Richard Pousette-Dart

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Richard Pousette-dart by Saul Leiter

Source: Richard Pousette-Dart | The Art of Photography

I had never heard of Pousette-Dart until I came across the video below on Ted Forbes fascinating “Art of Photography” website (I’ve already posted about his site in The Art of Photography). He also has a fairly long article on Pousette-Dart on the same site.

Pousette-Dart seems to be better known as a painter, a member of the famous “New York School” of Abstract Expressionism, which included Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. However, he was also a well-known photographer (and close friend of Saul Leiter).

I quite like some of his photographs, particularly the portraits, which remind me a little of Julia Margaret Cameron and the multiple exposures are also interesting. I surprised to find that, with the exception of the multiple exposures, his photographs are quite representational where his paintings certainly aren’t.

I noticed a brief statement in the Wikipedia article: “He attended the Scarborough School“, which is just down the road from our house in Briarcliff Manor.

RIP Snowdon

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David Bowie by snowdon (Photo: Camerapress/snowdon)

Lord Snowdon, the ex-husband of Princess Margaret died today aged 86.Snowdon, a filmmaker and photographer, married the princess in 1960 but they separated in 1978.The photographer, born Anthony Armstrong-Jones, died peacefully at his home, his photo agency revealed.Camera Press said in a short statement: “The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on 13th January 2017.”

Source: Lord Snowdon ex-husband of Princess Margaret dies aged 86 – Mirror Online

I’m sorry to say that I know very little about Antony Armstrong-Jones (Earl of Snowdon) as a photographer. Growing up in the UK I vaguely remember his first wedding (I was eight at the time) and the subsequent scandals. By the time the divorce came I was 26 and living in the United States and it rather passed me by. I guess I always thought of him as someone married to Princess Margaret (the first commoner to marry a royal in several hundred years and a participant in the first divorce of a senior royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh‘s, in 1901) rather than the well-known photographer that he was. The Beetles and Huxley site had this to say about him (bold mine):

Over his long career, Snowdon produced a remarkable archive of images, mastering several genres of photography in the process. Despite his well-honed technique, he has no recognisable photographic style, and indeed has made efforts to avoid developing one. He feels that as a photographer his role is to become an invisible observer, coaxing the truth out of his subjects without turning the result into a Snowdon. He is a master of studio portraiture, photo-journalism, theatre, fashion, advertising, travel, nature and even underwater photography. However, his brilliance as a photographer was always overshadowed by his royal status and the controversy that surrounded his relationship with Princess Margaret, exacerbated by their divorce in 1972 (sic)

Congratulations to Don McCullin on his knighthood

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Don McCullin on TV Brasil, 2011

“THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to signify her intention of conferring the honour of Knighthood upon the undermentioned: Donald McCULLIN, C.B.E., Photojournalist. For services to Photography.”

Photographer Donald McCullin with his winning work at World Press Photo 1964. Photo by Nationaal Archief.

Source: Don McCullin Knighted for His Services to Photography

A few photography related Christmas presents

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christmaspresents-1

My family finds it difficult to decide what to get me for Christmas. I like CDs; books; photography related items. In the past that have bought me CDs and books that I already have and photography related stuff that I didn’t really want. So now I make an Amazon.com wishlist every year. This too can have its problems. Some items have been on the list for years and nobody buys them. Another case in point: I’ve been reading a four book series on the Overland Campaign of the US Civil War. I’ve read the first volume and started the second one. I got the fourth one as a Christmas present, but I’m missing the third one. I guess I’ll have to buy it myself. Generally, however,this scheme works well.

This year I got four photography related books. In case you can’t read the titles they are:

The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present. Beaumont Newhall.

The Democratic Forest. Selected Works. William Eggleston.

Early Black and White. Saul Leiter.

Beyond Beauty. Irving Penn.

More to follow when I’ve had a chance to spend more time with them.

Not the brightest period in US history: Dorothea Lange’s photographs of Japanese internment camps

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May 8, 1942 — Hayward, California. Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.

Dorothea Lange—well-known for her FSA photographs like Migrant Mother—was hired by the U.S. government to make a photographic record of the “evacuation” and “relocation” of Japanese-Americans in 1942. She was eager to take the commission, despite being opposed to the effort, as she believed “a true record of the evacuation would be valuable in the future.” The military commanders that reviewed her work realized that Lange’s contrary point of view was evident through her photographs, and seized them for the duration of World War II, even writing “Impounded” across some of the prints. The photos were quietly deposited into the National Archives, where they remained largely unseen until 2006.

Source: Dorothea Lange’s Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps — Anchor Editions