Category

photography

Jul 08
0

Szarkowski misquoted on Capa

By | photography

“Every picture tells a story, don’t it”, Rod Stewart sings… Well…no, not if it’s a photograph. Garry Winogrand says there isn’t a photograph in the world that tells a story, and consequently he doesn’t have any storytelling responsability. He should know, he has taken a few in his lifetime. A photograph shows what something looks like…to a camera. Szarkowski agrees; the great MoMA scholar was a personal friend of Winogrand (it was him who first recognized the photographer’s importance, and in fact genius), and must have discussed this subject with him.

In “Photography: a Critical Introduction” (third edition) edited by Liz Wells there is an almost Freudian misquotation of the text written by John Szarkowski from “The Photographer’s Eye”: “The great war photographer Robert Capa expressed both the narrative property [sic] and the symbolic power of photography when he said “If your pictures aren’t good, you’re not close enough.”  This should have read “narrative poverty” since this is the point Szarkowski is making! To a lot of people it really remains very hard to believe there is no story in the photograph, and we don’t find the clear cut truth most of us seem to find so comforting. “Your photograph is like a little story” is still considered a compliment, since people assume that’s what you are striving for; and it’s not nice to ask, “what story…”

Jul 04
0

the beauty trap

By | photography

The photographer exclusively focusing on beauty either has nothing to communicate, or wants to avoid the risk of not getting any applause…

Jul 03
0

dear Sir, this is not a good subject

By | photography

The very first time I ever asked for and got a comment on one of my photographs must have been in the early 1960’s. I had taken a picture of the pitch-black bow of a fishing boat at Scheveningen harbor, rising from a most amazing black mass of flotsam and undefined thingies and stuff, interspersed with blinding sparkles where the water reflected the summer sunlight. I soon got the enlargement back together with a small note that had the heading of the magazine and a one-liner note by one of the editors saying “Dear Sir, this is not a good subject!”.

Jun 19
0

a beautiful girl sure helps

By | photography

On one of the house parties a visitor came up to me with an “understanding” grin and shouted in my ear (because of the loud music): “I was watching you, and I see what you’re doing, you’re only photographing the beautiful girls!” He seemed to be rather proud of this observation, which in fact said more about him than about my photography; as usual the observer only sees what he expects. Of course I did not avoid the beautiful girls, I like to include them in my photographs whenever it is opportune. That certainly was no problem as there were so many, but what really kept me occupied was on a different level as I was trying to read the intricate patterns of behavior, trying to see the subtle signals, the symbolism, the body language. I was busy understanding these people and everything going on, trying to make sense of the shapes in the dark and the flashing lights, even sorting out my emotional reactions while exposing film after film, constantly checking my gear amidst the crowd. I realized I could never adequately explain, no use trying, so I gave him the thumbs up.

Jun 18
0

an important photograph

By | photography

In the 1970’s I made several trips to the south of France where I met a friend of mine who studied there. I also stayed there with French gypsies who I  had met. They were Sinti from Marseille, mostly musicians, amongst whom Joseph Reinhardt, the brother of the famous Django, was the best known. I also met some lesser known people like Kiri, a man of small posture, and his family. After I had returned from this trip, my friend from Marseille wrote me that Kiri had contacted him and he told the sad story: a tragic accident had happened when he had run over his little boy of some eight years old in backing up the car at the very moment the kid was behind him, where he could not see him. When his youngest son died, the father was in shock and the whole encampment panicked. After the funeral the father realized they did not even have one single photograph of the kid, unless the photographer who had visited them would have one. So the question was passed on for me to look at my photographs, and search for a glimpse of the little boy that was so tragically killed.

Amongst the many photographs of that period I found only one, that had the gypsy boy on the very right edge of the picture, running as he always was. I made an enlargement; it was a bit blurred, but I had no choice and the kid was recognizable. Later I heard that the father was happy but very emotional when my friend gave him the photograph that I had sent. He barely looked at it because he said “it hurt too much”, folded it twice and put it in his wallet “for later”. I have never met Kiri or his family since, but this has made me realize that there’s more than one meaning to the phrase I so often use: “an important photograph”. Photographs are part of our personal and collective memory.

May 30
0

the layered photograph

By | photography

When talking about my photographic work to a group of photographers I mentioned that in my view a “good” photograph should be more than ” just an image”, more than just a rendering of  “what was there”. After all, why call any photograph art, if a machine could do the job… I came up with the term a “layered” photograph, that I had come across. But of course, this led to the question, what were these layers, could I identify some of them. At that moment I discussed some of these aspects that constitute a good photograph starting from the pictures that I had. The challenge, however, was to make a total scheme, encompassing all the “layers” that I discern in a picture. The scheme, which will follows here has been used by me to explain the idea of the layering of photographs. Hopefully, it may serve to deepen your insight when applied to your own photography (or in judging the work of others)

1. cognitive aspects

2. psychological impact

3. symbols and associations

4. combination of pictorial elements

5. graphic aspects, framing, textures etc.

6. light and dark (I am discussing b&w photography)

The order of these layers is from sophisticated to “primitive”, or from intellectual to instinctive if you like. See if this is of any help to you; if not just keep taking those photographs, good luck!

May 15
0

what a waste

By | photography

Hypes and changing fashions can lead to stagnant sales and overproduction, as can declining consumer spending, we all know that better than ever. This may happen just as easily to clothes as to photographic film material. A tv-documentary showed the containers and shiploads of fashionable clothes that had become superfluous and – after the labels had painstakingly been hand removed – were now sent far away, hopefully never to be seen again so they might not be linked to their makers and not be competing. The documentary showed yesterday’s computers and never-used printers being disassembled for the valuable gold of their contacts that had served no purpose. The photographic films had been sold to another company that would take out the unused silver. The many big boxes with all the bulk film were opened by a patient man, who took out the single films one by one , calmly pulling them out of their cassettes, the whole length. Perfect film, not obsolete. Never used. Heartbreaking. The commenting voice said that mentally handicapped people were good for this job because it was repetitive, and they weren’t bothered by all the waisting that was going on. Indeed, the man said he liked what he did.  Come to think of it, I probably would go mental.

May 05
0

old world, new world

By | photography

I went to see the photographs Robert Frank took when he visited Paris in the 1950’s after he had moved to the United States. Even though I have seen much of his work, including some of his exhibited photographs, I was impressed again by the intensity of his vision which makes the technical imperfections of some of his small prints completely irrelevant. Photography from the heart, the way it should be. And Paris, impoverished after the war, has become a silent, shy old lady in his pictures, tired, scarred and wrinkled, of another time and full of memories. Frank, expatriate, reminded of his own past, sees himself in its inhabitants, survivors of the hard years, picking up their inglorious lives amidst the remnants of history. Soft trembling greys fill out these photographs, lots of empty space in the suburbs where an old horse endures the playful children, walls, cobblestones, old building in the morning mist. In the park the chairs await sunnier days, the stuff that chansons are made of, a few flowers in an improvised vase, left alone, Paris stuck in its past, the fifties.

The Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, added a smaller series from its collection of Ed van der Elsken photographs, also Paris in the 1950’s. Worlds apart from Robert Frank. Ed, who was a friend of mine, wasn’t looking for the past, but found a new freedom in the group of rebellious young outcasts that hung around in the cafés and jazz joints of the rive gauche. He was fascinated by Vali Myers, who was an excentric free soul from Australia. Ed built her a monument in photographs (“Love on the Left Bank”), which also became a portrait of Paris. His photographs are noisier, wildly romantic and printed in dark contrasts, celebrating youth and the promise of the new freedom that was in the air. Both Ed and Vali have died, but they live on.

Apr 29
0

fast shot

By | photography

I like images that are filled with visual information, images that do not give easy answers, but rather ask questions. About reality, that is, and what my framing does to it. I prefer thought-provoking work to cheap thrills. I’m aiming for iconic qualities by balancing form and content, beauty and meaning. But since these decisions have to be made in a split second, I have to be a really fast shot. To my surprise it works.