there are no boring photos (formerly: boring photos) POOL CLOSED

Discussion ( 91 posts  |  Only members can post. Join? )

Title	Author	Replies	Latest Post
it may be time...	mannydiller	8	14 months ago
these pictures are not boring - thread #15	a nameless yeast	57	19 months ago
is this group boring itself to sleep?	Jannx	5	20 months ago
I'm keeping a list if you don't mind...	Annene von Durchgerockt VSOP	21	20 months ago
these pictures might be boring - thread #1	a nameless yeast	12	20 months ago
question	Polish Prince	1	20 months ago

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About there are no boring photos (formerly: boring photos) POOL CLOSED

After much struggling with the concept, I've come to realize there is no such thing as a boring photograph. The act of framing an image, recording it to film or pixels, and examining its contents, methodology and provenance, will always reveal something interesting. "But my professor - he's really boring!" you might say. I may not want to sit through your class to find out but if you look at anything, anyone, even the bleakest emptiest of images you will find something of interest. Perhaps it is an abstraction or an absence that resonates with grave emotion. Perhaps it is a business of line and texture and sends the mind to run like a little girl. It could be anything.

In this transitional period we will look at the photos currently in the pool and gradually examine why they are not boring. If there are any surviving pictures, captured images in which we are unable to find something of aesthetic, emotional, or economic interest; these we will raise on spare palanquins and celebrate as negative visionaries. I think Manny Diller may have a shot at that. But I believe that this will someday be an empty pool, because eventually we will come to realize there is no such thing as a boring photo, and that everything is beautiful.

Legacy description:

What is boring? It is easier said than done. Benchmarks of the dull include Martin Parr's Boring Postcards books; the pioneering work of Ed Ruscha ("26 gasoline stations", "Every building on the sunset strip") and Useful Photography #1 (catalog pictures) and #2 (supremely boring pictures from ebay).

Ruscha was the pioneer of the modern deadpan style in the 60's, but photographers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore seem to be informed by Ruscha and yet - they aren't boring. Usually.

This group isn't simply for photos that the photographer thinks are boring. We're looking for a visual aesthetic, a perhaps dynamic but not arbitrary thing, that has been batted around in threads like boring/not boring" and others. Please take a look around the pool and the deleted pictures threads before posting. This is supposed to be fun, but with membership at 250 and counting, I'd hate to lose the visual distinctness of the group, and although I've been loathe to delete pictures in the past, a growing group needs care and watering and weeding from time to time.

some things boring is not:

kitschy
cute
animated
full of personality
minimal
abstract
self-conscious
self-consciously arty

a picture of a person/persons who feels bored is seldom a boring picture.

a picture taken while the photographer is bored is seldom a boring picture.

In 1993, Boring Business Systems became the authorized Haworth Office Systems Dealer, adding furniture systems, space planning and design services, and installing Haworth Systems for Verizon, Mid Florida Credit Union, Peterson Myers Law Firm, Polk Community College and many other local companies.

Thank you for being a bore. Together we can forge a new ennui.