Friday, January 08, 2010

when conducting from the floor rather than the podium...

orchestra1

orchestra2

a recent tintype acquisition, that is pretty marvelous. obviously a small string and voice band, but for some reason the conductor is sitting on the floor. i believe the idea of him conducting in such a strange way was so the camera would be able to see the players, without anyone being blocked by the conductor when standing and with a podium. it was a strange decision, particularly as the camera is looking up at the group rather than straight forward, reminding me a bit of the filming style of japanese director yasujiro ozu, who often set the camera hight on interior shots at the hight of his head when sitting on a tatami mat. perhaps in light of that, we get this image from the point of view of an audience member sitting in the front row, looking a bit upwards towards a stage...

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2 Comments:

Blogger MS said...

It's remarkable how relaxed is his pose, how his legs are crossed, and the gesture of his arm and baton are being conducted (so to speak) from this relaxed yet acute focus, while his gaze seems to be not on the players but beyond them... and why is it that he seems to be the only one in motion while the players, as we know from the technology of exposure at that time, remain still? Is he conducting space, sound?

Have we spoken before about Benjamin's Little History of Photography? Have been reading it this week and quoted a bit on a post today...

1:25 PM  
Blogger ArtSparker said...

It's interesting that the conductor appears to be conducting, while the musicians are posing. More driven?

7:33 AM  

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