There is a lot of back details about the cowboy series which does not immediately come to mind to most viewers. The most important thing is that Dick travelled with a crew and they ran interference for him, set up his backgrounds, trucked stuff here and there, loaded film, metered light, and all manner of other little nitpicking jobs which have to be done before a single exposure is made. TAking that crew with him was essential. Without them I don’t believe there would have been a single exposure. I saw that show at the Corcoran, and Dick had gone to DC and lit the show and had the walls painted black. The prints were floating out from the walls on invisible mounts and the prints were huge darkroom prints at about 40x50”. The show was nothing short of incredible and inspired several photographers working today. I’m sure Annie Leibovitz was inspired by the series as was I. Dick had a gift not too many photographers have in that he could focus his energy on the subject and block out everything else. It’s a skill or a gift people are probably born with and not something you can learn out of a book. Somebody told me I had that skill (it might have been Dick), but by that point I had widened my horizons to include landscapes. I know somebody here will say this is self-aggarandizment, but it isn’t. It’s just a fact and something I no longer use very often. I could get back into portraits again as you know what? It’s hard as hell to shoot landscapes when one only has one real foot and the $53,000 new one is no substitute for what I was born with. Studios have flat floors, and the places I like to shoot, don’t. I’m not certain I will ever walk on a battlefield or a beach (like Omaha Beach) again as it is just too bloody painful.
Jan
On Mar 22, 2013, at 7:56 PM, Jonathan Turner wrote:
Richard Avedon's American West series is something that has never
lost it's magic for me, and was one of my first real loves in
photography. When I did my fist degree (about 12 years ago) it was a
book I found in the college library, and I think it had more effect
on me than I realised at the time. Each portrait is a thing of
beauty in itself, but the whole series together makes for something
else entirely...for me 'the whole is greater than the sum of it's
parts'.
It's led me down a path of being interested in collections
of people, that have included the likes of August Sander (another of
my all time heros) Irving Penn, Daniel Meadows and more recently
Rineka Dijkstra.
The American West series is something that I keep coming back to
time and time again, so much so that I'm presently in the process of
applying for a grant from Arts Council England to try to emulate
something similar in my local neighbourhood in Leeds. I guess I
just want to see if I could ever produce something like that, and
also as an exercise in slowing down the work...I want to use 5x4 to
do it on (although he used a 10x8) which would be so much more of a
challenge than a DSLR. I probably won't get the funding of course,
but no harm in dreaming.
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Turner, Photographer e: pictures@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx t:
07796 470573 w: www.jonathan-turner.com
On 22/03/2013 21:56, Herschel Mair
wrote:
Sadly missed. His
book of portraits from the American West is such
an important document.... Straight portraits... unadorned and
un-constructed (To a large extent) People so readily associate
the West with either California/LA/Hollywood or cowboys and
rodeos. So his pictures of people molded by their immersion in
heavy industry really brings a hard reality check. I can't
stop staring at the images.
On 3/22/2013 3:40 PM, Jan Faul wrote:
The only two
photographers I can think of who don’t shoot smiling brown
faces even though they are on location, are Phil Borges and
Mark Tucker. Even people who should know better can’t do a
portrait without a grinning subject.
I’d put Dick Avedon
on my ‘few smiles’ list, but he is no longer shooting
portraits.
Jan
On Mar 22, 2013, at 1:10 PM, karl shah-jenner wrote:
From: "Jan Faul" < jan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals -
Students" < photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Brutal Review of PF members exhibit on March
16, 2013
One of my objections to photographers shooting the locals
while traveling is that there is a preponderance of
smiling faces aimed at the camera while we as viewers do
not know if they are smiling because the photographer has
just given them $50, promised them a trip to Disneyland,
or other inducement to smile. I dislike portfolios of
brown-skinned foreigners smiling at the cameras it reeks
of everything bad about Yuppies.
http://www.grumpyoldsod.com/hypocrisy.asp
touches on the subject somewhat..
well, a bit.
I thought it interesting
k
Art Faul
The Artist Formerly Known as Prints
------
Camera Works - The Washington Post
art for cars: panowraps.com
.
Art Faul
The Artist Formerly Known as Prints ------ Camera Works - The Washington Post .
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