It's important to take bad pictures.
-- Diane Arbus

I photograph to see what things look like photographed.
-- Garry Winograd

One can look at seeing; one can not hear hearing.
-- Marcel Duchamp, 1934

Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head.
-- Ed Ruscha

It’s a very weird thing being a photographer.
-- Danny Lyon, April 2009, in NYT interview

Always easy to snap the shutter, never easy to get an image.
-- Abe Frajndlich, in an essay on Photographing photographers

My Favorite Artistic Advice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqZAxLqJkzA&feature=player_em...

A photograph is an amazing thing. How incredible to capture something that travels 186,000 miles per second. How astonishing to stop time. I believe it is important to keep a sense of wonder about the whole process, because it takes the edge off of the disappointment when your shot turns out blurry and overexposed -- or worse: tack sharp, brightly colored, and just like a thousand other pictures you've already seen before.

In keeping with this point of view, I have very strict ethical principles when it comes to digital manipulation of photographs, and those principles can be summed up in two words: anything goes. (and it goes better with the gimp) Now I don't think you should alter a picture and then lie about it, and so I want to warn anybody who looks at my pictures that they very well could have been manipulated. In some cases it is obvious, and that's the whole point of the picture. In other cases, I actually tried to cover my tracks, and this is arguably dishonest. But it is meant to be dishonest in the way that fiction is dishonest: you know it's not really real, but you like it better if it is realistic.

Excuse me if it sounds like I have a philosophy of photography; I don't mean to. I am impressed and intrigued by all kinds of pictures, and if I ever tried to put my finger on why (especially: why this image but not that one), then any set of rules I might devise would be definitively contradicted by the briefest flickr tour.

Thank you for including my photostream in your tour.

I'm Male and Taken.
-- theilr

theilr's favorite photos from other Flickr members (783)

  • lemon balm by Foot Slogger
  • if you pull your focus back, the words lose their meaning by gracieshoots
  • angle of art by gracieshoots
  • Dandelion superstars. (explored) by txdragonfly11
  • here's the first-ever installment of NAME THAT SUBJECT by gracieshoots
  • lonely walker by april-mo
  • Ronquières by m.pressions
  • hot neon in the city by gracieshoots
  • Fifty by m.pressions
  • lilypads by Foot Slogger
  • by moksimil
  • a different kind of burn by gracieshoots
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Testimonials (3)

  • view profile

    *Furball* says:

    "..a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, to paraphrase a quote from Winston Churchill describes theilr's unique perspective of reality fueled through his calculating imagination and wit. I vividly remember a few years back, coming across his intriguing and creative images that for the most part evaded or were overlooked by the rest of us. What I'm referring to is subject matter that is just beneath our noses, macros to be exact. His work showed me, you need not be a globetrotter to find that elusive image, when it's in arm's reach, so to speak.

    However as much as macro's are his forte, he does expand outside the boundaries of his niche in exploring other possibilities that are also original and profound. Once in awhile he does take an ordinary (gasp!) looking photo to remind us, it doesn't have be always spectacular.

    Finally let me say, I've been most inspired of his images and have unashamedly lifted an idea or two to grace my own work.

    So I invite viewers of all stripes, to explore to theilr's unique and varied visions that will delight, puzzle and send you off in a wild ride.

    I believe I'm finished now :0)"

    9th December, 2010

  • view profile

    herspiral says:

    "Theilr's stream is a visit into an altered world - sometimes naturally occuring (he has an eye for the deranged, goofy and miraculously odd appearances of this universe) but also often photoshopped - from the simple alterations that resemble what we think we call reality, to the more complex and clearly altered photographs, which have made me seriously rethink (though not yet renage) my "purist photoshop-less" ways.

    Hip hip hooray for Theilr!"

    18th August, 2008

  • view profile

    Foot Slogger says:

    "I love theilr's quirky sense of humour. His photos aren't bad either :o) . But what impresses me most is the intelligent and thoughtful comments he makes on my photos. It always gives me a boost to know he's taken the trouble to really LOOK."

    8th May, 2008

Joined:
July 2006