first post, the definitive word

[memphis]

Cool - new forum, first post...

Here we go:

I loathe Anne Geddes,

Annie Leibowitz is only interesting when running around with her leicas instead of staging music photos

I love the work of Huger Foote

Bill Eggelston is more interesting as get you know the man.

Bob Carlos Clarke was a visionary

[back alley]

i find it a shame that you jumped in here and chose to start off this section with a 'loathe' statement.

let's hope you have not cursed this section to be negative in nature.

joe

[ClaremontPhoto]

Thank you for naming those photographers.

I just went to look at Bob Carlos Clarke photos again and was shocked to see that he died almost exactly a year ago.

If anybody doesn't know his work a Google Image search on his name will bring it up.

[Keith]

Thank you for naming those photographers.

I just went to look at Bob Carlos Clarke photos again and was shocked to see that he died almost exactly a year ago.

If anybody doesn't know his work a Google Image search on his name will bring it up.

Speaking of naming photographers ... I was looking at some of Max Dupain's work today. Well worth checking out!

http://www.maxdupain.com.au/

[Kent]

Do you know Benjamin McKendall?
I got to know him in San Francisco in the MoMA (he was our guide) in 2004.

Very interesting work: http://benjaminmckendall.net/

[ClaremontPhoto]

Bob Carlos Clarke (best known for photos of women in leather and high heels) was killed by a train this time last year.

I grew up with his photos and am deeply saddened that he should have died like this at 55 years old.

(Off topic: I have started a new thread in this forum about how we might wish to use the forum.)

[mwooten]

I'd like to name (and bring to your attention) the work of Jack Spencer. (Link to web site (http://www.jackspencer.net/)) I first learned of him years ago when my local art museum had a show of his work. Native Soil was the name of that collection of prints.

[memphis]

wasn't trying to be negative -- but I think we'd be hard pressed to find anyone who likes anne geddes work -- on the same line, thomas kinkade made a special appearance in town ...

I like michael wilson (http://www.michaelwilsonphotographer.com/home.html) - have talked about him before --- After Bob Carlos Died, I mentioned it in this thread here... (http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23930&page=2&highlight=bob+carlos+clarke)

I really like the works of many photographers here --- I spent yesterday driving
around the ghetto taking architecture pictures -- it was a particularly nasty neighborhood, so, I was using a leica c2 to avoid the stopping the car, focusing, and the slow relaxing pace that rangefinders allow...

I hope everybody has a good day --- got some more shooting to do today -- we're closing up my brother's coin laundries for health reasons (and safety) and I'll be without a day job this week ---

[Morca007]

As long as we're being negative...

I never understood Ansel Adam's godlike status.

[CleverNamePhoto]

As long as we're being negative...

I never understood Ansel Adam's godlike status.

I've always admired his work. I was a bit dissapointed when I was in a McDonald's about a year ago and saw several of his prints on the wall right next to all the ads for Super Sized menu items. :bang:

[Kent]

As long as we're being negative...

I never understood Ansel Adam's godlike status.

Well, the invention of the zone system had quite an impact...

[pvdhaar]

wasn't trying to be negative -- but I think we'd be hard pressed to find anyone who likes anne geddes work --
You've forgotten that roughly 50% of the population consists of women..

And as far as the other 50% of the population is concerned, I don't believe for a moment that we'd be halfway near as successful in creating baby photos..

[Avotius]

My word: I think HCB is boring, some of his photos are ok, some are great, but some of it I dont care for. I never really cared a whole lot for some of Ansel Adams work, some of its good too. I dont get either of their godlike status's either.

That said Constantine Manos's color work has made me look at color photography in a whole new way and got me shooting all sorts of color again.

[ClaremontPhoto]

My experience of 'liking' and 'not liking' was from going to a photo gallery with a cafe and sitting for a while with a coffee and carrot cake and gazing around. I almost always found something to like.

It was even better when I went on to the print sales room and put on the white gloves to look at the original photos by the greats. The prices were in the thousands and I couldn't afford them. But I can say that I held an original, and made out I was considering paying the price!

Nowadays there is no photo gallery anywhere near here so I go to sculpture shows, and modern dance performances, and ceramic exhibitions and so on. Most times I 'like'.

[VinceC]

There's an interesting new book out on Cartier-Bresson. I just read a review in Smithsonian magazine -- The name is something like "Cartier-Bresson's scrapbook" and it is based on a scrapbook of his old photos he put together in the mid-1940s as preparation for an exhibit. What is interesting about it is that the scrapbook contains other frames made before and after many of his most famous photos, so that you understand he was a lot more like the rest of us, taking several frames in hopes of getting one just right, then being a bit uncertain as to which frame was best. The flat tones of his self-made prints also suggest why he ended up using someone else to print his exhibition photographs.

[mpt600]

HCB has taken a bit of a kicking in the camera press over here recently. At first it was seen as sacrilege, but then in an "emperors new clothes" way everyone joined in and put the boot in. Bad composition, bad exposure, even bad focussing were some of the criticisms. It was said that as he was so prolific, he got the occaisional good one from the "spray and pray" technique rather than any particular skill in seeing "the defining moment". As for Ansel Adams, I've never really liked b&w landscapes anyway, I think it works better for portraits and architecture. The wonderful colours that would've been there in his desert shots are a loss, in my opinion, but I won't say too much because I've only seen his pictures in books and magazines, where they are small and at the mercy of the publishers press and pre-press department. If I saw them at the correct size in an exhibition, I might have different views.

[emraphoto]

we all are guilty of the spray and pray technique. i'm not sure that stands as a valid critique. the methods used to capture said "masterpiece" certainly have their place however a lot goes into a truly great print. i think hcb's CHOICE in printer was brilliant, his choice of prints was brilliant, the scenes he chose to study were brilliant etc. a great photograph has more than purely great technical merits. it's power to convey the mood, history, sight, smell, sound... and to do it with a personal flare not seen before are what i believe makes a great photograph. surely one could argue so and so's capture of dessert cacti (hypothetical here) on a 5d with L glass, tripod, zone system at just the right time of the evening, drinking free trade coffee while shooting is a far superior technical photograph but damn if i havent seen a million dessert cacti, old doorways, beat up bikes with flowers in the front basket photo's. they are great technical feats yet i fell absolutely nothing when i view them. HCB however showed me different worlds, helped me see intense beauty in for flung humanity, helped me understand the importance of our curiosity and connection towards strangers.
perform that task with your work then forward your critiques of HCB to me...

[mpt600]

It all boils down to personal choice and preferences in the end, nothing more. One mans work can be viewed as genius by someone and rubbish by someone else. They're both right, as they're both just sharing their personal view.

[VinceC]

I disagree that discussing Cartier-Bresson's shooting technique in any way calls into question the quality of his final results.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was an extremely influential photographer, and most of the forum members who take their photography seriously have studied his images with more than cursory interest. While learning photography ... using an old Nikomat and 50mm lens ... I spent a lot of time consciously trying out one of his techniques, finding scenes that would make a compelling backdrop, then waiting to see it elements of humanity would coverge in patterns that fit my vision. Sometimes it happened, sometimes not.

[mtbbrian]

That said Constantine Manos's color work has made me look at color photography in a whole new way and got me shooting all sorts of color again.

Yes! Costa Manos' color work is inspiring! "American Color", is a must have!
Brian

[icebear]

I saw the HCB "Scrapbook" exhibition at the Int. Center of Photography in New York City yesterday and I'm certain the the Muncasi pictures were far more impressive than the HCB part. Overall I guess Avotius' statement also sums it up for me, I like some, some are great (and famous/well known) but the major rest would not in any published book if not from HCB...
A friend of mine (pro photog) once told me, forget about a picture if you need to explain it. That's pretty hard but a good statement to make a selection of your own shots and this statement also comes to my mind when I see any exhibition in a gallery or have a quick look at a photobook. The Scrapbook in the ICP shop has better quality prints than the exhibition itself btw. at least IMHO.

As far as Ansel Adams and missing color in his landscapes : He is most well known for his black and white work and the zone system but there is also a book published with color landscapes from him. Quite impressive ! I'll check for details.

[VinceC]

The photographer whose images I have always found especially powerful is Magnum co-founder David Seymour "Chim". His pictures of postwar children for UNICEF are just steeped in humanity ... two that I saw as a child and which have stuck with me are a street scene of running boys playing soccer, one of whose leg is a wooden crutch; and a Polish girl in an orphanage for disturbed children who, asked to draw a picture of her home on a chalkboard, has just drawn an insane and patternless scribble of horror.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_59.559.70.jpg

http://museum.icp.org/museum/collections/special/chim/pics/b-79b.jpg

[Biggles]

A propos of nothing, a couple of my tribal gods...

Bill Brandt:

http://www.billbrandt.com/Silverprints/Images/00_105.jpg

Harry Callahan:

http://www.ballade.no/nmi.nsf/pic/dirtyharrystor/$file/dirtyharrystor.jpg

Err, hang on...


Ah.

http://arliquido.blogs.sapo.pt/arquivo/harry%20callahan%20s%20titulo%201961.jpg

[MCTuomey]

Since neither my taste nor my photos have much merit at all, I tend to defer judgment on artistic worth. Necessary, appropriate humility in just my case, of course.

An Adams' exhibition is here until late May - my first walk-through didn't cause me to feel anything other than admiration for the work I saw. I'll be back for more thorough viewing, no doubt. What stood out for me? Other than the legendary tonal qualities, the almost peculiar mating of abstraction and realism in some of his landscapes (if that makes sense). Like a Mahler chord, in a way.

[kmack]

A. Aubry Bodine is now top of the heap for me.

An example of his Baltimore Harbor shots (http://www.aaubreybodine.com/gallery/default.asp?rtn=cat&cat=225&pg=1&bc=31-021)