Untitled by Imants Krumins
… thought about it………… I should buy a pair of goal posts for the backyard ………….. instead of kicking my soul aimlessly
.
.
Bio:
…………………. lived most of my life in Australia
Exhibited on the Continent, The New World and The Old World ………. No awards prizes etc
Author of some current Visual Arts textbooks
Limited interest in pro·to·col \ˈprō-tə-ˌkȯl, –ˌkōl, –ˌkäl, -kəl\
Imants Krumins
Not sure what’s happening here, but it’s brilliant. I suppose because I want to know, and I’m captivated by the image: esp. the odd position of the hands and the two metal objects.
i cant resist..
(traveling all night..6:40am…havent slept..)
and then i saw Imants’ photo…
BRILLIANT…
from another planet..unique style..I didnt even know how much i like b&w until i saw this..
No cliches, not the usual..cant classify it.. not a follower..
Imants’ school..Art? photojournalism?
both?
OUT OF THIS WORLD..
Imants is genius..I use to hate him for that..envy him.i was trying to “explain” him and i couldnt..
respect? more than that..a little bit of “fear”? yes , i felt that too..
but i know better than that..I made friends with myself..and i have no problem to admit that whoever shot this photo above..is simply..A GENIUS..
an original…
:))))))))))))))))))))))
black
silver
liquid
light…
skin
hands
water
and
rings….
and
a gesture
and
a glance…
a moment…
**
a BEAUTIFUL photograph…
***
almost feel at home seeing this.. Indiaxyou intoxicating bitch..
mean … super mean…
without the picture and just the artist’s statement..
without the statement and just the picture…
best artist statement so far…
unpretentious… just mean… ;))
overcome
by raw emotion
lost ability
to write
a proper sentence
writing nonsense
restless traveller
photographs
dont
have to be
good
just
know
how to
distract from them
pro-to-col!!!
unique vision
it’s ours
joining
in
a chorus
of
self
proclaimed
artists
their
souls
BURN
in need for
attention
restless traveller
Mean? and lean…
Brilliant.
polished
above
SPEECHLESS
Brilliant?
Genius?
SPEECHLESS?
beautyful?
It’s hard to define from a single shot.
May be I’m viewing a different photo :( but I saw only a very contrasty image without a meaning…
with respect
GB
I like the picture very much, too.
Technically very good. It is contrasty, but you still see structure within the blacks and in the whites.
The Layout is wonderful – the lines of the arm and the leg, the pot … it is well-balanced.
This picture binds me to look and find things, and the story builds up in my mind.
This creates meaning.
Gaetano. Haik, John…ALL..I cant recall when was the last time we saw ( or at least i saw ) such impressive black & white here on Burn..i think it must have been Bob Blacks’ almost a year ago..and maybe Francescos?( do i recall the name right?) a month ago ( that great essay with the girls bare chest that raised controversy etc..)
But for real..As David mentioned in a previous thread 11 out of 10 essays here on Burn are submitted in a black & white form..( converted or not ) i dont care…doesnt matter…this one here from Imants should be tought in schools…
i remember a conversation we had a while ago about being able to “see” in b&w..people were claiming they can “see” in b&w..people claimed they can “walk” on the water..they can give back the light to the blind..
people claimed they can only see “vertical”..they can read “densities”…& “entities” and “dieties”…and also know the magic diet or cure cancer…
as i said there is Thodoris that is a master printer and the kids really knows about b&w..
we have BobB, francesco that they play b&w like a violin..& for the rest of US…
lets zip it, watch & learn…
thank u Imants…
tell em how it is..
and show US how it suppose to be ( look like )..
big hug
( who said u cant enjoy great b&w on the screen???)
SEBASTIAN…
u obviously think u got some unique sense of humor..i can see why u r so envious..( sorry i meant jealous )..
although i promised not to speak to the TROLLS anymore.here im doing an exception for you…
Since u love Burn..since u spent already half of your life here..why dont u let Wendy to teach u how to write? or Imants or bob how to do some b&w?…Proclaimed artists? little Troll? All of them in Burn?
And you are the “real” one?…
One against All? mr..Sebastian Che Guevarra?..mr Sebastian 2PAC??
gtefuckouttahere..little troll…
All…running for coffee…noon..waking up in grecolandia…need to eat , shower and skype couple good friends…
big hug
“May be I’m viewing a different photo :( but I saw only a very contrasty image without a meaning…
with respect
GB”
Well, Gaetano, sometimes the gushy love here leaves you feeling like a Saint Bernard has been licking your face for 30 minutes. I agree, though. I don’t think this one will be on the walls of MOMA anytime soon.
i dont understend what’s happening here, but it’s a GREAT photograph.
very special and technically so good.
like panos said : looks like from another planet
good choise david!
un saludo
oh ..sorry i left John Gladdys’ b&w abilities out…i love John G’s style …
and of course master John Vink also does not any introduction from me…Y’already
know he is great at what he does..
big hug..
running bobb style for coffee..:))
We don’t have the “one comment only” restriction here, do we?
Gaetano, Jim.
Could you please explain what creates your standpoint? – I am curious and want to learn from that.
What do you see, what we don’t .. or vice versa?
Thomas, my opinion is that the photo aspires to be more than it is.
Jim, how can a photo do that? Is it not the viewer interpreting into it?
Thomas multiple comments are ok…..you can play rabbits and ferrets to your heart’s content.
Jim 10-91 and 10-23
The graphical elements engaged me the moment the image came up.
But, “limited interest in protocol”? This image screams protocol; the washing of the feet at Temple from the Bible, Rembrandt’s ‘Return of the Prodigal Son’; one of the favourite parts of the body to cleanse. Isn’t this an image dealing with the protocol of respect for others – as well as for self?
ps. thanks to all who left a comment
Thomas, a photo means nothing apart from the interpretation of others? The photographer had no intent?
Jeff, I think Imants is having a little fun with us.
10 4
Jeff on the plane I made up all this stuff I was going to do then it dawned on me I had no visa ……… got returned to sender…….returned and promptly forgot the stuff and ttp://www.artouko.com/im.htm
http://www.artouko.com/im.htm
It’s a photograph
Jeff..
Yes.. exactly.. spot on… Respect for the Sacred, the Sacred place, Oneself, and Others.
I think to recognize this one must first of all, be familiar with this ritual.
laughing…
it was 6:40am.. i was travelling…haven(‘t slept )…
how i wish it was 4:20…
( i never had the ability to write a proper sentence anyways..)
but im able for a
big hug…
squeeze type a hug..
( burp )
:)
it´s a pretty simple composition.. rule of thirds n all that – it works.
made more complex by the three limbs n hands.
i like the photo.. seems formal and almost still-life painterly, ethereal feel (seems gaussian blur) comes from the steal pot against the rough ground and harsh shadow.
reminds me i have to bath tor capa tonight.
chairs krumins
d
The photo strikes me as an effective visual representation of suffering and degradation. I like the geometry of the composition, the placement of both the content and the tones. It’s enjoyable as an abstract. The metallic aspect, I think, separates it from similar photos with similar intent. I like the way it evokes (for me at least) the idea of chains without indulging the cliche. Very well done, imo.
this photograph reminds me of stayajit ray movies …. his impeccable attention to detail of middle class life in bengal … …. havent thought about his work for a while … many thanks for reminding !
Imants :))))
no time to write, but only this for u…
thinking of this pic, made me think of this
i know u understand that i understand that u understand :)))))
now, how to explain that to the rest of the world? ;))…
silver as the fleece of a wolf, blacks as the light against shoulders and teeth…
from your picture, thinking of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8lUC2Pjtoc
hugs
bob
OK I’m calling you out.
You can hide in your institution.
You know you have more.
We know You have more…
If ya gunna talk the talk ya betta start walkn..
badabom.
Imants,
I imagine a human.
He can make and use instruments.
His hands, scars and wooden legs tell some history.
He was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity.
But he knows very small difference in repeating rolling it.
His name is Sisyphus. one human. :))
It is simply my imagination. I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks and congratulations!
Kyunghee Lee…
had no idea u can speak greek..:)))))
big hug
Hi, Panos!
hahaha… Yes, I know your home story.
I’ve enjoyed your pictures of Greece very much.
Thank you :)))
Sorry, but what is this? People can love it, fine. For me, it is one of the weakest singles published on Burn. I mean, this is pretty much straight from places like TrekEarth.com. Rather cliche travel photography kind of stuff, composed in a cliche rule of thirds way.
Truth is between Panos’s genius claims (sacré Panos!) and Rafal’s pooh-poohing.
And that’s good Imants! I always applaud you striving at achieving anything but viscerally personal, not in the end (we all end up personal, usually), but from the beginning.
That you can do that with a picture that calls out at first so many past references, even the “I have seen it somewhere, before” remark, is a tribute to your, weirdly enough, iconoclastic imagination. You ask no question and take no prisoner.
We’ll never meet at the centre, but we’ll meet at the extremes. That’s Imants for me. Your unique individuality is cause to celebrate.
Brilliant was also about Imants.
Imants you are one freaking polished carbon formula. the black type.
ha – “it’s a photograph”. phew.
Hi Herve :)
Beautiful, sculptural picture. Love the battered pot, the rings, the bangle and the movement. Stunning.
I keep coming back to this image…and coming back and coming back. I can’t say why exactly; it’s just, for me, a deeply spiritual experience. Not religious ’cause I’m not a religious person, but spiritual. It sings a soundless song. Thank you, Imants, for taking and sharing it.
Patricia
Kyunghee. Juliette ……… I guess that is the way it is in the sub continent as simple or complicated as one makes it
First look, immediate reaction: like this picture a lot!!!
To me it is this raw texture and this blackness of the arms, leg and foot plus the shadow and the liquid from the bowl which attract my eye. These shiny rings ask for attention as well.
Thanks for this great image! A joy to look!
Just a few minutes ago I contemplated which image I would like to see in a frame. Imants, forget about MOMA. I have some nice frames standing around waiting to be filled. This picture would certainly be most welcome on my wall! Of course I would never say no to a Kyunghee Lee island image or a loose Skoulidas!
Ahhhh – enough of this adulation! Gets a bit too much – I know, I know!
So how about a pair of goal posts for the backyard? Or a frisbee perhaps? Ups, I forgot – you Aussies use this boomerang thing…
Best
Reimar
I Like the composition, and technically is very good. The high contrast alows to communicate many sensations and describe a context with few elements. Saludos from Costa Rica,
Pura Vida!
“the way it is in the sub continent as simple or complicated as one makes it”
isn´t that life?
This is an unremarkable photo . . .
Imants
Some of your work I like a lot, the more traditional stuff, and some of it just goes over my head.
This photo is somewhere in the middle. On a traditional level it is OK but not spectacular. I sense there is some spiritual connection to be had here, but I’m afraid I’m not up to connecting with it. My loss I suppose.
You strike me as a person who spends a lot of time “in your head” if you know what I mean. I mean that only as an observation. I know I don’t spend enough time in mine, and that I connect with the world very much on a surface level. Getting back to your photograph, on the surface, there is not much to be had.
One of my sons is trying to finish up his high school english. He was complaining about having to do poetry. I was trying to explain to him, that beyond roses are red kind of poetry, that the value and the beauty of literature lies beneath its’ surface. Great literature has an engaging surface, but many layers beneath to be explored.
I think the same must be true of great photographs. They must be accessable on the surface to draw you in. The layers beneath exist sometimes only in the mind of the viewer or the artist. What you bring to a work of art is at least as important as what it contains. A good peice of art has a life of it’s own.
Thanks for the stimulation.
The image reflects the attitude of a lazy photographer….
maybe – he knows how to market hissen though.
hohoho
refreshing …
they said its sacred river but I am there not to purifying my pointless soul. just washing my legs so i can wandering around to another time and space …
it’s a cool pic. more interesting though are the comments and interpretations of it.
would be interested to see what Imants’ wants us to see this as, if anything at all.
Jonathan..:)
Imants dont give a fuck..
and thats the cool part…
yeah, thats what im thinking!
Click on Eglons Spekis name for an insight…………………
Doesn’t give a fuck? Well maybe, but I’m not seeing it. Appears to me to be quite the opposite.
I really like this photo. To me this is what B&W is all about. Any other use I find contrived and shallow. This reduction of visual information leaves the essence of something that goes beyond the photo and like the layers of god’s onion is waiting to be explored. But once you peel the onion and remove all the layers you have destroyed the onion. Let’s not destroy Imants onion let us just enjoy it’s simplicity and marvel at it’s hidden meanings.
But alas, as the sun destroys the moon and another day dawns it is still just an onion. Breath freshener anyone?
“This reduction of visual information leaves the essence of something that goes beyond the photo and like the layers of god’s onion is waiting to be explored.”
but frank – will it match the curtains?
David,
That actually is a great question. Apparently Black is the new black so B&W photos will match perfectly with the curtains. It is so very ‘Wallpaper’.
:ø)
frank.. with so much bnw abstraction and people parts on the walls of ikea waiting to be snapped up,,
__
i think it´s obvious imants cares passionately about photography and therefore, by extension, his own work..
personally, it´s great to see something font free..
could he give a monkeys-aunt what we think?
probably no..
after all – why care?
i mean what we think of him and whether we like the snap..
it´s interesting to read some perpectives
I keep coming back to the echos of the textures…on the stone, the metal container, the skin….
I’m not sure if it’s something I’d select for my wall, but I do keep coming back and it does pull me into it…
a.
Panos
Don’t ever beleive anyone who tries to give you the impression that they don’t give a fuck.
Otherwise, why bother submitting?
Gordon..:)
nobody said it..
that was simply my assumption…
big hug
Imants dont give a fuck..and thats the cool part…
———————————–
what would be cool about that?!?!?
Imant’s submission makes a point. That the text (here none, at least about the photo, about where, when, how, why, leaving us to define the “what?” ourselves…If we wish so) does influence people a lot, in their comments, and eventual judgement.
Here, no one as far as I remember, has questionned or commented upon its making, processing, even wondered about the subject (when it’s been done for just about evry series or photo with text and obvious processing).
People have answered as if they knew instantly what Imants wanted to show them (but no one ever dared tell us, knowing very well they treaded on ignorance). And really, IMO, as if it did not matter, preferring to lazilytransferring their own personality and idiosyncratic “soulfulness” to it. That’s all nice, mind you but a bit too philistine, either too led by the nose, or too left to self-convincing.
And will make just about every photo, every image, a deep, resonating work of art , or inversely, a piece of shit, if wished for.
I have no problem saying I miss a lot of “information” about this photo. Even if I had a deep feel about it, my first response, or rather second, woud be to very much question myself why i feel like that.
Is it me, is it the picture/subejct, is it the treatment, is it Imants personality (meaning viewing it against other works from his)? This whole idea that you could have an epiphany about a photograph, while being completely ignorant , WISHING to be even, completely ignorant of what brought it about, or may be, and how that comes about, i cannot buy.
If you think this is very simply, a neat photograph, then you have not understood one bit what Imants is striving for (if we see a photograph), or dealing/playing with (if we see an image, that is the medium used is unimportant, in regards to the manipulation/creation).
Um Eglons…(Imants), are you havin’ us on here?
Personally, and maybe I’m just shallow by your way of reckoning Herve, I don’t want Imants to tell me what that photo is about. On one hand, it seems to me the meaning is quite obvious and I would be disappointed were that to be confirmed. On the other, if the meaning is not what it appears to be, I’d likely be equally disappointed with any other necessarily narrow definition. Better, for me, to leave a little mystery, or at least the hope thereof.
And I’ve no more interest in how it was processed than I do with what kind of camera/accessories combination he used to create it. That’s not to say I’m not interested, but none of that has anything whatsoever to do with my evaluation of the photo. But each to their own. I see no need to be overly judgmental about this.
Better, for me, to leave a little mystery, or at least the hope thereof.
—————————————————————————-
totally, totally….:)
“If you think this is very simply, a neat photograph, then you have not understood one bit what Imants is striving for ”
But then I don’t really give a fuck! I feel so cool!
I find it so interesting to see how differently each of us views not just this photo but all photos.
Some of us are content to experience things on a gut level. It either speaks to us or it doesn’t. And if it does, it may trigger memories, feelings or thoughts that we want to share. But others don’t want to go there: they either like it or they don’t and that’s all they have to say.
Some are not happy unless they hear from the photographer exactly what he or she intended this image to say or be or represent. Others need to know how the photographer got the effects she or he got: the techniques that were used, whether or not it was manipulated using Photoshop, and if it was, they want to know why and how.
And still others are open to simply appreciating the wide diversity of photo images that appear here on Burn. They may seem naive and gullible and too uncritical to others, but this is probably how they deal with the vagaries of life.
Thank god we are so different. How unutterably boring it would be if we were all the same.
Patricia
Eglons Spekis may be closer to the truth than people give him credit for after all he saw similar thing happen back at the station in ’86 before the great ward purge…………….. ward 017 remains intact
herve… it is a simple composition, an effective arrangement which comforts our brains with conformity..
it´s someone washing their feet.. *sling metaphors here*
an indian perhaps *sling metaphors here*
there are three metal objects, the rule of thirdss and three limbs *sling metaphors here*
personally i am not part of the gallery visiting art hob-nob world.. i´m simply a photographer and will see the work as such.
i´d have the photo on my wall.. imants Machiavellian games are fun, but they don´t match the curtains.
others reading is absolutely a reflection of thier thoughts.. a film fan.. a person concerned with poverty.. and so on.
it´s the psychologists empty glass to project onto.. then imants choosing to develop a little mystery around it with the text..
or is there mystery? i think what he´s saying is pretty clear.. backed up by his post under eglons name.
to me at least a personal statement, backed up with his feeling of being lazy in the past.. perhaps he´s saying “enough with the navel gazing already”..
who knows? imants..
who cares? probably others more than me.
there is a lot to read in the text, if we choose to – why say you have won no competitions, imants, and go on to say you write textbooks on the subject? elevation of self? hmm.. a friend saying you could do better.. you have it in you.. blahblah.. okay – good.
imants – lazy in the past? want to arrange goals to kick yourself towards? washing your feet? been on holiday?
great.. :ø)
It’s perplexing how much I don’t understand….
as mentioned by a man called imants earlier – it is a photograph.
also mentioned by imants – it is the expression of a lazy photographer..
okay – sun is out.. tor capa bathed.. 3 hours of daylight left.
So we’ve been staring at a photo about nothing for three days. Come on David, let’s move on.
it´s an enigma..
and so on.
pass the cheesy doodles..
ta
d