer since they should have been able to get it right while taking the photo.  This is true for cropping, color, tonal range, hue & saturation and most any other element within the photo.

The other side has the ‘manipulators’.  They believe that there is nothing wrong with working on an image in a software program. Any and all things that can be done to a photo is allowed, all that matters is what does it look like in the end.  The method by which that end result is achieved isn’t important.  The photographer that settles for a boring photograph out of a principle that says it has to stay in it’s ‘natural’ state is missing the point of image making.

So, I can guess you probably realize that I fall on the side of the manipulators.  I have good company, by the way.  The author of this quote is THE single most famous photographer, EVER.  He was a master of the utmost degree.  He is so popular that he has become a cliche. And to be honest I disliked his work for many years for that exact reason. All I saw were the cliche, famous images that were so over publicized as to have no visual value to me at all.  I thought of him as the easy listening photographer. Boring.

Then I saw two exhibits of his work and read up on him and his efforts over many years.  I was utterly and completely blown away by his range of images, his work ethic, his philosophical progression and his character.   In my investigation I realized that this person who so many saw as the premier example of ‘the purist’ was actually the master manipulator.

He worked in film, not digital, but his manipulations were no less extensive.  His ability to bring out the essence of a scene came not just from his taking the photo at the right time and knowing his technique, but in working within the darkroom, dodging; burning, picking the right developer, the right paper, the right temperature, the right timing.

I am glad to have Ansel Adams beside me in the manipulator camp.

Here are a few of his less well known images.
The Tetons and The Snake River – 1942



Freeway Interchange – 1967



Sand Cove – 1944

Nov 03 0 comments
Dorothea Lange, Photography

>The Camera Is An Instrument

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I don’t have a photographic memory, but I think this is day #3 of ‘Photography Week’ at the Napkin Dad Daily
One thing I have always tried to teach my students, whether formally when I was a college instructor, or informally in my photo group, is that your eye is the deciding factor in whether you are going to make great images, NOT your technical ability.  You have to be able to look beyond the obvious and see what else is available.

Maybe it’s shape, texture, content, patterns, color, emotion.  But what you first see is not always what is most important.  Perhaps what is next to that main element is actually more important.  Maybe the combination of those things will give you the image you want. Maybe the empty space in between the elements are what really tell the best story in that scene.

Taking the most obvious picture will usually yield the most obvious response. The most obvious response usually dissipates very quickly, leaving the viewer feeling a bit cheated. The image becomes like propaganda, the simplest message delivered in the simplest way possible.  And unless you are trying to pound someone with a message, it also becomes the most boring way as well.

Here are some of my more interesting landscape photos.

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas



Arrow and Indian



Four Circles



Four Shadows / One Wall


Drawing and photographs by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Dorethea Lange, 1895-1965, American photographer


Nov 02 1 comments
Paul Strand, Photography

>It Is One Thing

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It’s unexpectedly day #2 of ‘Photography Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily

I love taking portraits. But it’s very hard for me to do studio work. The lack of background, the lighting, it all lessens the ability to get to the heart of someone.  I know there is a place for those types of portraits and I do them, even have a studio to do so, but I prefer natural light, natural environment portraits.  I can get into who a person is much easier that way.


Sun


Rust

Open





Drawing and Photographs by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily


Quote by Paul Strand, 1890-1976, American photographer and filmmaker.


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