A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. A pithy formula from B.Shaw; apt, if a touch caustic.

This is a photography blog, but what the hell. There exist things that are not properly photographic, but which in the end are of a similar nature. Pedantry’s boring, he says.

I am guilty of not having known nor appreciated an artist named Edward Hopper. (Well there’s plenty that I don’t know and never will despite Google’s expanding exobytes.)

American art is quirky to say the least, especially for someone who finds Poussin a bit of a revolutionary. Quirky but good, especially if you have enough time to look and think, and this fella found something in the twentieth century which artists should have known back in the Renaissance. (Perhaps they did?) Let me grab the bull on the horns:

Just three examples. There are many more. But the magic of this particular master is in his amazing highlights. No chiaroscuro; he makes a sauce but doesn’t reduce it for the flavours to come together; you can taste them apart. It may be just me, but looking at these images it is hard not to feel at least some approximation of rapture…

Yes, I was thinking about photography, and you are expecting relevance. It was pointed out to me by someone, and it instantly rang true. Here’s a 50s classic by the peerless Fan Ho:

There was neither Photoshop nor HDR imaging at the time, only Ansel Adams and silver halide, yet every dimple on the wall, shadow or light, is there. And he needed them all.

Enjoy your weekend wherever you are.