Posts
Esther Bubley and Marion Post Wolcott
Many Americans are familiar with Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” image from the Farm Security Administration, but fellow FSA and Office of War Information photographers Marion Post Wolcott and Esther Bubley are, unfortunately, much less known.
Carrie Mae Weems: A Great Turn in the Possible
Carrie Mae Weems may be the most interesting photographer practicing today. Not the most interesting Black Photographer nor the most interesting Woman Photographer, but simply the most interesting photographer.
Looking at the beautiful catalogue (Carrie Mae Weems: A Great Turn in the Possible) created for the European exhibition of Weems’ work, sponsored by Fundación MAPFRE, I had a similar reaction to the first time I saw Robert Frank’s The Americans, back in the 1970s.
Black is Beautiful: Kwame Brathwaite
Black is Beautiful, tells the story of Kwame Brathwaite. Few photographers can lay claim to helping change ideas surrounding human beauty.
But, Kwame Brathwaite could legitimately be credited with playing a major role in not only redefining beauty, but in promoting Black empowerment.
Dawoud Bey
For Black History month we are looking at four great African-American photographers. This installment features Dawoud Bey, an artist whose portraits draw on the the documentary tradition.
Gordon Parks and the Farm Security Administration
For Black History month, I am featuring the work of four outstanding African-American Photographers. The first essay features Gordon Parks and his work at the Farm Security Administration.
Photography Visionaries
Photography Visionaries is a neat survey of 75 great photographers spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Each photographer is represented by at least three of their best-known images, along with a concise, well-written and insightful summary of their significance.
Each essay/biography is a stand-alone document, so that readers need not move through the book in chronological order
The Ongoing Moment
Geoff Dyer’s “The Ongoing Moment” is a enjoyable, insightful meander through the common themes that have united and divided the artistic visions of great photographers.
Dyer has both a discerning eye and an encyclopedic familiarity with photographers and their backstories, which he uses to carefully weave context into their work.
See/Saw: Looking at Photographs
Many authors have tackled the idea of looking at photographs. The difference from this traditional approach is that in See/Saw we get a lot of Geoff Dyer as well. Dyer takes the artist’s background, significance and intent as a starting point, but uses his essays to expound on his own observations. In a sense, the book might be just as easily titled See/Saw: Geoff Dyers Looks at Photographs and Tells You What He Sees.
Our 2022 Christmas Letter
For our friends, acquaintances, and anyone else who is mildly interested, we are providing a online version of our annual Christmas letter. Read if you care.
We start back at the end of 2021, with a few words about our trip to Korea to visit daughter Kelsey (and see Cranes in the DMZ) then move on to 2022, which included a trip of a lifetime to Galapagos, as well as the wedding of daughter Rachel.
Books for Photographers (Part One)
Looking for a great book for your favorite photographer. Try this list of timeless books designed to get your photographer thinking more deeply about the craft.
Books for Photographers (Part Two)
Need a gift idea for your favorite photographer? In this second column, I focus on some affordable book series that highlight individual photographers.
Ukraine: A First Person War
When Roger Fenton took his camera to cover the Crimean War in 1855 the limits of the technology at the time meant that he was unable to photograph any scenes of combat. Today, as war rages in Ukraine, we need only open our smart phones to release a flood of posts that show the war […]