Photography: Essays and Images

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The back cover of the book provides the following, which describes the book better than I possibly could:

This handsomely illustrated volume presents a fascinating pictorial and literary experience, bringing to life through their own words – and photographs – the scientists, artists, philosophers, innovators and entrepreneurs who in the last century (Note: the book was published in 1980) and a half have formulated a new art and a new era of communication.

Beaumont Newhall calls this book “an autobiography of the art of photography, written by some of the men and women who by their inventive genius, their scientific skill, and their artistic sensibility have forged a technique into a vital visual medium. We have allowed them to speak to us directly, without condensing, excerpting, or otherwise editing their words, so the volume may be both an authentic source book for students of the history of photography as an art and a narrative for the general reader”.

Mr. Newhall has chosen 190 photographs to illustrate the reports, criticism, and points of view expressed by the writers of the “autobiography,” many from the photographic archive of the Museum of Modern Art, others from collections throughout the world. He also provides brief introductory comments to place each selection in historical context. Photographs and text are carefully integrated.

The selections in this volume include first-person accounts of the inventions of the basic photographic techniques; newspaper reports of the discovery of the daguerreotype and of early photographic exhibitions; criticism by Baudelaire, Léger, Moholy-Nagy; personal statements from Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand, Lange, Adams, Weston, Evans and others. This basic source material, presented at length and accompanied by relevant photographs, provides a rich background for the chronological history of the medium so masterfully presented by Mr. Newhall in his classic work, The History of Photography.

To give a better sense of the scope of the work I’ve scanned the table of contents (see below)

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Fine Art Street Photography by Rupert Vandervell

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I’ve been a subscriber to Rupert Vandervell‘s channel: New Ways of Seeing for quite some time and have enjoyed it greatly. I like his delivery, and I like his videos, which are relatively short and not overproduced.

So, when I bumped into his book “Fine Art Street Photography” I decided to get hold of a copy.

How did I like it?

I’d like to start with a few small comments and one rather large criticism.

First the comments:

  1. I don’t care for this use of the words “fine art” in the title. I’ve noted this before (See: Fine Art Photography) so I won’t go into it again here. If you’re interested, please read the post.
  2. The title suggests that this type of high contrast image is the only type of street photography that deserves the name “Fine Art”. I doubt that Joel Meyrowitz, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston (to name but a few) would agree with this. In fact, the book is largely concerned with the type of street photography that Mr. Vandervell favors. In his introduction he is quite up front about this. Just don’t think that this is going to be a broad overview of the various types of fine art photography because it isn’t
  3. A better title might be “Fine Art Street Photography – my way”. Seen that way it’s an interesting book sprinkled with useful insights and interesting anecdotes. Mr. Vandervell writes well and it’s an easy read.
  4. If you’re looking for a “how to” book this is not it. But then Mr. Vandervell at no point claims that it is.

And now for the criticism:

As reviewers have pointed out the quality of reproduction of the images is truly terrible. If you watch any of his videos you will see that they are very contrasty with very dark blacks and very bright whites. In the book they’re all a very mushy grey. This is a pity because his images rely a lot on high contrast and in this book, you don’t get it. On top of this many of the photographs have faint lines (from scanning? from printing?) running through them. I’d suggest avoiding the book and instead taking a look at his YouTube channel. The photographs look much better, and it costs less. The images in this book simply do not do justice to Mr. Vandervell’s work.

For a broader overview of different types of street photography, I’d suggest taking a look at “The Street Photographers Manual” by David Gibson with a Foreword by Matt Stuart.

Gettysburg. A Journey in time

by Posted in History, Reading Leave a comment
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The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society where I volunteer is located in the same building as the Briarcliff Manor Public Library. Occasionally the library has to dispose of books. When that happens anything that seems to relate to history comes our way first in case we’re interested (which we often are). This fascinating book came along recently. It’s perfect for someone (like me) who’s interests combine history (particularly military history, and even more particularly the US Civil War with photography)

Its title is Gettysburg. Journey in Time and it’s by William Frassanito. He was educated at Gettysburg College and did his graduate work in American cultural history in the Cooperstown Graduate program. While at Gettysburg College, he was a guide for three years at the Gettysburg National Park. He served with the U.S. Army in both Germany and Vietnam, and in Vietnam, where he won the Bronze Star, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as an intelligence analyst.

In his conclusion Frassanito writes:

For more than a hundred years, the Gettysburg photographs have remained in a confused and neglected state. Their value as historical documents was realized well before the turn of the century, but their value as historical source materials was basically left untapped. A large number of the views were arbitrarily attributed to the famous Mathew Brady; captions and dates were vague and often incorrect; significant relationships between scenes went unnoticed; and although the views appeared time and time again in monumental works such as Miller’s ten-volume Photographic History of the Civil War, for all practical purposes no one thought to question the credits or the captions, or otherwise thought to treat the Gettysburg photographs as a distinct series.

By identifying the confusion that has existed, and by substituting order for that confusion, I have attempted to demonstrate what can be done – and indeed, what must be done – with historical photographs if they are ever to be accurately employed by students of the past.
The value of the early photograph is manifold. It is a unique document rich in information. It provides a dimension to the study of history available nowhere else. Moments in time have been captured and preserved, and it is for us today to be aware of the fact that unless such images are gathered, researched, organized and used to the fullest, we will be doing ourselves, as well as the photographers who recorded them, a great injustice. The loss, however, will mainly be ours.

Warning: some of the posts below depict dead soldiers on the battlefield, which may be disturbing for some.

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The Gateway to Evergreen Cemetery, July 7, 1863. O’Sullivan.

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The Thompson House, Lee’s headquarters during the battle of Gettysburg. Brady, July 15, 1863.

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Scene looking northward toward Cemetery Hill from the crest of Little Round Top. Brady, July 15, 1863.

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Confederate dead at the edge of the Rose Woods, O’Sullivan, July 5, 1863.

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Dead Confederate soldier, Gardner, July 6, 1863.

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Dead Confederate soldier at sharpshooter’s position in Devil’s Den. O’Sullivan, July 6, 1863.

Edward S. Curtis. Coming to Light

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A friend recently lent me a copy of Anne Makepeace’s book: Edward S. Curtis. Coming to light. Amazon.com describes it as follows:

Bold, sometimes abrasive, forever passionate, Edward Curtis was the quintessential romantic visionary. Curtis struggled through an impoverished boyhood in Minnesota to become a successful society photographer in Seattle. But he soon moved far beyond weddings and studio portraits to his life’s work: multi-volume photographic and ethnographic work on the vanishing world of the North American Indian. Initially, Teddy Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan backed the ambitious project. But as the work stretched over years, Curtis found himself alone with his vision, struggling to finance himself and his crews. The 20-volume North American Indians, finally completed in 1930, cost Curtis his marriage, his friendships, his home, and his health. By the time he died in 1952, he and his monumental work had lapsed into obscurity. In this richly designed book, Anne Makepeace, creator of an award-winning documentary on Curtis’s life, reexamines the lasting impact of his work. Curtis’s photographs, once ignored, now serve as a link between the romantic past and contemporary Native American communities, who have used his images to reclaim and resurrect their traditions.

Christopher Cardozo, author of Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian describes the book as follows:

This groundbreaking work combines for the first time Curtis’s masterpiece images with an in-depth understanding of his life and the forces, events and people that influenced him. Essential reading for anyone interested in Curtis, his photography, or traditional Native American cultures.

I think it’s that combination that I found most interesting about this work.

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For some time, I’ve had a book about Curtis: Curtis: The North American Indian. The Complete Portfolios. However, as the title implies this book contains mostly Curtis’s photographs. Somehow it left me wanting for more. There is an interesting introductory essay by Hans Christian Adam entitled “Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian”, but it doesn’t provide as much information on Curtis’s life motivation for taking on this extraordinary piece of work, the situation of the North American Indian at the times. Nor should one expect a 26-page essay to provide as much information as a 216-page book. The two books complement each other well, one providing more text, the other providing more photographs.

I had always thought of Curtis as something of a charlatan: someone who presented an overly glorified picture of the North American Indian in order to further his own career and increase his own riches. I see now that I was completely wrong. As the portfolio: “The Curtis Controversy” points out, Curtis certainly did frame his images to block out any evidence of modern life. He also asked his subjects to dress in traditional clothing (even if the clothing at times was not appropriate to a particular tribe). From time to time, he even manipulated the natural environment. I was particularly impressed/appalled with the way in which he once procured a whale carcass so he could stage a whale hunt. But no charlatan would ever have put in the time, effort, energy and personal finances that Curtis did.

Inspired by reading this book I decided to get hold of one of the originals. Not, of course, one of the original, limited editions that Curtis provided to his funders. These were extremely expensive at the time ($3,000 for a set in 1906 equivalent to about $105,000 equivalent today) and would be far, far beyond my reach now. However, facsimile editions are available, so I decided to buy Volume 1: The Apache, Jicarillas, and Navaho. It’s about 160 pages long. In all there are 20 volumes! I haven’t read it yet, but if I like it I might over time get the other 19.

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Edward S. Curtis. Coming to light is a terrific book. It’s easy to hold (not true of all photobooks), nicely laid out, and extremely informative. I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long time.

Lee Friedlander

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Once upon a time I didn’t care for street photography. But I’m an avid consumer of photobooks and after acquiring books by/about such luminaries as Joel Meyerowitz, Gary Winogrand, Robert Frank etc. I began to understand it better and even tried to do street photography of my own. One of the photographers I came across was Lee Friedlander. I saw some of his photographs online and liked them a lot and so decided to find out more. As is the norm for me I decided to get my hands on a book. This turned out to be harder than I thought. He’s a prolific creator of photobooks. See below for a partial list:

  • The American Monument. New York: Eakins Press Foundation, 1976. ISBN 0-87130-043-5.
  • Lee Friedlander Photographs. New City, NY: Self-published / Haywire Press, 1978.
  • Factory Valleys: Ohio & Pennsylvania. New York: Callaway Editions, 1982. ISBN 0-935112-04-9.
  • Lee Friedlander Portraits. Boston: Little, Brown, 1985. ISBN 0-8212-1602-3.
  • Like a One-Eyed Cat: Photographs by Lee Friedlander, 1956–1987. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Seattle Art Museum, 1989. ISBN 0-8109-1274-0.
  • Nudes. New York: Pantheon, 1991. ISBN 0-679-40484-8.
  • The Jazz People of New Orleans. New York: Pantheon, 1992. ISBN 0-679-41638-2.
  • Maria. Washington: Smithsonian, 1992. ISBN 1-56098-207-1.
  • London: Jonathan Cape, 1993. ISBN 9780224032957.
  • Bellocq: Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans. New York: Random House, 1996. ISBN 0-679-44975-2.
  • The Desert Seen. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1996. ISBN 1-881616-75-4.
  • American Musicians: Photographs by Lee Friedlander. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1998. ISBN 1-56466-056-7. By Friedlander, Steve Lacy, and Ruth Brown.
  • Lee Friedlander. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2000. ISBN 1-881337-09-X.
  • Stems. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2003. ISBN 1-891024-75-2.
  • Lee Friedlander: Sticks and Stones: Architectural America. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2004. ISBN 1-891024-97-3. By Friedlander and James Enyeart.
  • Cherry Blossom Time in Japan: The Complete Works. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2006. ISBN 1-881337-20-0.
  • Lee Friedlander: New Mexico. Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books, 2008. ISBN 978-1-934435-11-3. By Friedlander, Andrew Smith, and Emily Ballew Neff.
  • Photographs: Frederick Law Olmsted Landscapes. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-1933045733.
  • America by Car. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2010. ISBN 978-1-935202-08-0.
  • Portraits: The Human Clay: Volume 1. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2015. ISBN 978-0-300-21520-5.
  • Children: The Human Clay: Volume 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2015. ISBN 978-0-300-21519-9.
  • Street: The Human Clay: Volume 3. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2016. ISBN 978-0-300-22177-0.
  • Lee Friedlander: Western Landscapes. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 2016. ISBN 978-0-300-22301-9.

All you’ll have seen his books cover a multitude of topics. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what I wanted. I was looking for a fairly recent retrospective covering his work in general. At that time the type of book I was looking for was either out of print, extremely expensive or both. This situation now seems to have changed so when I spotted this book, I immediately acquired it.

It’s quite a large (10″ x 12″) book, which explains why the right side is cut off in the picture. It just wouldn’t fit on my admittedly small scanner.

The book is in four parts. The first is an essay by Carlos Gollonet entitled “The World According to Lee Friedlander”. I found this most informative and refreshingly free of the “critic speak” you often find in such pieces. Instead, it was rather easy to read. I found the second part, “My life with Lee. An Interview with Maria Friedlander” to be absolutely fascinating. Since Mr. Friedlander is known for his reluctance to give interviews, this might be the close as we’re going to get. The third part: “How he sees” by Nichols Nixon is short and left very little impression on me. I guess it’s a personal reflection by someone who knows Friedlander well. The third part, which takes up most of the book is called “Catalog” and contains over 300 photographs, mostly black and white, but a few in color. The book concludes with a chronology of the artist’s life by his grandson Giancarlo T. Roma.

I really enjoyed it.