Images can Live Forever even though We cannot.

July 26, 2024

When I heard my daughter’s voice on the phone this week, I immediately knew something was terribly wrong. As a parent, as long as you hear you kid’s voice there is some relief because your kid is good enough to talk with you, but you instantly brace for what the bad news is. In this case my daughter called to tell me that her best friend from college, Lulu Conner, had died of an apparent embolism after going to Paris to watch her sister-in-law (Maggie Steffens USA Water Polo) at the Olympics.

At 27 my daughter should be going to weddings and showers, not memorial services. I know loss happens at every age and we all must deal with grief at one point or another, it is common to everyone. Sadly, some people must endure way more grief than others for some reason, it is just part of the plan. It sucks, but we need hard times to appreciate good times and to grow and to appreciate the gift of life.

Alyssa Valentine, Ramsey Hufford, and Lulu Conner

Lulu and my daughter Alyssa were assigned to be roommates as freshmen at UC Davis, they had never met before. Miraculously it was a perfect pairing, their bond was immediate, and they lived together their entire four years of college. They became the nucleolus of an incredible group of diverse friends. Lulu laughed, lived, and loved more in her brief time on earth than most people do who live decades longer. Her loss has left an incredible void for all her friends and family. I am so thankful that Lulu was so important to Alyssa and Ramsey, they loved each other so much, and I am grateful I was also blessed with so many good times with Lulu too.

When I got off of the phone, I got on my computer and looked up some of my photographs of Lulu to help me reflect on her impact and process the loss. I know what I am going to write is obvious, but I still think there is value in saying it. One of the greatest powers a photograph has is it documents and memorializes a fraction of a second in time and preserve that memory for as long as we want to maintain it. It is heartbreaking to know I will never be able to see my daughter and Lulu just laughing together again. But because I photographed them when they were together, I have something to hold on to, something to remind me how boldly Lulu lived and that helps with the loss.

I experience life by photographing my world. This usually annoys my family, but that is who I am, it is often uncomfortable for me to experience something without photographing it. I constantly frame the world in my mind as I look around and I hate missing opportunities to capture good images with a camera. I am a romantic, I don’t like change, I want to maintain the moment; I don’t know, maybe that is a big reason why I am a photographer. At this moment in time these traits are a blessing because I have a number of good images of Lulu that I can spend time with while I keep her spirit close.

We live in a Selfie world, with too many shallow self-portraits whose sole goal is to brag to our friends what we are up to (Group selfies do have more value). I just want to remind people to actually photograph your loved ones, ideally with a camera, as well as your cellphone. I know we are inundated by images online today but make sure you photograph to document some of the important things in life that will be cherished years from now. Make prints of those photographs and save files to external drives, don’t rely solely on the cloud.

A Bill Jay Lesson to Wrap Up this post:

I know I have told this story more than once, but it’s worth repeating and still is one of the greatest things Bill Jay taught us while I was at Arizona State University. We were in class one day, in Matthews Hall, when Bill put two slides up the screen next to one another (yes back then you looked at prints or slides in class and there were real blackboards). One image was Ansel Adams’s Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico which had just set the record for the most expensive print ever sold (I think it sold for around $40K). In the other projector Bill put up a good snapshot quality photo of a child in an inflatable wading pool. I can’t recall but it may have even been a photograph of one of his daughters, doesn’t matter. So, with both images side by side he asked the class which photograph was more valuable. Lots of my classmates spoke up with reason why it was Adams’s photograph; because of composition, because of the author, and many noted how important the sale was for the medium in general because of the price it sold for. After everyone willing to take the bait had their say, then Bill gave us more information. He said what if this print is the only photograph that this mother has which documents her child at that time in their lives. Maybe all the family albums had been lost in a fire, maybe she had even lost the child, and that simple snapshot was the only visual reminder she had of her child. He then asked us which print would the mother say is more valuable? Would she even consider selling the simple photograph of the child for any price? That simple example was almost forty years ago, and it is still so vivid to me. The viewer sets the value based on their own experiences and tastes. The photographs I shared in this post always meant something to me, and unfortunately now they have become more valuable because I’ll never have those people together again for another photograph.

A Long Arc - Photography and the American South

May 26, 2024

When I was studying photography at Arizona State, I became aware of the FSA photographers, the photographers who documented the Civil Rights Movement, Matthew Brady, and William Christenberry. The images these photographers captured impacted how I see today. I remember installing Christenberry’s photographs for an exhibition at the Northlight Gallery in Matthews Hall on campus, and being in awe of how beautiful the prints were. Christenberry’s work probably was the most obvious in documenting the American South, he captured scenes that only exist there. At that time in my life when I was looking at the work of other photographers working in the South I was focused more on the specific subject matter and the craftsmanship of the images. Over time, from revisiting my own images, I have gained a better understanding of how many layers of meaning an image can actually have. Some images may have an obvious singular message, but many images have multiple layers of meaning and information once you learn how to look at photographs. I also remember Bill Jay stressing to us in class that every viewer brings their own experiences to each image and what is important to one viewer may not be important to another.

One of the people I follow on social media is Gregory Harris who is the is the High Museum of Art’s Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography. I have had the opportunity to meet Greg and I greatly respect his knowledge of Contemporary and Documentary Photography. At the end of last year, I saw him announce the release of the catalogue / book titled A long Arc Southern Photography which accompanied the exhibition at the High Museum. I was immediately interested in the book, so I contacted the High Museum gift shop to arrange a purchase. The book is the subject of this blog post, a post that is woefully overdue.

Weighing in at over 4 lbs. this 304 page Aperture book with over 275 photographs was published last November to accompany the exhibition which opened at the High Museum and is now currently on display at The Addison Gallery of Art at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts until July 31st. From there it moves to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for an exhibition opening October 5th, 2024. The book is a beast, but it must be to properly cover the subject matter otherwise they would have omitted important photographers. I love the layout of the book and the content; it is an amazing documentation of the history of photography in the American South. The printing is good, and I like the fact the image descriptions and titles accompany the images. The dimensions of the book are unique, but it works well, allowing creativity with the image placement on the pages. The amount of information in this book, written and actual images, is incredible. The only complaint I have about the book is the font size and text padding are smaller than I prefer, it isn’t an easy read, but I understand why that is because it would probably add another twenty-five plus pages to an already big book.

This book really brought in to focus how important the American South has been to the history of photography. As I stated above, early on in my career I was aware of many of the notable photographers who had photographed in the South, but I hadn’t given any thought to how much the region was actually documented. When I started going through this book I was immediately impressed by how many great photographers had photographed in the South. I also was surprised to learn that some images I knew well, but had not considered the location, had actually been photographed in the South; the cover image of Robert Frank’s The Americans book is an example of one of those images.

A Long Arc - Photography and the American South - Page Examples:

Much of America is changing today because of ideological influences, migration, and a host of other factors that are too complex to get in to here. Many of our major cities have quality of life issues with things like the high cost of living, overcrowding, and criminal justice failures. Having visited Atlanta a couple years ago I felt the region seemed less affected by the problems in other parts of the country. I am not naïve to problems of the South’s past, but I didn’t feel the same racial tension in Atlanta that I have felt recently in Los Angeles (which has increased dramatically from when I was younger). The small portion of the South I have seen seems to be more like the America of the 20th Century than a lot of other parts of the country are today and I appreciate that. It is important to retain our American identity as a society while still appreciating and respecting the diversity within the whole. I think the residents in the South may be doing a better job of this than other regions of our country. So, with all this said, I think this book also has value documenting the community of the South which is separate from the history of photography element of the book. Another thing to appreciate is how many images in the book also document important historic and transformative moments in American history.

I have reviewed several books here on my blog and with each the goal is to give a fair evaluation of the book along with my personal taste opinions. One thing I always try to identify is who the book is best suited for, since photography interests and tastes are so varied and photography books can be expensive. This is one of the few recent books that I believe would be a good addition to anyone’s photography library. This book is as complete a document as you can author for the subject. The reader will definitely learn something new about the medium and probably rediscover some images they had not thought about in a while. The book is well worth the price, Amazon now has it for $47. It is important for photographers to understand the history of the medium to be good at their craft. I know most of us think New York is the center of the photographic universe but the photographs from the American South are some of the most important images ever made.

The book’s official description is as follows:

Collects over 175 years of key moments in the visual history of the Southern United States, with over two hundred and fifty photographs taken from 1845 to present. The South is perhaps the most mythologized region in the United States and also one of the most depicted. Since the dawn of photography in the nineteenth century, photographers have articulated the distinct and evolving character of the South’s people, landscape, and culture and reckoned with its fraught history. Indeed, many of the urgent questions we face today about what defines the American experience—from racism, poverty, and the legacy of slavery to environmental disaster, immigration, and the changes wrought by a modern, global economy—appear as key themes in the photography of the South. The visual history of the South is inextricably intertwined with the history of photography and also the history of America, and is therefore an apt lens through which to examine American identity. A Long Arc: Photography and the American South accompanies a major exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, with more than one hundred photographers represented, including Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Gordon Parks, William Eggleston, Sally Mann, Carrie Mae Weems, Dawoud Bey, Alec Soth, and An-My Lê. Insightful texts by Imani Perry, Sarah Kennel, Makeda Best, and Rahim Fortune, among others, illuminate this broad survey of photographs of the Southern United States as an essential American story. Copublished by Aperture and High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Details

Format: Hardback

Number of pages: 304

Number of images: 275

Publication date: 2023-11-21

Measurements: 8.07 x 11.42 inches

ISBN: 9781597115513

Contributors

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate with the programs in law and public affairs, gender and sexuality studies, and jazz studies.

Sarah Kennel is the Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center for Works on Paper at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

Gregory J. Harris is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art.

Makeda Best is the Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography at the Harvard Art Museums.

LeRonn P. Brooks is associate curator for modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Rahim Fortune is a photographer living and working between Austin and Brooklyn.

Grace Elizabeth Hale is commonwealth professor of American studies and history at the University of Virginia.

Maria L. Kelly is assistant curator of photography at the High Museum of Art.

Scott L. Matthews is assistant professor of history at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

Brian Piper is Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Photographs at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Press Quotes:

“The magnificence of a retrospective like this is not just the accounting offered by its historical sweep, but the way it conveys the immense complexity of this region, to inspire a renewed attention to the cruel radiance of what is. Suffering does not always lead to compassion and change, but photographs like these remind us that standing in witness to suffering surely should.”—Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

“…these photographs demonstrate how essential the South has been not only to American history and identity, but to American photography—from Mathew Brady’s battlefield images of the Civil War (1861–65) to the intimate interiors of Carrie Mae Weems.”—Andrew Durbin, Frieze magazine

Additional Information about the Exhibition:

You Tube Video of the Installation at the High Museum (11 mins)

Winogrand Color & Friedlander's The People's Pictures

March 9, 2024

This blog post is a review of several new photography books I recently added to my library.

The release of Winogrand Color was my motivation to go book shopping online. I have mentioned this time and again I love Winogrand’s photographs, and I am always interested books about his work. While ordering the Winogrand book I also came across The People’s Pictures by Lee Friedlander and two other books which were on sale and looked interesting, so I added them to the cart as well.

Twin Palms publishers describes Winogrand Color as follows

Winogrand Color presents 150 photographs selected from the archives at the Center for Creative Photography by the American film director, Michael Almereyda and former Museum of Modern Art curator, Susan Kismaric. It is the first monograph dedicated to the artist's rarely seen color work.

Images were selected from the 45,000 color slides that Winogrand photographed in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Published November 2023, 12” x 12”, 176 pages, 150 four color plates.

The retail price is $85. Twin Palms produced two slipcase editions of 50 which are already sold out at ($300 ea) and they produced a limited edition of 750 books with an alternative cover image ($85) which is still available. The first edition printing is 7,000 books.

My first impression of Winogrand Color was good. I like the page layouts; I think the image sizes and book size are appropriate and the design is clean and simple, which I really like. The printing is very good, many images have deep shadow areas, and the printer was able to keep shadow details while still achieving solid blacks where appropriate. In reading the book detail I saw it was printed in Turkey and that several people were involved in the image restoration process, this suggested the Winogrand’s transparencies may not have been properly processed or stored.

As a document the book is good. First it documents an era in color well that most of us remember primarily in black and white. Second, and most importantly, the book allows us to see more Winogrand photographs, most of these images we have not seen before, and that allows the viewer to gain deeper knowledge about one of the greatest documentary photographers of all time. The photographs in this book also reaffirm that Winogrand was not wedded solely to Black and White photography. I remember in the 2018 documentary film on him, “All things are Photographable”, where Winogrand spoke about photographing with color film but had reservations about it because, at the time, he could not produce archival prints of color images. It showed the choice was at least partially a business decision not just an artistic one. So, as a photographer myself, the photographs in this book gave me a lot of clues about how Garry Winogrand photographed.

Many of Winogrand’s most famous images were made with a 28mm lens on a Leica M4. A number of the color images in the book seem to be made with longer legnth lenses. Winogrand is at his best when there are layers of information in his image. Winogrand was quoted numerous times talking about how he liked his photographs to be more interesting than the subject matter and how he photographed to see what something looked like photographed. With a wide-angle lens, you tend to have more content in the frame which lends itself to what Winogrand was after. You can still achieve images with deep meaning using longer focal lengths, Max Yavno is someone who photographed that way, but it did not seem to be Winogran’s typical approach. Thinking of Winogrand’s Women are Beautiful, when I saw the entire portfolio displayed at Pier 24’s exhibition “The Grain of the Present” in 2017, I really became aware of how rarely he used a longer lens.

This book begins with a number of longer focal length images at Coney Island I assume. They seemed more voyeuristic than insightful and I questioned if these were images that Winogrand really would have included in a portfolio or if he was just exploring with his camera. Was the color film and the focal lengths a careful creative decision or was it more spontaneous. I don’t know how Garry set up his cameras related to film type or if he carried similar focal length lenses. I have seen video of Winogrand photographing in the 1980’s and he had a single camera in hand and camera bag, but he didn’t seem to be transitioning to a second camera body. I wonder if Winogrand had his primary Lieca M4 with the 28mm lens loaded with black and white film and then had a telephoto lens on another Leica loaded with color slide film? Having photographed in the pre-digital era I remember having to carry two camera bodies if I wanted to photograph in color and black and white. It would also make sense logistically if he had a telephoto lens on the camera with color film too, because if he wanted to use a telephoto lens for a black and white image, he could just trade the lenses between bodies. (It is unfortunate that so many photographers today have never worked with analog cameras because it would give them a greater appreciation of what photographers in the past accomplished.)

Several images in the book looked to me as if Winogrand saw something that interested him, and he used the color film camera to just see the difference of how the image would be in color. One example is his famous image of a couple in Central Park Zoo with the baby monkeys. The famous black and white image is framed so much better than the color image in this book. Interestingly when examining and comparing the color and the black and white imagers of the couple it is obvious the color image was photographed with a wide angel lens and that the black and white image may have been photographed with a slightly longer length lens but still not a telephoto lens. The black and white image is the better composed and the lack of color helps the viewer focus on the details within the frame. There are a few images in the book that seem just okay like he was making an exposure to see the difference but not with the intent to ever exhibit the image. The photo in the book of a boxing match where you basically just see the ceiling looks like an absolute mistake, like it was an accidental exposure (Like most photographers I have captured many mistakes in my time). There are a number of images in this book that seem to fall short. This book is not an example of Winogrand’s best work, and I question the curator’s selections and wonder if Winogrand would have showcased the same images; I also can’t imagine if the editors had 45,000 color images that this collection was the best of that lot. I have not been able to find a concise statement about this book from either Tod Papageorge or Joel Meyerowitz who photographed with Winogrand during this time and know his process better than most people; I would love to hear their review of it. I think Arthur Lubow from the New York Times wrote a solid article reviewing the book and comparing Winogrand’s color work with other noted photographers working with color film at the time. The only thing in Lubow’s article I would question is when he said this about the couple in the Central Park Zoo: “It is a biting and unsettling comment on the era’s prevailing slurs about interracial marriage.”. I completely understand interpreting this image this way with today’s viewpoints, and I am sure some viewers now, and through the years, share Lubbow’’s opinion. But I specifically remember Tod Papageorge discussing this image in the documentary film on Winogrand “All Things Are Photographable” and dispelling that intent. Papageorge was there with Winogrand when he photographed the couple and in fact Papageorge photographed Winogrand with the couple. In 2014 Tod Papageorge wrote an article about the image for Transatlantica that explains everything about it. I have authored a separate blog with more detail on this subject.

So, to wrap up my opinion of the book, it does have value for me since I get to see more examples of Winogrand’s work and continue to better understand him. This book is not a priority add for a photography library and it isn’t something everyone should buy. 1964 and Figments from the Real World are much better books that showcase Winogrand at his best. This book is for people wanting to learn more about Winogrand and how he photographed. I am happy I added it to my library, and I know other Winogrand fans will feel the same way.

Other Reviews of Winogrand Color:

The New Yorker What Garry Winogrand Saw in Color - by Vince Aletti January 29, 2024

The New York Times - When Master Photographers Spin the Color Wheel - by Arthur Lubow January 25, 2024

I had not taken notice of The People’s Pictures by Lee Friedlander until I saw it listed at a sale price. The book was produced in 2021 by Ekins Press Foundation and was printed in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

I like this book a lot. The design and printing are good as is the edit and image sequencing. It is impressive that there are images from five different decades in this book, the combination of the images makes a great documentation of our world. I love the first section of the book where Friedlander photographs people with cameras, I like to take those kinds of photographs myself. The second section where he is taking pictures of things with actual photographs in the frame is stylistically different than the documentary street style of the first section, and I see how that could be slightly confusing to someone. But I understand the connection and I think it works well. The only frustration I have with the book is the lack of written information. There isn’t an artist statement or much guidance about the collection other than two vague quotes from books that aren’t specifically about the work. I always think less is more with artist statements and I think it is best for viewers to see photographs and experience them without being influenced by a complex artist statement. Good images stand on their own and people should have their own unbiased experience with a photograph. But after that the viewer should be able to compare their experience with the artist statement to see if their experience was similar to what the artist was projecting with the image. I think I understand well what this catalogue is saying but I still would like confirmation and in some cases more information. In reading reviews of the book on line I saw some images had more detailed titles than in the book. For example plate #31 is of a photographer in New York City in 1975 photographing with a Leica. You can’t see the photographer’s face well, but I think it might be Garry Winogrand. If it is I would like to know it. The opposite image in the book is of a pig roast in Cold Spring, NY in 2013, a great photograph. I want to know why this pairing was made, what deeper statement was being made here. There are several other images where I know more information about the image exits but its not included in the book because I expect they wanted to keep a simple clean design throughout the book. I am fine with it; I just wish there was a detailed description in the back of the book that I could reference to learn more. I paid under $40 for the book which was a great value. This is a book I would suggest for anyone who likes documentary and street photography. You will learn something just by looking at the images and even though I mentioned I wanted a little more text information with it, I am fine without it and I think I understand why this book was designed this way. A fun addition to the library.

Cape Cod 1965

Paris, France 1964

New York City 1972

Gallup, New Mexico 1983

New York City 2012

Kentucky 1965

Chicago 1966

Florida 1963

The two other books I had in this order were Los Angeles Portrait of a City (572 pages, 2009) and Dark City: The Real Los Angeles Noir (478 pages, 2018) both published by Taschen America. These are not fine art photography books but there are good photographs in both books and with my interest in documenting Los Angeles now, there was valuable information in both. Dark City also interested me because of the law enforcement and evidence photographs it had. If these books had not been on sale, I would have passed on them but their prices were reasonable, so I went for it. Jim Heimann authored both books and there is some overlap of content. These are not fine art photography books but both books contain some outstanding photographs and are interesting, especially since I have been documenting Los Angeles more.

Linde Lehtinen and William Karl Valentine at the Munger Research Center - The Huntington Library

Linde Lehtinen - Curator of Photographs - Huntington Library

October 28, 2023

On September 22nd, I had the amazing opportunity to meet with The Huntington Library’s Curator of Photographs, Linde Lehtinen, and explore a fraction of their Photography Collection. The Huntington has an incredible collection with over one million photographs, as well as photographic artifacts. Being born and raised in Pasadena I know the Huntington Library fairly well. I have walked the gardens numerous times, seen their famous paintings “Pinky” and “Blue Bloy”, smelled a Corpse Flower in bloom before, and I have seen a few photography exhibitions there. In fact, probably the best photography exhibition documenting Los Angeles that I have ever seen was the Huntington’s 2008 exhibition “This Side of Paradise - Body and Landscape in Los Angeles Photographs”. That show and accompanying catalogue were curated by former Huntington Curator of Photographs Jennifer A. Watts, independent curator Claudia Bohn-Spector, and Brown University Professor Douglas R. Nickel. But this was the first time I have ever had the opportunity to get an inside glimpse in to their amazing photography collection.

I was able to obtain this experience through the Los Angeles Center of Photography and one of their charity auctions. I am so thankful for the wonderful things that LACP does and I was happy to support them with my bid. I used my iPhone camera as my note taker for the event so this blog post is going to be more photos than words, which is always best with my posts. I will post gallery blocks for most items I saw. Linde chose the items to share based on our correspondence before the visit, selecting things I was interested in as well as unique pieces she was interested in seeing. In some cases, this was her first opportunity to really spend time with an item in the collection since the collection is so massive and the fact, she recently assumed her position.

Linde started off with the above Daguerreotypes. The first was a Daguerreotype made by photographing another Daguerreotype which was highly unusual but it created a richer image and allowed for reproducing an image. The second was on a mourning ribbon for Lincoln. I loved how this artifact was both a photograph and a piece of American History. The third was the largest Daguerreotype I have ever seen and when Linde tilted it the image was so rich. The link in this paragraph is to the Library of Congress’s definition and is very informative.

Preparing for my visit I researched the Huntington’s collection online and saw these two books and asked to see them. The red cover book was published in 1856, titled Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco, G.R. Fardon's San Francisco Album is the earliest existing photographic record of an American city and one of the earliest of any city in the world. The dark cover book is William Henry Fox Talbot's Pencil of Nature, produced between 1844 and 1846. The Pencil of Nature was the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs. It contained twenty-four plates, a brief text for each, and text about Talbot’s invention of Photography, specifically the history and the chemical process. There are believed to only be 40 copies of this book that still exist today. As most readers of this blog will know, Talbot has been credited with discovering the photographic process in 1833, and with making the first negative in 1834. Most readers will also know that Nicéphore Niépce and Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre were working on discovering a photographic process with a Camera Obcsura in France during the 1820’s and that Dauguerre had perfected the Daguerreotype process by 1839 when he announced publicly. Most scholars I believe agree the processes were discovered concurrently. It was an intense feeling to be in the presence of these two books because I realized they were connecting me back to the beginning of a medium which is such an important part of my life. When we were looking at the Pencil of Nature, I knew that book had been produced just a decade after Talbot’s discovery of photography. In reading the pages of the book, seeing Talbot’s comments about the history and detail of his photographic process I felt like I had gone back in time and was listening to him telling me this story directly. The printing press / typeset work was beautiful, and I assume he supervised the printing of all photographs placed in the book. It was a truly powerful experience, and these books are so delicate now we had to view them in subdued lighting. Fardon’s book had images in better condition being produced another ten years later. What I loved about seeing Fardon’s book was it is a photographic record of something, it was a documentary project, the first book using photographs to accomplish that. Talbo't’s book was a history and resource guide about the medium. Fardon’s book could probably be considered the father of most all photography books. It is a wonderful documentation of San Francisco in the 1850’s.

I have seen lots of Ansel Adams prints in my travels, they have taught me so much about what a good print should look like, but I had never seen a copy of his Portfolio One in person before. Reading the portfolio’s accompanying documentation and seeing the general craftsmanship of the portfolio was a great reminder of what perfection looks like. It definitely helps ‘sharpen the saw’ seeing an Adams’s print. Linde also brought out a Hills Brother’s coffee can with an Adams photograph on the can. Adams had partnered with Hill’s Brothers to produce a limited edition run of coffee cans with his image Winter Morning Yosemite Valley on the side for some promotion, these can now be valued at upwards of $1,500. I am sure Ansel probably got some free coffee in the deal and was excited having one of his images get more attention and exposure. The Huntington has an actual coffee can as well as another unassembled side of the can before it was pressed. I had no idea this artifact existed, and I am happy Linde decided to share it with me.

Being born and raised in Pasadena I am very aware of the photographer Adam Clark Vroman who lived in Altadena and founded Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena which still is thriving today. Although his best-known photographs are of Southwest American Indians, I also knew he had photographed the local San Gabriel Mountains extensively. Because of this I had Linde if I could see some Vroman’s photographs in the collection. Above are some of the prints Linde shared with me. The San Gabriel Mountains, and specifically Mount Wilson are right above Pasadena and Altadena. If you live there, you see them every clear day (with the exception of rainy days and bad smog days back when I was a kid). I have hiked to Mt. Lowe and Henniger Flats growing up and knew about the famed Mt/ Low railway. It was awesome seeing these photographs because I have been there. I only know the trail to Mt. Wilson as a wide fire road so to see it as a horse trail was fun. I also loved the handwriting style with these photographs. One last thing about Vroman, Vroman’s Bookstore was the first place I ever did a book signing, back when I published my Santa Anita book.

I have always enjoyed the photographs of Edward Curtis and Karl Moon, I love the American Southwest desert and its history. The quality of the Curtis prints Linde showed me were incredible, so rich, the only problem was their surface was so shiny everything reflects in them. I was excited when I saw the Moon prints she had included Hopi Snake Dancers and a Snake Priest. As a kid I was interested about rattlesnakes and did at least one science report on them. I also remember learning about the Hopi and their tradition in grade school, and my parents took me on several road trips to the Hopi and Navajo reservations. Later on, I was lucky to get to know a couple Hopi and Navajo classmates when I went to ASU. I don’t recall ever seeing these specific images before.

The book Photographs West of the 100th Meridian , by Lt. George Wheeler was another interesting share. Timothy O’Sullivan was the official photographer who accompanied Lt George Wheeler and the Army Corps of Engineers on an expedition documenting the American West for the war Department between 1871 and 1874 and photographs are the basis of the book. I have so much respect for O’Sullivan and what he went through to photograph in those conditions with the equipment that was available during that era. His images are beautiful as well as being important documents,

I remember seeing Alexander Gardner’s “Harvest of Death” several times before, and I know it is one of the most famous photographs documenting the Civil War. What I either had forgotten or didn’t ever know, was the exposure was made by Timothy O’Sullivan, who was Gardener’s assistant, and that Gardner took credit for printing the image, while still crediting O’Sullivan for the negative. It was such a privilege to see this historic print with the notations on its original mounting board.

I knew about Photographer Mike Mandel’s work especially his Photographer Baseball Cards (below) but I had never heard of his 1974 book project Seven Never Before Published Portraits of Edward Weston. With the book Mandel reached out to as many people named Edward Weston as he could find and asked them to send him photographs of themselves along with answering some questions about themselves. The book is fun but at the same time also intellectually deep.

Mike Mandel’s 1975 Baseball Card project documenting photographers is legendary, and I just found this great video by the Worcester Art Museum of Mike talking about the project. Jim Hajicek was a professor at Arizona State University, and A.D. Coleman lectured there, while I was getting my BFA so I really liked seeing their cards. I appreciate Mike’s approach to the medium, it is healthy.

Bea Nettles “Mountain Dream Tarot” box of 78 photographic cards distributed by Light Impressions was another item I had never seen. This 1975 12 cm x 10 cm “book” is another example of how some photographers started to think about different ways which were appropriate to share their work. I loved the fact Light Impressions distributed it. Light Impressions used to be my primary vendor for all my archival product needs, back in the hard copy catalogue days, I even visited their Rochester, NY location once, while on a trip to the George Eastman House.

“Physogs” Facial Composit was a game released in 1939 in England. It was based on physiognomic principles, and instructed players how to read and construct facial features and character types as part of the game. When I saw this, it immediately reminded me of the Identi-kit that we used in law enforcement early in my career (1980’s -1990’s). The Identi-kit had drawings of parts of the facial features like this game but they were on clear acetate. You could stack the layers to get the final image then either photograph it of Xerox it for a suspect flier. You basically would sit there and mix and match the pieces getting input from the victim or witness to see if that part was similar to the suspect. The system was actually fairly decent and helpful for patrol officers looking for outstanding suspects. The latest versions are computerized.

This foldout book entitled Ginza Kaiwai 1954 by Shōhaci Kimura (1893 -1958), which documents the Tokyo Ginza district, immediately reminded me of Ed Ruscha's book Every Building on Sunset Strip, that he produced in 1967. I wonder if this inspired Ruscha for his project. I absolutely love the sketch / signature of the silhouette hanging out having a smoke. Love this book concept, a great document, would love to see it rephotographed and compare the changes.

Photographer Laura Aguilar was a key figure in the Chicanx and queer art scenes of Los Angeles. Linde shared Laura’s work with me and explained the value it brought to the collection as well as how much she personally liked Laura’s photographs. The photographs are good, I see why Linde likes the work. Laura’s images document important segments of our Southern California society, and I am thankful the Huntington is collecting artists like her. I also always value learning which artists and topics are holding a curator’s interest, that is so valuable to me as a photographer.

Linde recognizes the power photography has in documenting diverse cultures and she is exploring several future heritage projects. One such project includes curating their collection of Filipino photographic postcards. Linde explained she feels a strong connection to the images because of her own Filipino heritage. The image quality of these postcards was incredible, and it was impressive to see how much of their culture, past and present, was documented. I loved the fact that these postcards had actually been mailed. The postage stamps, the cancellation stamps, and the handwriting of the messages and addresses really made these items complete documents with lots of value.

Conclusion

I have never had an experience before like this visit to the Huntington Library’s Special Collections Reading Room, it was incredible. Linde was a great host and did an awesome job showcasing a fraction of their incredible collection. It honestly felt like we were together on an adventure checking out one treasure after the next. Linde told me she had never seen some of the items she brought out for my visit as and admitted she used my visit opportunity to get to know their collection better, I am glad she did. I am so thankful to Linde for putting so much effort into preparing for this meeting and I am also thankful for the Los Angeles Photography Center for making the opportunity available. I apologize that this blog post is massive, but I saw so much on the visit, and this blog post is basically my diary for those memories, so there is more content here than normal. I will wrap this up encouraging everyone to visit the Huntington Library, there is so much there to experience and its absolutely beautiful. I would also suggest that you follow their exhibition calendar, Linde is just starting out the Huntington and I know she is going to do some amazing things there for years to come.

Clint Woodside, Taylor Galloway, and William Karl Valentine - LAABF 2023 at The Geffen Contemporary at MoCA

"I Can Feel You Dreaming" - Taylor Galloway

September 9, 2023

The Deadbeat Club publishers have been crushing it lately with some amazing titles. I have a few of their books in my collection so when I went to Printed Matter’s Los Angeles Art Book Fair one of my top priorities was to find their booth, introduce myself to Clint Woodside - the founder, and see what new titles they had out.

Once I got to their booth, I was immediately drawn to Taylor Galloway’s book “I Can Feel You Dreaming” (Deadbeat Club publication #85). The book looks simple at first, but it so well printed and has a handcrafted feel to it. The images are wonderful, they allow the viewer to have their own interpretations of them, and they allow for unique experiences every time you revisit the book. The copy on display was a special edition with a small print from one of the images in the book which I loved. I like trains to begin with but the way the image is framed is absolutely perfect, I dig it. Taylor’s book gave me the opportunity to introduce myself to Clint.

Clint made a solid first impression, he knows his craft and is passionate about it. I told him how much I enjoyed owning a copy of Ave Pildas’s book Star Struck and I told him how I met Ave and Ian Bates at their book signing at Arcana Books. We started talking about Taylor’s book and how the Special Edition version was editioned to only 30 copies. Clint was showing me an artist proof and the other person in their booth said that AP copy was all they had left, that the edition had sold out. I guess I made a good impression on Clint because when I said I would still buy an AP copy because I liked it that much, he turned around and pulled out #30 of 30 which he had apparently set aside. I like to think Clint wanted to find a good home for the last copy of the special edition. If that’s the case, I am thankful I struck up that conversation. I am still pumped up about adding this book to my collection.

I have had a number of conversations with publishers over the last few years, Clint definitely stands out. I know I will be adding more of Deadbeat’s titles to my collection over time and I understand why Ave decided to publish one of his most important books with Clint.

The Archival Pigment Print included with the Limited Edition book.

Deanna Dikeman - "Leaving and Waving" - Chose Commune Publishing

September 9, 2023

I discovered Deanna Dikeman’s Leaving and Waving at the LA Art Book Fair last month. I was looking over publisher Chose Common’s booth when I saw Leaving and Waving. The book is a collection of photographs over a 27-year period documenting Dikeman saying goodbye to her parents in Sioux City, Iowa. The images have a vernacular quality and look as if anyone could have made them. They are simple, snapshots of Dikeman’s parents as they waved goodbye to her after visits home. Some are photographed through car windshields, seeming like a last second remembrance to document the goodbye. The first photograph in the series is from July 1991 and the last image is from October 2017 when there is no one at the house to wave goodbye anymore. For most images both parents are waving goodbye, we seem them age over the years, then in 2010 we only see Dikeman’s mom after her father died. Her mom is last seen at home in March 2017, in May we see her mom in a care facility, then in October her mom passed away. It didn’t take me long to decide to add the book to my library.

When I got home, I looked into Dikeman’s work. I was not surprised to find that Aline Smithson had already authored a Lenscratch article about the book two years ago, as soon as Leaving and Waving was released. Aline’s article is a perfect review of the book and Dikeman’s approach to the project, please follow the previous link to read her review.

Chose Commune described themselves as this in the 2023 LAABF directory: “Founded in 2014, Chose Commune is a French independent publishing house primarily focusing on photography. Chose Commune curates, edits, and produces book-objects, with a strong interest in unpublished material.”

As simple as this book is, it is also so powerful. I read reviews of the book saying it documented “the sadness of saying goodbye”, and I completely understand that, especially for Dikeman that lived so far away from her Parents’s home. For me I get the feeling these images are Dikeman’s attempt to hold on to the present because it is about to become the past. Why do I feel this, it’s because that is how I am with most all the subjects I photograph. A few years ago, I found myself photographing my parents almost every time I left their house. I realized then what I was doing, I was trying to hold on to time. I knew that each visit realistically could be the last time I saw my mom or dad and I wanted to hang on to them. I even live relatively close to my parents’ house too and saw them often. My father died in early 2020 and my mom is now 97, I’m more than blessed to have had them in my life for such a long time. I still take photographs of my mom on occasion just in case. I think retaining memories is a big part of why I am a photographer, probably the biggest reason for anyone who takes a photo..

Other people must have also been moved by this book because it is in its third printing of the first edition. The book is well crafted and designed. The printing quality is good, and the dimensions of the book are appropriate for the subject. Leaving and Waving would be a good addition to any photography book collection.

Photo Forward - Los Angeles

February 20, 2023

Photo LA has been a long-standing favorite event of mine where galleries from all over the world come together in February, in Los Angeles (Santa Monica usually) and take over a large space and have a photographic art fair for the weekend. It began thirty years ago and unfortunately hasn’t had a full event since 2020 right before the pandemic hit. Thankfully the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles made the effort to keep it going this year, along with James Danziger who hosted the event, to bring in a dozen top gallerists this past weekend for a scaled-down version of the fair. Danziger Gallery Los Angeles was the perfect host venue and the event seemed to be very well received. I went up yesterday and saw some great images, had some solid conversations, and added three more books to my library. I heard that Saturday was absolutely packed with visitors at Bergamot Station, which is fantastic for our local photo community. Sunday had the perfect sized crowd, enough people so every gallerist was always interacting with someone but with enough room and time to inspect work without feeling rushed.

Danziger Gallery - Photo Forward Los Angeles 2023

Joseph Bellow Gallery

It was good seeing Joseph Bellows again and the selection of work he brought up from La Jolla. I was excited to see that he was showcasing Ave Pidas’s Star Struck limited edition portfolio as well as some of his vintage prints. This was my first opportunity to see some of Ave’s original prints. I purchased a signed copy of a place in the sun - photographs of los angeles by John Humble. This 2007 book was published by The Getty to accompany his exhibition at the museum. It is so well done, and I really like Humble’s photographs. Bellows also had a stack of Humble’s photographs on site which were beautiful, and I thought they were reasonably priced. Some prints were vintage, and others were modern digital prints. I really like John Humble’s photographs and encourage you to get to know his work.

Ave Pildas's Star Struck limited edition portfolio

Joseph Bellows Gallery

John Humble's prints

John Humble

Aperture

I have been wanting to add Stephen Shore’s Uncommon Places, published by Aperture, to my library for a while. I think I was at the MFA in Boston the last time I saw a copy of it, and I didn’t want to deal with lugging it home then (I had already bought a few other books on that trip). So, when I saw a copy on the Aperture table, I decided to buy it. That’s when I met Kellie McLaughlin, Aperture’s Chief Marketing and Sales Officer. Kellie was so engaging and enthusiastically pointed out how the other Stephen Shore book they had, Selected Works 1973-1981 was a perfect complement to Uncommon Places and how it was unique in its own right. I love meeting people like Kellie who understand the medium of photography and are passionate about it. Kellie made me an offer that I couldn't refuse, and I ended up with both books. I did put one condition on the sale that she introduce me to Sarah Meister, Aperture's Executive Director and former MoMA curator, who I had seen talking to James Danziger in his office. Meeting someone like Sarah was amazing, she was so gracious and I’m still excited about the introduction.

Uncommon Places

Stephen Shore

Selected Works 1973-1981

Danziger

For this event James Danziger gave most of his 4,000 sq ft gallery space to other exhibitors and showcased his holdings in his private office, which was open to the public. I was in there looking at photographs when I realized Sarah Meister had come in from NYC for the show because I recognized her talking to James. It was interesting to see the selection of work James had up in his office for this event. Over his desk was a large Tod Papageorge photograph from The Beaches exhibition they showcased last year. There were O. Winston Link prints, and fittingly a famous Julian Wasser print. All the prints were amazing, as I expected they would be.

**Etherton Gallery**

Terry Etherton brought some amazing pieces including a portfolio of *The* *Bikeriders* by Danny Lyons.

Skidmore Contemporary Art

Every time I go to Danzinger I stop in to Skidmore Contemporary Art to check out their latest exhibition. Skidmore shows a lot of photo-realism paintings which is I really like; I know that’s shocking being that I am a documentary photographer. Below is the is the work that stood out to me. Eric Nash’s A Pool in Hills is epic Los Angeles, love it.

Andy Burgess

Eric Nash

Michael Ward

While at Bergamot I also stopped in to check out Robert Berman Gallery and had a great talk with Gallery Director Jason Vass. Berman’s current exhibition Focus on Women in Photography runs through March 14, 2023. It showcases over forty different female photographers. I immediately noticed two recent photographs from Los Angeles that I had never seen before. The photographs were by Rezeta Veliu who I had not even heard of. Jason explained how Rezeta’s husband was successful in the entertainment industry and was a big part of why she was in the area. To prepare for writing this post I researched more about Veliu. She was born in Kosovo in 1999 and came to New York city basically as a refugee in 2013. She married Rich Cook in 2020 and they have already started their family. Cook is a producer and co-founder of Range Media Partners. Veliu is also an actress and I assume a model; she is absolutely stunning.

Rezeta Veliu - *Born and Raised* -Los Angeles 2022

What impressed me most about Rezeta Veliu’s photographs is she is willing to go to hard areas to photograph. She takes her camera in to areas like Venice, Compton, and other rougher parts of Los Angeles and she gets among the people and photographs. I can tell by the images she often uses a wide angle lens and her subjects know she is photographing them. I respect that so much. Few things bother me as much as photographers who use a telephoto lens from safe locations and lay claim to being a street photographer. There is a time and place for both long and short lenses but to be a good street photographer you have to move amongst people sometimes. I spent time looking at Veliu’s work and saw a lot of good images. I also saw a photographer who is still emerging and needs to continue to hone her craft. She speaks of documenting Los Angeles extensively by visiting 43 different areas of the city over 6 months. I have been photographing in Los Angeles for 40 years and I still feel like I am just scratching the surface when it comes to documenting Southern California. Six months in LA is nothing, it is probably one of the hardest cities in the world to photograph because it is so big and diverse. Someone could get a good portfolio to document a small area, like say just Venice or just Malibu in six months but for Veliu to claim she documented that much in such little time shows Veliu still has a lot to learn. She also tells us she shoots on film and her prints are on “cotton paper”. Why? and can she tell me more? I have exposed, and processed, a few thousand rolls of film in my life. I used film because that was the best medium at the time, with today’s technology if someone is photographing on film, they should have a real reason other than it is hip. There are so many plus ins available for Photo Shop that most any analogue look is quickly obtainable in a digital image file now. I also don’t know what “cotton paper” means. Say what brand paper you print on, so the buyer knows the archival value. Some of her prints can also be better, some are flat and lack shadow detail. Veliu still has to learn more about the craft of Photography, but with her connection to the entertainment industry here in LA, and her marketability as a person, I expect her work to take off and her photography to become very well known. Veliu’s work is worth getting to know and she is a young photographer worth following.

List of Photo Forward Participants & Links:

Aperture

Joseph Bellows Gallery

Stephen Bulger Gallery

Danziger Gallery

Etherton Gallery

Paul M. Hertzmann Inc.

The Hulett Collection

jdc Fine Art

MacIntosh Collection

Minor Matters

Scott Nichols Gallery

Andrew Smith Gallery

Jackson Fine Art - Atlanta

November 20, 2022

I have known about Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, and of their reputation as one of the nation's top private galleries, for years. I have casually followed who they were exhibiting in the past, but I had never seen their space. So, when I was in Atlanta last month for my opening of the Atlanta Photography Group’s 2022 Selects Exhibition, I made a point to stop by Jackson and finally see their gallery.

The gallery is a converted residence in the Buckhead shopping district neighborhood of north Atlanta. The gallery layout is a little unique, but it works well the way they designed it.

I planned my Atlanta trip last minute, so I was not able to make arrangements to visit Jackson beforehand; so, this was a complete cold call on my part. I just wanted to see their space and hopefully introduce myself to someone on the staff.

The visit exceeded my expectations, Gallery Director Coco Conroy and the staff were so nice, and Coco was gracious enough to spend half an hour showing me the current exhibition and talking about the gallery. We even were able to talk briefly about my own work and Coco was even able to introduce me to the owner, Anna Walker Skillman. I can see why Jackson has the reputation and client list that they do, everyone is professional, and their artist roster and inventory is large.

With Gallery Director Coco Conroy - Jackson Fine Art

Jackson was featuring the work of Tabitha Soren, who they represent, when I was there. Soren is a former MTV reporter and is married to Michael Lewis who authored the famous book “Money Ball”. Her prints are often individually unique. For her images from her “Relief” portfolio she damaged the print surface by causing small holes (from an airsoft gun or knife) or even burned some prints slightly to use that damage to create a finished work that better captured her feelings; the damage added an interesting element of texture to the photographs. Prints from her “Surface Tension” portfolio were also on exhibit. These large prints were made from 8”x 10” negatives where she photographed the reflective surfaces of iPads with vernacular images on the screen. She was interested in capturing the viewers fingerprints on the surface of the iPad to highlight the connection between the viewer and the electronic device. Soren’s photographs allow for a lot of viewer interpretation and for me they seemed to have lots of layers of meaning.

I would strongly recommend Jackson Fine Arts for anyone interested in purchasing photographs in the region. Jackson has a national client base and provides services to many top institutions as well as collectors. Hopefully I will have a chance to visit Jackson again soon as well as spending more time with Coco talking about photography.

Jackson Fine Art
3115 East Shadowlawn Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30305

info@jacksonfineart.com

Tel 404.233.3739
Fax 404.233.1205

Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 5pm

CCP's "Why Photography?" Video Presentation 6-24-21

June 27, 2021

I watched the on-line video event by the Center for Creative Photography’s titled “Why Photography” on Thursday. The 45-minute presentation was a collection of video interviews where different people talked about why photography was important to them. The group was varied, photographers, curators, collectors, and educators. What I enjoyed most was hearing a diverse group of people describing why photographing was important to them and saying time and again to myself “me too” when they described why photography was important to them. I have included the link to the presentation here and I will highlight some of the comments I really connected with below: CCP “Why Photography” 6/24/21

Curator Susan Bright and Art Collector / Retired Dance Professor Douglas Nielsen were the first pair to discuss photography.

Nielsen spoke how he was often photographed while he was dancing and that he would tell photographers to “Catch me in the Act”. He went on to say “Any photography that is interesting is catching someone doing something, not just sitting there”. He continued, saying “Knowing Dance evaporates the second you see it I wanted proof I existed”, which photographs provided him. Nielsen went on, “A photograph tries to defeat time, death. It captures a second in time and its there. But with Dance, its just gone”.

I completely understand his comments. I respect portraiture photography, and it seems to be trending now in galleries and museums, but it rarely speaks to me. I really began to understand photography when I started seeing the images by the great documentary photographers. For me I love being able to capture a moment in time, and know that image is completely factually accurate for that 1/500th of a second. As a child I loved to draw but I was frustrated because my pictures weren’t perfect. Features were distorted, the perspective was slightly off, they just didn’t look exactly how I saw something. Photography fixed that problem for me. I am also a romantic and I am constantly wanting to preserve memories and freeze moments in time forever, the camera allows me to do that.

Nielsen made an interesting comment about his collection that I loved: “When I collected photography, it kind of collected me”.

I get it, in life we gravitated towards things which catch our interest and draw us in. His statement is dead on. I was fortunate to have dinner at the home of a prominent wealthy art collector a couple years ago. The house was amazing on its own and everything I saw on the walls was museum grade, mostly paintings but also an installation piece, and some of Cindy Sherman’s prints. As he gave me the tour of his collection he spoke about was why that piece of artwork was important to him, why he connected to it, and why he liked that artist’s work. He never mentioned price or collectability, every work spoke to him and wife personally. It was an incredible opportunity for me to get that insight. I should also say it was a great night socially too, good people there.

Susan Bright spoke of her background and how when she was studying Art History in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s that photography was not considered “Art”. She described when she was nearing the completion of her studies how she felt when she realized she had just spent three years only studying art by men. She also told us she had not seen a Fine Art Photographic Print without glass in front of it until after she graduated. She was shocked with how beautiful a well-crafted print looked in person and wonderful the experience was.

I know exactly what Susan meant about the wonder in seeing a good print. I was lucky to see fantastic prints when I was Arizona State University. I was on the Northlight Gallery staff when we exhibited works by photographers like Mary Ellen Mark and William Christenberry. After graduating I went to one of the first Photo LA events and I remember going over to a bin at one booth and being able to pick up a Weston print. Holding it, examining, realizing Weston himself did the same with that print was powerful. I believe a photographer has to spend time with really goof prints before they can fully understand the medium. It is unfortunate that in today’s two second Instagram post view we are getting away from the concept taking our time to experience, and understand, a well-crafted print and good image. I have been lucky to have seen as many good prints and exhibitions in person as I have, but I have also made an effort to do that including travelling to see the best exhibitions.

Bright stated, “I feel like Photography is the bastard child of the Arts, that’s why I like it”. She went on saying when she was younger how much she enjoyed the images on album covers , and that when she went to museums she enjoyed the post cards in the gift shop more than the paintings on the wall because they were obtainable, she could collect them.

I understand her comments about photography being considered a second-class citizen in the art world, and I agree with her, and I see how that could attract her to the medium. There is something special when you are involved in a less popular community. The relationship you have with others in that community is often more unique, and usually a closer bond. I feel those bonds when I am at a racetrack or an ice hockey rink. Everyone there has a common interest in something that many people do not fully understand. I tend to be more of an individual when it comes to photography, I truly enjoy community interaction, but the act of photographing and seeing the world is very personal and usually a solo activity. The process of photographing is my “Why Photography”. Being a photographer is how I experience life.

University of Arizona President Dr. Robert Robbins spoke next and said something I definitely agree with: “Photography opens questions, teaches us history, and keeps our memories. It shows us the beauty of the world and of the universe, it shows us what we know and what we have left to discover”.

Dr. Meg Jackson Fox, The CCP’s Associate Curator for Public Programs introduced Valerie Trouet who is a University of Arizona professor in Tree Ring Research who spoke about the use of photography in relation to the study of science. Trouet talked of the importance of “Repeat Photography” to identify changes in landscapes over time and mentioned the importance of photography being able to document and retain evidence related to scientific research. A good reason for “Why Photography”, the same should be said for forensic photography.

I don’t ever recall hearing the term “Repeat Photography” before but I well aware of this type of work. I know Mark Klett from my ASU days and know his Rephotographic Survey Project well. Good for me to learn a new term.

Photograph Conservator Peter Mustardo was next up. For his “Why Photography” he said he was drawn to how photography is ambiguous. He pointed out how photography is everywhere and most everyone has the ability to photograph. He also noted photography’s ability to create a “preserved moment” within the passage of time.

I think it would be valuable to take a moment and focus again on the definitions of Ambiguous – “open to more than one interpretation; having a double meaning.” And “unclear or inexact because a choice between alternatives has not been made.”. I love that characteristic of photography. I think back to my days at ASU in Bill Jay’s class and how he was able to really demonstrate how different images have different values depending on the viewer and the relationship the viewer has with that image and its subject matter. With most of my street photography or city based images I usually title the work as “Untitiled” , except for a file number, because I don’t want to influence the viewer’s experience beyond having them contemplating the elements I have included in to the frame. I know what I see and what I am trying to convey but I think it is important for the viewer to have the ability to come to their own conclusion based on their experience and perception.

Mustardo’s inference that everyone is a photographer reminds me of my favorite Photography quote, which was by László Moholy-Nagy’s in 1926: “The illiterate of the future will be those who can not photograph”. That quote always amazes me, his foresight was dead on. We all live in a selfie and Instagram world today.

The next part of the presentation had shorter individual segments with more individual insight. CCP Senior Registrar Megan Clancy commented how she enjoys how photography can freeze a moment in time, that split second, allowing us the ability to see something important. CCP Chief Curator Rebecca Senf shared how she enjoys specializing in a relatively new medium with such a wonderfully short history to explore. I think her point was its easier for a historian to have a more complete knowledge of the medium since it is only 182 years old unlike most all the other artforms. Joan Lifton spoke of the creative process and shared a Dorothea Lange quote about her photographic process: “How do we organize the chaos of our individual experience in to a narrative that carries a collective meaning?” This quote inspired me to look up more Lange quotes, I found a nice list on John Paul Caponigro’s site which are worth the read.

W.Eugene Smith’s widow, Aileen Smith, had a conversation with photographer, and educator, Aaron Turner next. She told how W. Eugene Smith always wanted his work to be as close to the truth as possible and how he was dedicated to have integrity in his images. She pointed out how almost every experience is subjective not objective and I very much agree with her. Aileen went on to say “We are subjective beings, we have subjective eyes, its not unfair, a person is subjective, that’s it”. She also said the goal of journalism for W. Eugene Smith was to convey the reality of other people. Aileen then recalled how people would ask W. Eugene Smith if he was an Artist or a Journalist and that he would reply “No, its just one and the same for me, to be a good journalist, and to really convey it, it has to be art”.

I truly enjoyed the passion Aaron Turner conveyed for the medium of photography. He spoke of love of the process of photography, especially the darkroom. He then said “I see in pictures. The act of walking around and envisioning what I see.”

I absolutely understand what Aaron meant because I am exactly the same way. To be in a darkroom, and printing is a spiritual experience for me, I am at home in my darkroom. When I walk or drive around doing normal activities, I find that my eyes are constantly looking for items, grouping them, framing them, and considering what would make an interesting photograph. I am so conditioned to look for images in the world, and have been doing it for so long, that I can not turn it off. It is how I experience the world. Especially as documentary photographer who photographs on the street so much, I am constantly hunting for imagery.

I will wrap this up by saying I am thankful for programs like this from the Center for Creative Photography. When I was at Arizona State University, I was in such an amazing photo environment every day, I miss that. But that was college, you have the experience, it is your base, and from there you go out and do what you studied (hopefully). Presentations like this one I shared allow me to get refocused on my photography and experience that education environment again. To be good at your craft you have to know the history of your medium and stay up to date with the current trends, never skip a chance to learn or grow.