Auto-Nocturne - 1/24 scale to life-size



From the previous post, thru the intermediate image of the model above, to a life-size installation (actual autos spared from the junkyard) at the San Jose Museum of Art -  its all an "Auto-Nocturne" we think!

Read more about this fascinating piece, "Empire Drive-In" by Todd Chandler and Jeff Stark

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

Auto-Nocturne

"In my little town
I never meant nothin'
I was just my father's son . . ."
(Lyrics by Paul Simon)

What's up with The Nocturnes? - well we're on to the next big item on the menu - closing in on the final days for submissions to The Nocturnes' latest online Exhibit: Auto-Nocturne. Just thought we'd show you some fabulous work that Flickr'd into the Auto-Nocturne group (some of what's seen there has been submitted to the Exhibit). Anyway, we definitely think the work of Michael Paul Smith is worth a shout-out here. The craftsmanship (on a couple of different levels, which you'll soon see) and attention to detail is uncanny! His "VistaVision J & L Steel - night glow-1951" (above) reads like an O. Winston Link industrial tableau - without the steam! while "November Snow, Series 2" (below) recalls the tense quietude of a night painting by Edward Hopper.

Now, for the story behind the images - see MPS's description of the "Night-Shoot" of J&L Steel here (BE SURE to click thru!) - see what we mean about craftmanship? You know how some night photographs, with their inherent "un-peopled" stillness take on a stage-like quality, sometimes resembling nothing so much as a diorama - well, Smith has certainly turned that one around, hasn't he? We hope that Mr. Smith will consider submitting work into the Auto-Nocturne exhibit - we think it's just what the doctor (or mechanic) ordered!

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

San Francisco Values, Continued

Night/Light: Bay Area Photographers Take Aim After Dark

Sponsored by PhotoAlliance with San Francisco Art Commission
Opening Reception: 9/16/10 5:30-7:30
Exhibition Dates: 9/16/10 – 1/14/11
Location: San Francisco City Hall, ground floor

"I think I speak for all three Jurors when I say that we were very impressed with the quality, variety (both of technique and subject matter), and technical proficiency seen here. Although, it should come as no surprise, really – as the greater San Francisco Bay Area has historically been a “hotbed” of Night Photography (NPy) – advancing the practice beyond its technical curiosity status, to become one of the most intriguing, mysterious, and poetic genres of photography.

"While almost every photographer has at least attempted a “night shot” at one time or another, a relatively small number have devoted their photographic and creative skills primarily to photographing at night. Steve Harper has pointed out that: “It was not until the mid-1970s, on the West Coast, that night photography became an area of concentrated study.” Pioneering work, and landmark exhibits/publications by such local luminaries as Harper, Richard Misrach, Steve Fitch, Roger Minick, Jerry Burchard, and Arthur Ollman in the mid-to-late 1970s “set the stage” for what was to come. As the 1980s unveiled, Steve Harper was teaching college-level courses in NPy (offered in two parts; coincidentally called “Night Light” – I and II ) and Michael Kenna had recently relocated to San Francisco from England – and, a continuing narrative with the nocturne had begun, in earnest.

"The 28 artists whose works you see here* comprise what is now a third, or fourth, generation of Bay Area Night Photographers, part of a continuum. From the maturing (though still very experimental, experiential) early decades of nightwork, to these post-millennium years – we see a self-renewing sense of wonder, of awe at the magical transformation that comes with each evening’s twilight glow."

Tim Baskerville
Founder/Director, The Nocturnes
September 2010
_______________

* BTW, the exhibit includes some of The Nocturnes "usual suspects" - here, alphabetically:

Linda Fitch
Andy Frazer
Lenny Greenwald
Mark Jaremko
Shawn Peterson
Greta & Manu Schnetzler
Lena Tsakami