Time. 100 photographs. The most influential images of all time.

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I went grocery shopping the other day and as I was standing in line at the checkout I noticed this publication. I’d read that Time was about to publish such a volume, but had then forgotten about it. It seemed like it might make an interesting read so into my cart it went.

I’m glad I got it. The subtitle is “The Stories Behind the Pictures” and I certainly found the introduction and the short textual “stories”, which accompany each picture to be of interest.

Anyone who compiles a ‘best of…’ list is looking for trouble. You can’t please everyone so there will always be complaints. Time has set itself a particularly difficult task in that it has tried to identify the ‘most influential’. They do spend some time in the introduction explaining what criteria they used and how they applied these criteria, but trying to determine influences is always hard. I couldn’t help but feel in some cases that the pictures didn’t so much ‘influence’ as much as they did just reflect an already existing trend.

In my opinion this publication also reflects a couple of biases: 1) a concentration on US photography; and 2) a preference for photojournalism/reportage. Considering the history of ‘Time’ I suppose this should be no surprise.

Of course I have my own thoughts as to what should have been included, and what not. For example – the daguerreotype was certainly very influential in the early days of photography, but ultimately turned out to be a dead end as it produced a positive image, which could not be reproduced. I could argue that Willam Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype process (and other processes which produced negatives e.g. collodion etc.) was ultimately much more influential as it formed the basis for photography for the next 150 years or so. Likewise you could make the case that, although Carleton Watkins came first and influenced the establishment of the Yosemite National Park, Ansel Adams was ultimately more influential both in terms of the environmental movement and the development of photography. But these are mere subjective quibbles that inevitably come up whenever anyone attempts a list of this kind.

Generally I liked this publication a lot and I’m glad I bought it.

Photographs from the edge

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I recently bought a copy of Photographs from the edge. A master photographer’s insights on capturing an extraordinary world by Art Wolfe (with Rob Sheppard).

The photographs are mostly along the lines of: animals in exotic locations; people in exotic locations; exotic locations all by themselves. In total there are about 130 color pictures (two pictures on the inside of the front and back covers are in black and white) spanning a period from the 1980s to the present. They’re striking pictures and well worth studying. However, they’re not really my cup of tea. While I can recognize the skill and ability required to produce such pictures they don’t move me all that much.

So why did I buy the book? Each picture is accompanied by technical information on the camera and lens used; settings chosen; and where appropriate the type of film used. In addition as Rob Sheppard says in his preface:

For each of Art’s photographs, we have included a section on the nature of the photograph, a short piece inspired by the subject matter of the image. To do each image justice, I often learned something new, especially about cultures and out-of-the-way places.

As a photographer, I enjoy learning how other photographers handle their way of seeing. Exploring another person’s approach to this art and craft can even illuminate your own pieces by way of both contrast and empathy with the work.

It’s this background to each picture, when read in conjunction with the pictures themselves, that I find appealing.

As an example I include below the full text relating to the picture on the book’s cover (see above).

October 2008
Huangshan
Anhui Province, China
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, EF70-200mm F2.8 lens +1.4x, f/14 for 1/13 sec., ISO 100

I first visited Huangshan, or the Yellow Mountains of China, in 1984. I had been in the first Western expedition to Tibet and the slopes of Mount Everest. On our return, several of us stopped in eastern China to visit Huangshan. This is a sacred place for the Chinese people. In contrast to the grayness and the ice of Mount Everest, it is like being inside a giant sumi brush painting.

I had studied the sumi brush masters of both Japan and China during my college years in art history, and I remembered the imaginative landscapes of those artists. I long thought that they imagined those scenes, maybe from trips to the opium den! When I traveled to Huangshan, I discovered they were much more literal paintings than I had thought. There were indeed landscapes of vertical granite faces, contorted pine trees, and swirling mists.

Since that first visit, I have returned to the area on three distinct trips. Each time I renewed my fondness for this landscape and photographed new formations of the land. What I love about these shots is the scale. Pinnacles of rock rise out of the swirling mists, while tiny pine trees cling to the windswept slopes. The mist and the landscape formations provide a balance of positive and negative space, of light and dark areas.

The nature of the photos

Huangshan has long been a popular location for artists because of its spectacular mountains and cliffs. The pine trees growing on the rocks are endemic (exclusively native) to the area and so have gained the name “Huangshan pine”.

Photo Tip

Fog and changing weather can provide unique views of any landscape. Don’t be afraid of the clouds. Just avoid using large areas of blank clouds in your composition.

New deal photography

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Not long ago I posted about some depression era kodachromes (Lovely Depression era Kodachromes). I recently came across, and acquired, a copy of a Taschen book (New Deal Photography. USA 1935-1943), which contains many more. It also has even more black and white photographs from the same era – more than 400 in all. An introduction describes the work of the Farm Security Administration and each section of the book covers a single geographical area: the Northeast; the Midwest; the West; The South. An appendix provides capsule summaries of the photographers: Esther Bubley; John Collier; Paul Carter; John Collier Jr.; Marjory Collins; Jack Delano; Walker Evans; Charles Fenno Jacobs; Theodor Jung; Dorothea Lange; Russell Lee; Carl Mydans; Alfred T. Palmer; Gordon Parks; Louise Rosskam; Edwin Rosskam; Arthur Rothstein; Ben Shahn; Roy Emerson Stryker; John Vachon; Marion Post Wolcott;

The text is “peppered” with comments/quotations from the photographers. Here’s an example I particularly liked:

There was one farmer, well he was alright, you could take his photograph all over the place, out in the field, and we’d been inside their house and then around almost all day. Russ had walked away down the field taking pictures of something else and I was talking to the man, and he said “What does he do?” And I said, “He takes pictures”. And he man said “You know, you’d think think a great big man like that, he’d get out and get himself a job”. Jean Lee (wife of Russell Lee).

There’s also a fairly long comment by Dorothea Lange describing how she came to take the famous “Migrant Mother” photograph.

Of course the photographs are rather small compared to the originals, but it’s a great overview of the work of the FSA. Well worth the <$20 I paid for it.

For those interested in the history of photography

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Source: Conscientious | Review: Photography – The Whole Story

For those interested in the history of photography I can heartily recommend Photography – The Whole Story; general editor: Juliet Hacking; foreword by David Campany; 30+ contributors; 576 pages; Prestel; 2012. The Conscientious website reviewed it and I agree whole-heartedly with the points made in the review:

Much to my delight (“delight” isn’t a word I use very often) I recently discovered Photography – The Whole Story. Edited by Juliet Hacking, the book was produced featuring over 30 contributors (art historians, curators, writers). In a nutshell, a specialist for any given period or subject matter writes about just that. On top of that, the book is organized simply around time frames, with subject matters/topics then covering those. That might just be the simplest way to do it. The writing in the book is compelling and a joy to read, avoiding tedious jargon where possible, while never being superficial or simplifying.

On top of all of this, the book presents quite a few individual photographs in detail. These sections are what makes this book stand out. The general background of the photograph is explained. The artist is – briefly – introduced. What is more, four to six sections/parts of the photograph are discussed in more detail: Technical details, historical details, poses, compositions, whatever might be of relevance. Of course, learning about photography has to involve learning how to look at photographs, and Photography – The Whole Story does a wonderful job doing just that for dozens and dozens of historical photographs, some well known, many others not.

The book thus teaches the history of photography not as a large number of facts and names, which, let’s face it, are hard to remember. Instead, it uses a large number of photographs created over the course of that history, tying those photographs to what matters. Learning the history of photography has to mean seeing and understanding a lot of photographs, both how they operate as photographs and how they’re tied to the underlying history. Photography – The Whole Story superbly does just that. Given its focus, writing and design, I think it will have a large appeal for a general audience, people interested in the history of photography. For anyone seriously interested in photography, the book is a must have, must read. Highly recommended.

A bit of an obsession with Diane Arbus

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Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967. © Estate of Diane Arbus

I seem to have developed a bit of an obsession with Diane Arbus of late. I think it started when I read about the exhibition: Diane Arbus. In the beginning at the Met Breuer. Of course I’d seen some of her more famous pictures (the twins; the boy with the hand grenade; etc.) but I didn’t really know much about her. I felt like reading something about photography so I browsed around on Amazon.com and came up with this: Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer and bought the Kindle version. I don’t usually buy electronic versions of photography books because I like to see the photographs in their full glory. However, the reviews of this book indicated that there were no Arbus photographs in it because the author hadn’t been able to obtain rights to use them. So I figured I wasn’t losing much by getting the e-book. It was an interesting (and long – coming in at over 700 pages) read, but I missed not having the photographs.

So I thought I’d get a book with Arbus photographs and bought: Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph: Fortieth-Anniversary Edition . This book is virtually the opposite to the Lubow book in that it’s almost all photographs and virtually no text. What little text there is is mostly in the form of Arbus’s words taken from interviews and recorded lessons. She apparently didn’t like to teach (doing it mostly for the money it brought in) and doesn’t seem to have been particularly good at it. It’s more a series of disjointed thoughts than anything else. The pictures are impressive though.

Finally I found a number of articles on the internet, the most interesting of which was: Freak Show by Susan Sontag. Where Lubow is largely postitive towards Arbus’s work Sontag is much more negative saying at one point:

The ambiguity of Diane Arbus’s work is that she seems to have enrolled in one of art photography’s most visible enterprises—concentrating on victims, the unfortunate, the dispossessed—but without the compassionate purpose that such a project is expected to serve.

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After all of this what do I think about Arbus? Her reputation certainly doesn’t come from her photographic technique. The exposure isn’t always right. Composition seems to be off. Her fans are effusive about her ability to bring out the “inner person”. In “Looking at Photographs” John Szarkowski says of her:

With rare exceptions, Arbus made photographs only of people. The force of these portraits may be a measure of the degree to which the subject and the photographer agreed to risk trust and acceptance of each other. She was interested in them for what they were most specifically: not representatives of philosophical postitions or life styles of physiological types, but as unique mysteries. Her subjects surely perceived this, and revealed themselves without reserve, confident that they were not being used as conscripts to serve an exterior issue. They were also doubtless interested in her. At times it may have been unclear which was the mariner and which the wedding guest.

While this may be true for many of the “freak” pictures I don’t believe this is the case with many of her pictures of “normal” people. As described in the Lubow book she often used techniques (making people wait; making them hold poses for very long periods of time; making the sessions excessively long etc.) designed to frustrate and annoy. The famous picture of the boy with the hand grenade may serve as an example. The contact sheet containing this picture is available on the internet. It contains 12 photographs, 11 of which show the boy. In ten of these he looks like a perfectly normal child. Arbus chose to use the twelfth picture where he looks like a psychopath. Did she capture his inner personality (Lubow interviewed the child for his book and he certainly doesn’t seem to have become a psychopath) or did she “cherry pick” a picture where he finally showed his frustration for a fleeting second?

So I’m not entirely sure where I stand regarding Diane Arbus. While I have some concerns and doubts I still find myself fascinated by her work and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it will become clearer over time?

I will probably make a trip into the city to see the above exhibition though.