So a lot went on these past few years. I started to blog about Vortographs and never really expanded upon how to make your own or anything. With everything returning to normal I may continue down that route although I mentioned selling prints in a previous blog posting and that specifically is on the docket to get done in 2023. I should have pushed it more in 2020,2021, and 2022 although so much has happened in those three years it was hard to photograph for myself or even work on other stuff other than surviving.
So in 2020, I had 3 total jobs one included a LOT of editing on a daily basis. Then going into 2021 and 2022 I landed something that was a huge blessing. Beyond getting my first house which has the space I need for a normal studio I landed a career that allows me to be able to experiment and afford more photography related things so I can finally focus on what I love and what matters instead of trying to struggle to get by.
This is a huge step, since I moved back to Arizona in late 2019 it has been a huge struggle for me mentally to photograph and to keep on the things that I loved to do rather than just fight to survive. Since things have normalized out now I am hoping on expanding into the future and doing a ton of work for everyone that enjoys what I create and so I can enjoy what I create.
So the hopeful plan for 2023 is to get a commerce chunk of the website live with affordable prints and some nicer metal ready to hang prints ready. I have had the ability to get these made previously but not the capital. Along side I want to attempt to get 1-2 personal shoots done a month. This one is the harder goal to accomplish but from what I learned over the years if I can get back into the groove this will be a good amount of work to hopefully get me started.
Lets kick 2023 off with a bang and get back into our work grind.
Expanded thoughts on Vortographs
So I think I figured out what I would like to do overall. I would like to patent the idea behind the optic I been using. Then if I can do that I can bring it into open source territory. I am unsure on how it all works but I want people to expand upon the idea and at the same time not let a bunch of people profit off it unless they really move the idea forward.
I have always loved the idea of open source hardware and bringing everything so the base can be protected so people won’t get in trouble for making and improving on the base design would fit into my own personal ideas. I may be using wrong terminology but I feel like this should be the base idea moving forward. If there is a way for myself to manufacter an inexpensive version of the optic (under $50 on the retail side) I wouldn’t mind doing that as well as long as I could have the plans and the ability to make it avalible online. It probably isn’t the best thing to do business wise but I would like to be able to expand the idea to others visions and let it be able to grow without the risk of a larger company eating the idea, which truthfully would be my biggest fear.
Thoughts on Vortographs
Well its been over 4 months since my last post on these and it has been a wild ride. Beyond the holidays, my wedding and now the global pandemic I can only really think about my artwork as a whole. A few weeks back I started making prints of some of my vortographs that are for sale. They are print on demand, but I use an amazing printer that prints and mounts them on metal and they are pretty glorious.
As much as this may become a future reference for people that maybe researching into the topic of Vorticism or how to make vortographs I sort of want to leave this a general seceret until I know more about the optic trick I am doing. It isn’t nessicarily something I want to horde to myself but I would hate to see what I been studying turn into something like a lens filter and discount what I been looking into. What I will say though is that this is all done in camera and soon ( within a year or so, just gotta make the correct connections) I may have an upgrade to what I been using to make these. If I can manufacter or patient the general design I wouldn’t have an issue bringing out what it was or DIY versions since they work all the same.
Aside from selling prints and the what I hope the future could be on these slowly I am realizing that the inital camera lens means a lot for these images. Generally I stick with a 50mm but when jumping between my Sony and my Canon I noticed the macro lens I have on my sony seems to give a better depth in the photos. Truthfully I should probably look into using my 85mm or find a 100mm macro for these although I am unsure on how well that will turn out. Eventually I will have some test shots of that. I should revive my flickr or make a new account or some other photosharing site to record some of my tests.
Realistically this is all in a testing phase at the moment. Although I can get finished product that I like. There can be more that is done to make them better. I have no doubts that they can become better in terms of sharpness throughout the image and more abstract in the same way.
Vortographs, an Introduction
So, if you are new to what a Vortograph is, I am hoping that this will be helpful. If you already know what they are maybe there will be some useful information for you in this little blurb.
A vortograph, as stated by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is the first completely abstract kind of photograph composed of kaleidoscopic repetitions of forms. Alvin Langdon Coburn was the pioneer in nonobjective photography and invented this style in 1917 and remained the principal advocate and practitioner of the technique.
The name is a reference to the Vorticist group of British writers and painters featuring fractured planes and complex space characteristics. Vorticism as an art movement was inspired by Cubism and only lasted a small while in the early 20th centure in England. The style is closest to futurism in its embrace of dynamism.
So, here is my question to myself, that I hope to eventually find the answer to. Where do I fit in this? Digging through some of my old notes the first time I shot one was back in October 25th 2011. It is nothing special in my eyes now but my original project in my first semester of college has been seeping in my mind for the better half of the decade.
I have seen classmates of mine find there thing and run with it. I never felt like I ever found my thing. I was always working, scrounging around, and doing my best to stay afloat in San Francisco. Now that I am out I find myself brought straight back where I started, staring back staring at these images again. I have lost some of the media over the years. I don’t even know where these prints have gone but I feel like it is time to dive back into this experiment.
