Author Archives: Tamar Granovsky

About Tamar Granovsky

Tamar Granovsky began working in photography in Boston, Massachusetts. She is now based in Montreal, Quebec. In 2018 she was named LensCulture’s Top 50 Emerging Talents. She has been included in various juried group exhibitions including the 5th Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Barcelona; Photography Now 2017, at the Center for Photography in Woodstock; and the 22nd Juried Show: Peter Urban Legacy Exhibition at the Griffin Museum. In 2020 her work appeared in Boston as part of 8th Edition Regional Photographers Showcase of The FENCE. Her first solo show was at Cambridge’s Multicultural Arts Center, in September / October 2019. Prior to her career as a photographer, Tamar had several solo and group exhibitions, in Canada, in mixed media sculpture installation and was a recipient of a Canada Council Exploration Program Grant. Her pursuit of photography follows a career in sculpture, with a 17-year hiatus from the arts, as an archivist. The reflective, evocative, and grounding properties of the medium feed Tamar’s love for photographic work.

Toward the Limit of Abstraction: An Impression

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Outside Dali, Yunnan Province, China

The other day I stumbled upon the following statement by artist Chuck Close: “I think that while photography is the easiest medium in which to be competent it is probably the hardest one in which to develop an idiosyncratic personal vision. It is the hardest medium in which to separate yourself from all those other people who are doing reasonably good stuff and to find a personal voice, your own vision, and to make something that is truly, memorably yours and not someone else’s. A recognized signature style of photography is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve… Photography is not an easy medium. It is, finally, perhaps the hardest of them all.”

I cannot tell you how true the above words ring. I actually verbalized a very similar sentiment before I stumbled upon it: In the years that I worked on sculpture (I exhibited in a number of galleries in Canada) I had a voice that was clearly mine, spoke out, and was heard by others. I cannot find my voice in photography. So, I spend a lot of time looking at my work. I try to understand what it is I see in, and feel about, my immediate world, why I make images, what it is I am trying to communicate, and what it is that I cannot communicate. Where is my voice?

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Up until recently my photographs were processed entirely in colour. The world, after all, is in colour. But, how often do we truly see colour? What is it that invites me to look at specific colours when I look around me? Is the answer conveyed in the photographs that I take? Does colour help the photos impart a mood or say something? Unless colour is integral to the subject of the photograph or pulls the framed subject together, it may cause certain details to go unnoticed or even make the photo seem too busy. Is colour the primary/core element of the composition? If not, is there a reason to keep it? These last few months I have wondered: can the use of black and white remove the possible distractions of colour? If I turn to black and white can I pull my pictures to such an extreme that reality starts to recede and just an impression or essence remains? I see my work differently when colour is eliminated. The photographs may be good or they may be poor but removing colour has helped develop my voice.

Century Village, Deerfield Beach, Florida

With black and white I tend to extract many shades of grey. As I shift to amplified black and white I am struck by lines, shapes, light, texture, and positive and negative spaces. Blown out black and white begins to move toward abstraction; photos of people or street shots retain a connection to the real world but are distilled down to an essence. By using high contrast the composition becomes minimal in a way that may be impossible with colour. Manipulating black and white in this manner comes to me instinctively. For me there is, in this, a sense of freedom. So, I push out and then pull back in.

Xingping, Guangxi Province, China

The more I shoot the more confused I am about my work. In my last blog posting I mention that I second guess myself, always. When I photograph or work on processing the images I am lost in the moment. Nevertheless, when I am not immersed in the work I question myself. I am trying to figure these things out – an exploratory journey of sorts. With black and white post-processing the pictures emerge toward the brink of abstraction and I feel that this is something I need to exaggerate or create with greater intention. Simply put, I need to work on what comes to me naturally. I’m excited about these reductive explorations; it’s important to keep growing and experimenting. My discovery of black and white and moving toward abstraction keeps me attuned and helps me see the world as I feel it. An impression and a move to something fundamental. There is no need to hurry. Finding one’s way and learning to speak takes time.

Tulou, Fujian Province, China

Shanghai, China

Hutong, Beijing, China

Below are some of the same photographs in colour.

Dali, Yunnan Province, China

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Xingping, Guangxi Province, China

Tulou, Fujian Province, China

Shanghai, China

Beijing, China

A Camera is a Fine Tool, but What is it that I am Trying to Say?

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Century Village (Deerfield Beach, Florida)

In my recent post, Finger Painting; or, Why I Fell in Love with My iPhone I wrote:

I still use the Olympus OMD-EM5. I love it because I can choose the lens I want to use (although I typically head out with only one lens so that I am not encumbered and I can just go with the flow based on the one option I give myself), manipulate the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed; the images are of a higher quality and the higher control and resolution add a whole layer of beauty and precision. Nevertheless, I find myself predominantly utilizing the iPhone.

The truth of the matter is that even though I LOVE my “real” camera I simply adore the hands-on-ness of the iPhone and the post-processing applications (apps) I use to create the final images. It provides a direct way of looking at and capturing the subject and light, moving the image into a creative idea through the apps, and then sharing it with others through social media. I no longer think that taking a photograph with a small mobile device (that happens to be a telephone among other things) is not photography. It is, as I’ve said, simply another camera.

Having said the above, and with more thinking since, I looked at photographs I’ve taken in the last year with each camera. When I use the iPhone camera the results are definitely “looser” (this begins with how I hold the instrument). However, it appears that I sometimes use the Olympus with the same freedom. This typically happens when the camera is set on auto, aperture, or shutter mode as appropriate, rather than using the camera manually.

MBTA (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

During my many years of creating sculptural installations, drawings, and mono-prints, I rarely second guessed myself. In photography I do. Always. This medium is not second nature to me, as yet. To swim upstream against that somewhat, I trust that a more casual approach to photography will help me capture the immediate visceral reaction to the subject that instigated my desire to take the shot in the first place — rather than force the image. While the subjects of my photographs are part of the physical world the photographic product is an interpretation of how I see it. I seek for something that cannot be touched; my desire is to make one feel. My aesthetic, I hope, shifts the viewer’s impressions of the visual (rather than material) in an emotive fashion (rather than that of the intellect). My aim is to get to an essence. Whether I *ever* get there is another story…

Clouds (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

My eyes catch light, colour, patterns, shapes, and people – often as details, but sometimes as part of a larger environment. I’ve been told that street photography is about telling an open-ended story; it may be expressed through a “decisive moment” that translates into many possibilities (i.e., in that one moment, every element in the frame helps to tell the story). Typically the storytelling element is provided by the presence of people.

I am trying hard to figure this genre out. Does a human subject always need to be in the image? May I not take a photograph of a detail? Does it matter how much I cut part of a person out of the frame? Stepping back, I see that I have a tendency to focus on abstractions, angles, lines, parts of the human body. I often focus on detail and leave a lot out of the shot. If I decide a photograph should be converted to black and white extreme contrast is the way I typically go; it speaks to and from my gut. I am learning to manipulate colour so that it does the same thing to me.

Rockport, Maine

After School (Maine)

One telling difference between the iPhone and the Olympus is that the phone does not have a viewfinder. I am inclined to frame the world carefully but find that when I am more casual with my tool I connect more closely with the subject.

East Cambridge, Massachusetts

Perhaps my photography is all over the place. I walk the streets a lot – in both cities and small towns. I have a weakness for architecture; I look at the detail around me; I look up a lot; I crouch low and see what the world looks like from that position. If I see someone on the street who catches my eye I go up to her/him and ask to take a photograph. I like to get up close and personal with people (almost invasive). I don’t know exactly why I do this. I see the world differently. I see things better. It seems to me that the narrative content is not as important as the emotional matter.

Rockland, Maine

Century Village (Deerfield Beach, Florida)

Under the Dome – Investigating China’s Smog

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The exception to the rule (mask-wearing in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China)

Mask Wearing (Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

Almost a year ago I wrote in my posting “China as I See it“:

[I]t is not uncommon to see city-dwellers wearing face masks to protect themselves from dust, pollution, and germs in general. All across China, cities are experiencing extraordinarily high levels of air pollution. In Kunming, (where pollution levels are somewhat lower than in many other cities in the country), most people do not wear masks that filter pollution particulate matter. Instead, fashionable face masks are often worn as accessories; people want to look good while trying to avoid dust from ongoing construction, germs, and smog. When the pollution is “high” it looks as though there is fog outside. I have experienced this grey/yellow atmosphere in Beijing, produced by extremely dangerous levels of pollution (one can barely see a few blocks away). My teachers claim, as do many others, that it is just fog, but I have noticed that I am sensitive to the air quality as it worsens, and I monitor the air quality index so I know it is definitely not fog when the mountains surrounding the city, or the tall buildings in the distance, are shrouded in a cloud of grey. I bought myself approved masks for heavy pollution conditions, but the majority of the Chinese population buys its masks in convenience stores or other stores where the fashionable models are available. Very few people wear masks that really protect them – although this is beginning to change, thankfully. It’s a small first step because, of course, the greater issue of the pollution itself needs to be addressed.

In Kunming, where I lived from September 2013 until March 2014 and where the air was relatively clear and clean (you could actually see the stars at night), pollution levels would occasionally go above 150 – which means the air quality is unhealthy and that “[e]veryone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects,” according to http://aqicn.org ). I sometimes found it insufferable. Yet, compared to other areas in China, the air in Kunming was relatively breathable.

Exception to the Rule (most people who drive motorbikes in Kunming still do not wear masks - at least not in early 2014)

Mask Wearing (Many people who drive motorbikes in Kunming still do not wear masks – at least not in early 2014)

Walking Kunming (During my six months in Kunming it felt as everyone wore a mask but when I looked through my photographs it was practically impossible to find anyone wearing a mask as the three photos in this blog posting attest to.)

Flying over Beijing the pollution is like a wall that one collides with. As you get closer, suddenly, you can barely see a thing outside the airplane window – and what you do see is masked in a thick haze of yellow. This situation is tragic and China has claimed that it wants to reduce its pollution by 2017. Unfortunately, the government has barely taken a stab at it and has censored Chai Jing’s film, Under the Dome – Investigating China’s Smog, which *was* posted on Youku and Tencent until about a week ago (it is still available on YouTube – a site that is blocked in China). This film could have had a key role in promoting public awareness to pollution’s environmental and health issues. No longer.

Yaxue Cao, the editor of the website China Change, comments in his article Under the China Dome – A Reality Check: “The film galvanized public opinion and consolidated its awareness to an unprecedented level. It peeled apart the multi-faceted causes of pollution. It is a mobilization of the public, and it sets expectations for a war against environmental disasters. The film works on many layers of the public psyche, and not all of them are welcomed by the government. This probably explains why it was spectacularly promoted and then shut down.”

And another article in China Change: The Four Forces of China’s Politics of Smog, by Wu Qiang.

I can only hope the Chinese block of this film is lifted. If you are reading this, however, YOU can watch it: Under the Dome – Investigating China’s Smog

Jesus Saves

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Toward Eustis, Florida

In Mystery and Manners Flannery O’Connor wrote, “I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.” The American South is known as the Bible Belt – the most religious region in the United Sates. It was on a drive through Florida’s panhandle, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and beyond toward the northeast states that I realised how saturated with Christianity this area is. Some areas seemed to have a church of one sect or another at each corner (although the reality is that these churches are mainly of Protestant denominations – particularly Southern Baptist, Methodist, and evangelical). This left an impression on me. Since much of our road trip was destination-focused, and we had set a time limit for our return home, I did not have opportunity to photograph this surprising (to me) phenomenon. Mounted on billboards and church signs Steve and I saw as we drove along, were messages like:

“Jesus, we love you! Signed, Wakulla” (billboard outside Wakulla, FL)

“Even SATAN believes in me. Signed, God” (on the side of a tractor-trailer, GA interstate)

“The first valentine was made of two pieces of wood and three nails” (a church’s signboard, somewhere in GA)

But of course there is more to the American South than religious immoderation. Our trip was a whirlwind, aimed at returning to New England with a few slight diversions. What we chose to experience was the natural world of Florida by hiking through two of the many state and national parks (Ocala and Wakulla). While on the road we passed through towns like Palatka and Micanopy (both in Florida) that recall days past, with unpretentious historic town centres that seem worlds away from their outlying suburban areas. Similarly, in places like Eustis, Florida, there remain vestiges of the mid-20th century that hint at what these places once were; we stayed in a hotel on the town’s outskirts that still has its original neon sign from the 1960s. Athens, GA, has a strong creative community with flourishing music, culinary, and arts scenes.

Until Athens, Georgia, we took back-roads that passed through many small towns where we saw a lot of poverty. Because the Church’s presence is a strong one in the South; the general tenor of the place seemed significantly more conservative than anywhere I have been. What also became clear was evidence of the historical interchange between black and white – palpable from the food, music, religion, and probably a whole lot more that we didn’t experience ourselves. Though all we had was a mere glance at this complex region, we were always on the receiving end of great hospitality and manners.

Nicholson, NC (west of Athens, GA – home of the B-52s and R.E.M. and Pylon)

Wakulla Springs Lodge, Florida

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, FL

Palatka, Florida

Clewiston, Florida

Eustis, Florida

Last Days in Florida

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Between (or: At the Beach with Steve), Deerfield Beach

Tomorrow I head north – homeward bound. Steve and I will meander through the Florida panhandle, the back roads of Alabama and Tennessee, and then we will hoof it to cold and snow-covered Massachusetts. Below are a few photos taken here in Florida over the last several months. My next blog post will be of photos taken during the road trip home.