The Style Essentials–Marlene Dietrich’s Key Light in 1932’s SHANGHAI EXPRESS

I’m a regular reader of photo.net forums, particularly ‘Classic Manual Cameras’ and ‘Casual Photo Conversations’. The latter has a weekly series of discussions – each one devoted to a single iconic photograph. Over time I’ve missed a few of them and I find the series so interesting that I thought I’d compile a list (with links) of the entire series. Then I’ll be able to read them at my leisure. The rationale given in the original post launching the series was:

Would anyone be interested in a regular discussion, perhaps each week or every other week, about a well-known photo or a lesser-known photo by a well-known photographer? Recently, there was a potentially good discussion in the Philosophy forum about one of Eugene Smith’s photos. The Philosophy forum may not have been the best place for this for a couple of reasons. One, I don’t think it gets that much traffic (or at least participation), which is understandable. Two, it may not have really been a philosophical issue.

It struck me that a discussion like that each week might be good (and fun) for folks at PN. It could evolve however the participants want. I wouldn’t necessarily see it as a critique session, though it could be that in part. It could also just be comments about the photo, how it fits into the overall body of work of the photographer, or its place historically, or something about it technically, or whatever people want to say about it. Questions could be asked and answered about it as well…/more

The latest is number 30: Charles Marville, “Place Saint-André-des-Arts (Sixth Arrondissement), 1865—1868”. Unfortunately I haven’t yet been able to find #13. I’ll try to keep this listing up to date as new posts are added.

Portrait of Marlene Dietrich — WEEKLY DISCUSSION #1.
Alli, Annie, Hannah, and Berit — WEEKLY DISCUSSION # 2.
Schaffers Crossing Roundhouse, O. Winston Link — WEEKLY DISCUSSION # 3.
The Flatiron Building–Eduard Steichen Weekly Discussion #4.
Big Cypress National Preserve 1: WEEKLY DISCUSSION #5.
Kertész’s “Chez Mondrian” : WEEKLY DISCUSSION #6.
Edgerton “.30 Bullet Piercing an Apple” : WEEKLY DISCUSSION #7.
Eisenstaedt – Drum Major at the University of Michigan – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #8.
Leibing – Leap Into Freedom – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #9.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: “Hyères, 1932” WEEKLY DISCUSSION #10.
Sam Haskins, “In the Studio” Weekly Discussion #11.
Suzanne Heintz – Life Once Removed – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #12.
Eisenstaedt – Children at a Puppet Show, 1963 – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #14.
Vivian Maier – 1954. New York, NY – WEEKLY DISCUSSION # 15.
I. Russel Sorgi – 1942 WEEKLY DISCUSSION #16.
William Mortensen – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #17.
Pablo Casals, 1954, by Yousuf Karsh – WEEKLY DISCUSSION #18.
Untitled Photography by Henri Brassai: His Secret Paris – Weekly Discussion #19.
Masahisa Fukase “The Solitude of Ravens” – Weekly Discussion #20.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #21 Elliott Erwitt “Segregated Water Fountains”.
Saigon Execution photographed by Eddie Adams, 1968: WEEKLY DISCUSSION #22.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #23: Duane Michals – singing women / singing men.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #24 W. Eugene Smith’s 1948 photo essay: Country Doctor.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #25 Edward Burtynsky Water Project.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #26: Minor White. Capitol Reef, 1962..
WEEKLY DISCUSSION # 27 – Hill and Adamson – Scottish Fishwives, Washaday Group.- c1843.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #28: Charles C. Ebbets “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper”.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #29: Joe Rosenthal – “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #30: Charles Marville, “Place Saint-André-des-Arts (Sixth Arrondissement), 1865—1868”.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION No.31 – Winston Churchill Portraits by Yousuf Karsh.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #32: A Hard Day’s Night by photographer Astrid Kirchherr.
Weekly Discussion #33: Elliot Erwitt
Weekly Discussion #34: “American Gothic, Washington DC” by Gordon Parks
Weekly Discussion #35: “Two Nuns” by A. Aubrey Bodine
Weekly Discussion #36: “The Kiss” by Joan Fontcuberta
WEEKLY DISCUSSION #37 Ken Heyman Photos.

WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #1 – Bill Brandt.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #2 – Philip-Lorca diCorcia
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #3 – Truman Capote x 3
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #4 – Harry Callahan (color)
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #5 – Aleksandr Rodchenko
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #6 – Cole Weston
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #7 – Werner Mantz
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #8 – Martin Parr
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #9 – Francesca Woodman
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #10 – Nicholas Nixon
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #11 – David LaChapelle
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #12 – Eikoh Hosoe
WEEKLY DISCUSSION 2.0 #13 – Imogen Cunningham

Spitalfields in April 1912 by CA Mathew

On a spring morning in 1912, a man with a tripod and a heavy camera walked out of Liverpool Street station and into the heart of London’s East End, capturing the children playing with hoops and skipping ropes, the busy shoppers, the pubs, the horse-drawn delivery carts competing with lorries, the tailors promising individual garments at wholesale prices in an area famous for centuries for textile workers, a now vanished world. He then went home to his new photographic studio at Brightlingsea in Essex, and vanished from history.

His photographs of the streets and alleys of Spitalfields, which are going on public exhibition for the first time, are almost all that is known of CA Mathews: his studio is only known because the mounts of the photographs carry its address in tiny neat black ink letters. He took up photography in 1911, and within five years he died, soon after his wife, in late 1916. They may have been victims of the terrible epidemic of Spanish flu that killed more people than the first world war.

via Exhibition of photographs lost for 60 years reveals a bygone London | Art and design | The Guardian.

Unfortunately there are only a few photographs – I wish there were more.

The following caught my attention: “Many streetscapes are instantly familiar to both men – like the corner of Artillery Lane, where Dyson is about to begin restoration work on two houses – but others have been obliterated, including the grand houses in Spital Square. Some redeveloped since the photographer’s day, such as the grand Fruit and Wool Exchange, are controversially facing demolition.”. I think that this is partly why I like to take pictures of old buildings: over time they tend to disappear. One of my photographic idols is Eugene Atget who spent considerable time documenting a Paris that was disappearing. Perhaps a few of my pictures will be the only documentation of something which has long since gone. Of course the chances of this are quite slim nowadays. When Atget and Mathew were alive very few people took pictures. Nowadays everybody has a camera and there are probably millions of pictures of anything you can think of. So the chances of any of my pictures being the only document of a particular building are remote. Still you never know….