Tiki Photography Prints--Feedback Requested - General Tiki

A aquarj Tiki Socialite SF bay area, CA Joined: Apr 02, 2002 Posts: 1125	A aquarj Posted posted on Mon, Mar 7, 2011 6:12 PM Hey JP, Cool idea. Since I'm always full of opinions (well, I'm full of something anyway), here's some reactions on this. NO claims of speaking for anybody else. And no claims of offering insights you might not have already had. To me, all 5 of those kinds of subject matter could be good. But to me it's not so much the WHAT, but more the HOW. So that kinda suggests #5 in a way. A skilled photographer can find something interesting about anything, and represent it in a way that draws the viewer's attention to the things about it that make it unique, exotic, etc. I've seen that in your work. Sven did it all over the place in the BOT. I also always remember the House Industries magazine issue with a piece on tiki mugs - it had a beautiful closeup of the familiar PMP mug, that made me look at that mug a whole different way forever after. However, like DC, I find there's something most appealing about a location, as something I'd look at every day. A picture of a drink can be beautiful, but I think it would become static and lose interest (for me) over time. It's kind of perpetually sitting there and no one ever gets to drink it! But a location, or a famous tiki in a location, has all this backstory and life embodied in it. All the people who participated in the design, hosted the visitors, or were the visitors themselves - all sharing the same reference point but from different perspectives. Even an image of a decrepit or decaying venue could hold a long-term appeal as something to gaze at on the wall, just because it still represents something and continues to make you think. A drink or mug could still be good if it's staged in a way that has humor, life, drama, or some kind of story to it. Like the cover of Remixed is great, because it takes these themes we love, and creates a mini-narrative with humor and something going on. One other comment. I've often thought it'd be fun to make a DIY tiki photo album, even like a shutterfly album kind of thing. Even with our meager aging photography gear, we've accumulated probably hundreds of photos of tikis and locations over the years from various trips. Just for kicks I was thinking of taking selections and organizing them in one of those photo books you can order. Or maybe multiple volumes. Something like that with shutterfly doesn't really have professional print quality though, and it's probably expensive. But anyway if someone with your skills did that in book form as sort of a micro-printed on-demand ordering kind of thing, I bet there'd be takers. In fact, I'm kinda surprised with all the talent on TC that there's not much discussion of photography, and that this kind of book thing hasn't been done already. -Randy

Hey JP,
Cool idea. Since I'm always full of opinions (well, I'm full of something anyway), here's some reactions on this. NO claims of speaking for anybody else. And no claims of offering insights you might not have already had.

To me, all 5 of those kinds of subject matter could be good. But to me it's not so much the WHAT, but more the HOW. So that kinda suggests #5 in a way. A skilled photographer can find something interesting about anything, and represent it in a way that draws the viewer's attention to the things about it that make it unique, exotic, etc. I've seen that in your work. Sven did it all over the place in the BOT. I also always remember the House Industries magazine issue with a piece on tiki mugs - it had a beautiful closeup of the familiar PMP mug, that made me look at that mug a whole different way forever after.

However, like DC, I find there's something most appealing about a location, as something I'd look at every day. A picture of a drink can be beautiful, but I think it would become static and lose interest (for me) over time. It's kind of perpetually sitting there and no one ever gets to drink it! But a location, or a famous tiki in a location, has all this backstory and life embodied in it. All the people who participated in the design, hosted the visitors, or were the visitors themselves - all sharing the same reference point but from different perspectives. Even an image of a decrepit or decaying venue could hold a long-term appeal as something to gaze at on the wall, just because it still represents something and continues to make you think.

A drink or mug could still be good if it's staged in a way that has humor, life, drama, or some kind of story to it. Like the cover of Remixed is great, because it takes these themes we love, and creates a mini-narrative with humor and something going on.

One other comment. I've often thought it'd be fun to make a DIY tiki photo album, even like a shutterfly album kind of thing. Even with our meager aging photography gear, we've accumulated probably hundreds of photos of tikis and locations over the years from various trips. Just for kicks I was thinking of taking selections and organizing them in one of those photo books you can order. Or maybe multiple volumes. Something like that with shutterfly doesn't really have professional print quality though, and it's probably expensive. But anyway if someone with your skills did that in book form as sort of a micro-printed on-demand ordering kind of thing, I bet there'd be takers. In fact, I'm kinda surprised with all the talent on TC that there's not much discussion of photography, and that this kind of book thing hasn't been done already.

-Randy

Post #579304 by aquarj on Mon, Mar 7, 2011 6:12 PM