having new eyes - the photography of Scott Stulberg

February 11, 2006 9:31 AM

Scott Stulberg takes beautiful photography of people and places in southeast Asia. Also, some fantastic nature and wildlife work. (flash, sound alert)
posted by madamjujujive (14 comments total)

Mostly pictures of Thailand and Cambodia that I know well. Some great shots, no doubt, but I wouldn't reference the notion of "having new eyes" since these exact shots with the exact same color treatments have been used ad infinitum by postcard photographers for thirty years. The "new eyes" belong to the multitudes of amateur photographers, whose work you'll see in Flickr and WebShots.
posted by squirrel at 9:49 AM on February 11, 2006

Great, if you have some better shots you can point us to, I would welcome them, squirrel. I haven't had the good fortune to travel to Southeast Asia yet.

...from his bio page: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust
posted by madamjujujive at 10:17 AM on February 11, 2006

Breathtaking stuff, mjjj. I love how the simple scrolling technique over the still pictures in the flash animation adds a sense of drama/life. Also, nice to see on a site that relies so heavily on music that full credit to the songs & musicians is granted at the end.
posted by jonson at 10:18 AM on February 11, 2006

the B/W section is very good, too. and I love the "asa100" URL.
top-notch as always, mjjj
posted by matteo at 10:44 AM on February 11, 2006

re: the ASA 100 (I myself am partial to Plus-X exposed at 80, though)
posted by matteo at 10:45 AM on February 11, 2006

Wonder if he got Air's permission to use their work for his soundtrack.
posted by docpops at 10:48 AM on February 11, 2006

docpops - I'm sure he doesn't, but wouldn't this be fair use? He's not selling their music, he's not releasing any commercial product that includes their music, it's just background on a demo reel. I can't see ANY company out there litigating this.
posted by jonson at 11:05 AM on February 11, 2006

Great, if you have some better shots you can point us to, I would welcome them, squirrel.

It's not that hard to type a referenced URL. I can't tell whether or not you're being snippy, mjj--if not, then please forgive my counter-snip; if so, then SNIP SNIP SNIP!

I'm not saying that the shots aren't great, just that they generally wouldn't qualify as seeing through "new eyes" since they're the long-clichéd S.E. Asian subjects and perspectives that have been around since the 70s. They're post cards. As someone who lived in and became very connected to that region over a 5-year period, I am always on the lookout for truly "new eyes" views of the place. As I said above, I put my money on the amateurs to give us the truly new eyes.
posted by squirrel at 11:18 AM on February 11, 2006

Anyone know where the flash slideshow app comes from? Couldn't find info in the source.
posted by VulcanMike at 2:00 PM on February 11, 2006

Visit for the Asian travelogue shots, stay for the rest. He does have a good eye, and includes a pretty wide range of shots, from the cutesy shading into eerie to the moodily atmospheric to the girl who could be Pixar.

VMike, why not email the site designer?
posted by rob511 at 6:17 PM on February 11, 2006

Looks good at first, but I was happily listening to some music so I had to close the site. Bad bad bad.
posted by BobsterLobster at 7:52 PM on February 11, 2006

You should have just turned off the music on the site and browsed to your own tunes.
posted by jonson at 8:47 PM on February 11, 2006

i think i like the mirror/mirror ones the best--less commercial and slick.
posted by amberglow at 3:27 AM on February 12, 2006

I have to agree with Squirrel. These photos are pretty but anyone who has been here for more than two days will have seen endless variations of them in just about every postcard kiosk from Chiang Mai to Bali.

Some better stuff:

Patrick Brown



Olivier Pin-Fat


Palani Mohan


Helen Kudrich

posted by soiled cowboy at 12:08 PM on February 12, 2006