The Genius of Photography

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Jacques Henri Lartigue,

Jacques Henri Lartigue, “Bichonnade”, 40, rue Cortambert, Paris, 1905. Tirage gélatino-argentique. (MINISTERE DE LA CULTURE-FRANCE/AAJHL)

Our eldest granddaughter recently received a reading list for her future studies. One section related to “Art and Photography”. It contained the following items:

  • Steve McCurry, The Iconic Photographs
  • Don McCullin, The Impossible Peace: From War Photographs to Landscapes
  • Tim Walker, Pictures
  • Wells, L, Photography: A Critical Introduction
  • Badger, G, The Genius of Photography
  • Clarke, G, The Photograph: A Visual and Cultural History
  • Jeffery, I, Photography: A Concise History

I pondered the choice of photographers for a while. Three living photographers: a photojournalist (McMullin); a not universally liked and recently criticized photojournalist cum travel photographer (McCurry); and a fashion photographer (Walker). Why, I wondered this particular choice? Unfortunately, the list did not provide enough information for me to reach any conclusion.

Then I noticed The Genius of Photography by Gerry Badger. It turns out that it’s a companion book to a BBC TV series. I further discovered that the entire series is available online here (I believe it’s also available on YouTube).

According to Docuwiki:

In the most comprehensive look at the most influential art form in the world, the series explores every aspect of photography – from daguerreotype to digital, portraits to photo-journalism, art to advertising; in the UK, America, China, Japan, Africa and beyond. It includes interviews and encounters with some of the world’s greatest living photographers including William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, William Klein, Martin Parr, Sally Mann, Robert Adams, Juergen Teller, Andreas Gursky, Jeff Wall and many others. But as well as telling the stories behind the world’s greatest photographs and the photographers who took them, the series examines the ‘genius’ of photography itself, this magical, unpredictable and democratic medium that has transformed the way we see ourselves and our world.

The series culminates in an examination of the impact of the digital post-production techniques that make anything possible, and looks at the rediscovery of techniques which are taking photography back to the 19th century.
With contributions from Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky, Gregory Crewdson and one of China’s leading photographer Wang Qingsong.

The series consists of six episodes, each about one hour long (the docuwiki page mentioned above provides longer descriptions of each episode):

  1. 1800-1914: Fixing the Shadows. A look at how the problem of ‘fixing the shadows’ was solved by two rival methods.
  2. 1918-1945: Documents for Artists. How, in the decades following the First World War, photography was the central medium.
  3. Right Place, Right Time. How photographers dealt with the dramatic events like D-Day, The Holocaust and Hiroshima.
  4. Paper Movies. A look at the golden age of photographic journeys from the 1950s to the 1970s.
  5. We are Family. How the medium translates personal relationships into photographic ones.
  6. Snap Judgements. A look at the current state of the art, from phone cameras to digital post production.

I’ve just watched all six episodes and I must say that I enjoyed it. Of course I have a few quibbles:

First. I think there was a definite bias towards documentary photography/photojournalism and against “art” photography. “Art” photography barely appears until the last episode, where it’s seen rather negatively as being driven by the market (a point, which I agree with) i.e. what sells, rather than what has artistic merit. The references to “pictorialism” are particularly negative.

Second. While I recognize that you have to make choices when making a documentary of this type, I feel that the passing mention of Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston (and I don’t think Paul Strand was even mentioned) doesn’t do justice to their contribution to photography. I was pleased to see that my idol, Eugene Atget was given the attention he deserves. Joel Meyerowitz referred to him as being to photography what Mozart was to music – head and shoulders above everyone else.

Third. If space was needed to incorporate some of these seminal figures, maybe a bit less time could have been devoted to the “intimate” photography (e.g. Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Araki etc.) in episode 5. I’m probably showing my own bias here. I’m not fond of this type of photography. It does, however, provide a hint as to the the type of photography that the creators of this series seem to think of as the best: a kind of a super amateur snapshot taken by a photographer with a kind of innate creativity and very basic equipment.

There were some great moments though. An interview with a wealthy family who had hired Diane Arbus to do some family pictures. I loved a line from the lady of the house, referring to some of the pictures as “Standard ones. The family under the Monet”. There’s also an interview with the boy (now grown up) in the famous “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962” (also by Arbus). There was also an interesting piece in episode 6 about how the late Phlip Jones Griffiths (obviously a strong Cartier-Bresson disciple) had tried (unsuccessfully) to block Martin Parr‘s Magnum membership. And much more…

The England of My Childhood

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Ian Berry | The English. An elderly woman plays cricket with her family on the beach. Whitby, England. 1974. © Ian Berry | Magnum Photos

Ian Berry’s 1978 book sees him return to his homeland after many years abroad to both document and rediscover the English way of life…After a decade of travelling and living in Africa and then Paris, Magnum photographer Ian Berry conceived of The English as a project that would enable him to both document and rediscover the country in which he was born and grew up. “It seemed like a good idea to do something on the English before my eyes got too jaded,” Berry remembers whilst speaking to us about the project today. Returning to London in the mid-Sixties to become the first contract photographer for the Observer, he received a commission from the Whitechapel Gallery in 1972 to photograph the local area. His images capture the unique character of the East End and the diversity of its residents, both well-established and recent arrivals.

Source: Ian Berry’s Personal Exploration of English Life • Magnum Photos

This is the England I remember from my childhood.

Memories of the Dambusters

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The Mohne dam in north-west Germany, pictured before the attacks, was broken after five planes dropped “bouncing bombs”. Source: ‘Secret’ Dambusters photos go under hammer – BBC News

A number of earlier posts related to the New Croton Dam and co-incidentally this post too deals with dams, specifically a raid during World War II (WWII) officially called Operation Chastise, but which to many of us is better known as just “The Dambusters” after the book by Paul Brickhill and the 1955 film. When I read about the sale of these photographs it brought back a flood of memories.

A set of rare photographs showing the impact of the Dambusters’ “bouncing bomb” raids have been sold at auction.The raids by 19 RAF Lancaster bombers destroyed two strategically significant German dams and damaged a third.Taken by the Nazi authorities before and after the raids – on 16 and 17 May 1943 – the aerial images are stamped “Secret Command Document”.The photographs were sold in Nottingham for £2,100 – considerably more than the list price of £1,200.As well as the time and date of the images, they also carry a warning forbidding them to be copied.

 

I was born only a few years after the end of WWII and the war was still very much a part of the British psyche at that time. My father had been a soldier in the British army and my mother had worked in a munitions factory. As a child I was enthralled by the war, particularly the Royal Air Force (RAF). The story of The Dambusters is, along with the Battle of Britain, one of the most compelling stories of the RAF during WWII.

The_crew_of_Lancaster_AJ-T_sitting_on_the_grass,_posed_under_stormy_clouds

The crew of Lancaster ED285/’AJ-T’ sitting on the grass, posed under stormy clouds. Left to right: Sergeant G Johnson; Pilot Officer D A MacLean, navigator; Flight Lieutenant J C McCarthy, pilot; Sergeant L Eaton, gunner. In the rear are Sergeant R Batson, gunner; and Sergeant W G Ratcliffe, engineer. Label: Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy (fourth from left) and his crew of No. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) at RAF Scampton, 22 July 1943. Royal Air Force official photographer – This is photograph TR 1128 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

The picture above shows one the crews participating in the raid. The figure on the far left is Sergeant George “Johnny” Johnson. At 95 he’s that last British survivor of Operation Chastise. For an interesting 2014 Daily Telegraph interview with him see: The last British Dambuster: ‘Don’t call me a hero’.

My friends and I were fascinated by World War II aircraft. We even went as far as going up onto the nearby moors to look for the remains of aircraft that had crashed there during the war. Of course the Supermarine Spitfire, the hero of The Battle of Britain was a favorite, but I think we were even more taken by the aircraft used in this raid: The Avro Lancaster (see below). I recall that one of my friends had a huge book, lavishly illustrated, that gave details of every variant of Lancaster ever made.

Avro_Lancaster

Lancaster B Mk.I drawing with extra side views for the B Mk.I (Special) with Grand Slam bomb, Hercules-powered B Mk.II with bulged bomb bay doors and FN.64 ventral turret and the B Mk.III (Special) with the Upkeep store. Source: Emoscopes – Own work

If you’re interested in the early history of photography this site is for you

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Wilhelm Weimar - Maiglöckchen

Wilhelm Weimar – Maiglöckchen

From Petapixel: Europeana Online Gallery Offers you 2.2 million photos from the first century of photography.

If you’re looking for inspiration, knowledge, or want to trace the history of photography, here’s something for you. Europeana Collections’ impressive digital gallery features 2.2 million images, covering the first 100 years of photography. Among the featured names, there are Man Ray, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eadweard Muybridge and Nicola Perscheid, to name a few. The photographs come from 34 countries, and many of them are free for the visitors to download and use.

Photoconsortium, the International Consortium for Photographic Heritage, started this project in collaboration with Europeana. The goal was to promote photography and photographic heritage. As Mr. Douglas McCarthy states in the Europeana blog, over 50 European institutions in 34 countries contributed with the scanned historical photos. As a result, there’s a truly impressive number of images for all of us to browse and use.

When you open the website, you will be able to search it based on different criteria. You can pick the collection and the type of media you want to browse through. Also, you can add the parameters like country, language and institution. What’s very important and useful is that there’s also a criterion about usage. If you need photos for other purposes than personal, you can apply the “Free Re-use” search filter. Lastly, you can explore the website in 23 different languages.

Martin Parr curates an exhibition of David Hurn’s Swaps

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David Hurn Wild pony colt. Cold tourists in the rain in the background. Brecon Beacons, Wales, Great Britain. 1974. © David Hurn | Magnum Photos

Looks interesting! Pity I’m not in the UK at the moment.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, Magnum’s current President Martin Parr has curated David Hurn’s print swaps collection.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, and to celebrate the community of photographers of which he is a part, Magnum’s current President Martin Parr has curated a selection of the print swaps from which David Hurn has built an extraordinary collection.

With a career spanning over six decades, Hurn, like Parr, is also a connoisseur and patron of documentary photography. Over the years he has amassed more than 600 prints, from the 19th century to the present – and most of his collection was built via swapping with fellow photographers. “I have never chosen a print that has not enriched my life,” says Hurn.

Source: David Hurn’s Swaps • Magnum Photos

The exhibition will take place May 18-21 at Photo London, The Embankment Gallery West, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom.