Photography in the News: Danny Lyon

Good article on Danny Lyon at The New York Times this weekend:

Stubbornly Practicing His Principles of Photography

"Mr. Lyon, who has been awarded two Guggenheim fellowships, one for his film work, has called his work advocacy journalism and does not deny that it purveys ideas — if only the idea that everyone should be more aware of the pain and struggle around them in a consumerist, media-saturated world that tends to encourage isolation and apathy. “I think I try to hide it,” he said of his worldview in his work. “But I’m a highly politicized person, and it’s in my blood.”"

I hadn't known about his film work, so I had to go and look it up. Turns out you can find reviews of his significant work in documentary filmmaking going back into the early 1970s. I'm not sure how to see these today, however.

Screen: By Danny Lyon: The Program

"The Films of Danny Lyon," the new program at the Film Forum, is a collection of three documentary films by the 31-year-old Brooklyn-born still photographer turned film-maker. The two best films in the collection, "Llanito" (61 minutes) and "Soc. Sci. 127" (21 minutes) are defined less by a developed cinematic style than by compassion for the subjects.

Annie at Work

Annie Leibovitz and her approach to portraiture came up in my Thursday night class last week, so I wanted to link to some good "behind-the-scenes" video from Vanity Fair. I think her use of lighting in these is well worth the view, especially the episode with Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrman.

The 2009 Hollywood Portfolio Shoots

"Extremely Ambivalent"

The relationship between filmmaker and subject in making a documentary is always a tricky one. Usually, there's a balance between exploitation and value: by definition, the filmmaker is "using" the subject, but usually it's in a benign way, and often to the subject's benefit.

But not always.

I'm eager to see Guest of Cindy Sherman -- since I love both photography and documentaries about photographers -- but I have to admit any film made by an "ex-boyfriend" has a lot to prove....

Camera Shy

While her depiction in the film is overwhelmingly positive, Sherman’s enthusiasm for the film has waned since the relationship ended. “I was and still am extremely ambivalent about the film, not that I don't think Paul will do a great job, but that I'm in it,” she told The Financial Times in 2006. “I wish he could tell the story without mentioning me.” And though she had given her blessing for friends, colleagues, and staff—among them, John Waters, Carol Kane, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Ingrid Sischy—to speak on camera, Sherman sent a mass e-mail before the Tribeca Film Festival premiere to disavow the project, labeling it a “big mistake.”

Photography in the News, Scout Edition

Nice article on Scout Tufankjian in the Daily News today.

Obama's run: The inside view from a Brooklyn photographer

"Riding on the campaign buses and planes, Tufankjian went almost everywhere Obama did, following the candidate to 39 states. "It got a little rock star in the sense of, 'Good morning, Butte, Mon- - no, no, we're in Tampa," she remembers. When she could, she got back to Brooklyn to remind her boyfriend what she looked like."

Of course, it's meant to sell her book Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History-Making Presidential Campaign. It's still a good article, though.

Getting the Word Out

Chris Corradino is a friend of this blog and an excellent photographer and photo teacher. Among his areas of interest: nature photography. The catch? While stripped-away quarries will work if you're Edward Burtynsky, generally you'll need nature if you're going to work as a nature photographer.

So, in an effort to Help Spread the Word! he's suggested posting the following image:



In this case, clicking on the image links to The Nature Conservancy. We're approaching the time of year when a donation to a group just like that could make a great gift for someone who's tough to buy for. Or just for anyone nature-friendly. Or just for anyone....

By the way, Chris has a book available now: From Manhattan to Montauk: A Photographic Journey. Follow the link to preview the first 15 pages.

Leibovitz on Lenses

I've been reading Annie Leibovitz at Work.

I'll discuss the book once I finish it, but I wanted to highlight Leibovitz' use of lenses in her early days with Rolling Stone, as detailed on page 16:

"During the early years at the magazine, when I thought of myself more as a photojournalist than a portraitist, I usually carried three cameras on assignments. I didn't want to lose time changing lenses. I would take a 35mm lens, a 55, and a 105.

"A 35mm lens provides a perspective close to what the human eye sees, and it was my lens of choice. The 55 was considered a 'normal' lens, very classic, simple and noninterfering. The 105 was on a body with a meter and I could use it for light readings. Zoom lenses were not really an option then. They weren't made well. When you saw a photographer with a zoom lens on his camera you didn't take him seriously."

I find it interesting how much that situation has changed today. If you look in the camera bag of any typical photographer in the "working, but not famous" category today, you'll be very likely to find two great zoom lenses packed, with possibly no primes at all.

Alas, Poor Tunick

This just in: Spencer Tunick is still a hack.

Hold on ... receiving another report ... and the media still writes about him. That wouldn't bother me except that they neglect to point out that when he says his work "explores the relationships and comfort levels of people in a party atmosphere" he means to say "I'm doing the same thing again, and continuing to claim it's more than it is."

You can more or less write all future Spencer Tunick articles ahead of time: "Yesterday, Spencer Tunick photographed a large or small group of people without clothes. He then issued a press release claiming his work is greatly significant, despite the fact that you can't find a single reputable curator who's interested in it. (Of course, finding people to sell it -- that's easier, and a different thing altogether. Blue Dog paintings sell. Nagel prints sell.) The press release mentioned AIDS, global warming, issues of representation or something else not actually related to the work. Managing editors read four words into the release -- as far as the word 'nude' -- and assigned the story to a writer who copied and pasted in the text of a previous article, replacing only the location of the event and a quote from someone who may or may not have actually been there."

New York Magazine covers the latest event:

Spencer Tunick Got a Bunch of People Naked in Brooklyn the Other Night

Warning: the article has a teensy-tiny photo that is NSFW (not safe for work) viewing if you work somewhere where people have superhuman eyesight.

Best article on the general lameness of the Spencer Tunick experience:

Why doesn't Spencer Tunick get any respect?

The problem with Tunick as an artist—and the main reason, I think, most critics have ignored him—is that he doesn't seem to have anything to say. His installations are spectacular and attention-grabbing, but as for what it all means … well, to put it bluntly, I don't think it extends too far beyond, "Wow. That's a lot of naked people."

Above: on 86th Street.

At AIPAD, An Old Acquaintance

Because Mrs. New York Portraits is working at the event, I attended the AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) Photography Show on Friday night. Also, because they have many, many photographs.

In one of the booths, I saw a face I hadn't seen in person in ten years: Lucien Clergue. He was signing a print he had just sold, and looking great. Ten years later, and he looks younger.

That could be because he photographs nude people for a living, of course. Here's what he was doing the last time I saw him -- link is Not Safe For Work viewing:

Lucien Clergue's Nude Workshop

He remembered it, and we discussed that it was the first -- and only -- time he has shot digitally. He was very kind, and came over to meet Mrs. New York Portraits. She kept her clothing on for the duration of the conversation.

Sumo's Nice, Too Large for the Bookshelf

I watched the documentary on Helmut Newton tonight.

I'm reminded that my favorite book on Newton is "Us and Them" -- which deals as much with his life with June Newton (Alice Springs) as it does with his photography.

Photography on TV

What to watch this week? The New York Times has a good article on the series of photography-connected documentaries Sundance Channel will run starting Monday night.

Photographers, on the Other Side of the Lens

Photographers — how they work, what they shoot, and their sources of inspiration — are the subject of a weeklong documentary series that begins Monday night on the Sundance Channel. The documentaries, made over the last decade by 10 independent filmmakers and assembled for the series, feature a broad range of photographers including William Eggleston, Tina Barney, Helmut Newton, and Robert Mapplethorpe and his mentor Sam Wagstaff, among other lesser-known artists.

Bert Stern

I've always found the Bert Stern "Last Sitting" photographs not to my taste. I see the appeal, but they've always struck me as inelegant. And now we've seen the answer to how he would remake them today: identically.

'SECRECY' SHROUDED PHOTOGRAPHER'S RECREATED 'MONROE' SHOOT

"It has also emerged that Stern shot the pictures on film rather than use a digital camera and duplicated the original Monroe set, right down to the lighting he used 46 years ago.

Lohan posed nude for the shoot, which took place on 5 February at the Hotel Bel-Air in California – the location for the photographer's famous 'The Last Sitting' pictures of Monroe, six weeks before she died of an overdose of barbiturates. The 1962 images were published in Vogue magazine.

In his latest shoot, for New York Magazine, Stern had two photo assistants on hand and said he shot hundreds of frames during the seven-hour photo session. "

I find myself thinking the behind the scenes shots are the strongest, strangely enough.

We're Unwerthy

Ellen von Unwerth is one of those photographers who is able to hit an art director's fantasies so dead-on that the photographs don't need to be good. They look as if someone handed a model a camera during a break at a fashion shoot, and she had a fun time with it. And that's what they are, and they work.

Google her name, take in a little sample of her photographs and you'll realize: she's everywhere. And has been, for a long long time. Generally, though, that doesn't mean every advertisement in the subway. It does now. For about a week or so, waiting at my usual stops has meant staring at the new Equinox ads. Adweek explains:

Equinox Gets Racy in Push From Fallon

"In one, a group of nuns in a candlelit room are rooted to the spot by a nude male model they are sketching. In another, a male model, wearing only skintight gold lamé underpants, is bent over into the shape of a table. On his stomach rests a platter of fruit that a group of women dressed as if they were going to a masquerade pick at."

That's right: the one in the subway is the one with the gold lamé undies.

The Diane Arbus Archive

The news? Well, there's this press release from yesterday:

Metropolitan Museum Acquires Diane Arbus Archive

"(New York, December 18, 2007)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that it has acquired the complete archive of Diane Arbus (1923-1971), the legendary American photographer known for her revelatory portraits of couples, children, nudists, carnival performers, and eccentrics. The Estate of Diane Arbus has selected the Museum to be the permanent repository of the artist's negatives, papers, correspondence, and library. The Museum will collaborate with the Estate to preserve Arbus's legacy and to ensure that her work will continue to be seen in the context of responsible scholarship and in a manner that honors the subjects of the photographs and the intentions of the artist.

"The Estate's gifts and promised gifts to the Museum include hundreds of early and unique photographs by Arbus, negatives and contact prints of 7,500 rolls of film, glassine print sleeves annotated by the artist, as well as her photography collection, library, and personal papers including appointment books, notebooks, correspondence, writings, and ephemera. The entire collection - which will be preserved, fully catalogued, and eventually made available for research to scholars, artists, and the general public – will be known as The Diane Arbus Archive."

Be Glad the Elves Didn't Get There First

If you come to SantaCon to photograph, you probably should be dressed as Santa. It's a participatory event.

Above: a group of Santas decorate a photographer.

Fred McDarrah, 1926 - 2007

Fred McDarrah, 81, photographer of Beat Generation

"It was at The Voice that he built the reputation which quickly fanned out to an almost encyclopedic photographic coverage of artists, writers, poets, novelists, playwrights, actors, musicians, politicians, aspirants, characters, flotsam and jetsam of what was even then a great deal more than its journalistic label of “Beat Generation.” It all added up to an unbelievable 200,000 separate photographs — separate images — over the years."

Which Qualifies You for the Harry Winogrand Medal

The phone rings. You stagger over to it. Who would call at such an early hour? The news, however, is great. You've just won the Friedlander award! Fantastic! Will you get to meet him? Lee Friedlander is one of your favorites, a legend in the field. He's amazing.

Umm, what? Her? Meet her? Marti who? Marti Friedlander? She's well-known in New Zealand?

Auckland photographer wins Friedlander award

'"I have chosen Edith as the inaugural recipient as I believe she has an exceptional talent," says Marti Friedlander. "I particularly like the way her photographic essays portray people and places that reveal New Zealanders and all their diversity."'

Might as well check out Marti Friedlander, New Zealand Photographer. Just in case you get that phone call.

They See Her Rollin' -- They Hatin'

I've been helping judge a photography contest this week, and I've come to one very specific conclusion: there are a surprising number of photographs of children stuffed into pumpkins.

Imagine: "Okay, honey, Mommy and Daddy are just going to put you into this pumpkin and take a picture, alright?" I spent hours looking at photographs showing kids sitting inside big pumpkins, head sticking out, or with the pumpkin around their torso and their little legs protruding out of legholes, usually with a pumpkin stem worn as a beret as well...

It took me a few shocked moments to remember the source of this barrage of vegetable / infant photography: that woman who puts lettuce on babies heads.

By coincidence, yesterday there was a little article on that very same photographer, who has now convinced herself she is best imagined as a rock star:

Anne Geddes details her triumph over self-doubt and skeptics

'Some time later she first suggested doing baby calendars to a London editor, who told her, "If I can give you some advice, just photographing babies is never going to work for you. You need to broaden your portfolio to include adults and animals." That memory prompts a dimpled smile on Geddes' face as she relates, "I have talked to that editor many times since and he often tells me his 'broaden your portfolio' advice now makes him feel like the guy who turned down signing the Beatles."'

Of course, simply being the Beatles of photography may not be enough for her: later the article describes her work as having progressed through distinct artistic phases. Picasso, watch your back.

Found: Diane Arbus Photographs

Genuine Wonders From the Flea Circus: Photos by Arbus

"But when sorting through the pile, Mr. Langmuir found a note in a dog-eared datebook kept by Lucas that stopped him: “Diane Arbus, 131 ½ Charles St. WA 4 — 4608.” Then, he says, he looked again at some of the heavily flashed photographs of performers like Estelline Pike, a sword swallower, and DeWise Purdon, a man with no hands, and wondered: Could these possibly be early Arbus works? Or am I just dreaming?"

He wasn't dreaming. 21 of the photographs have been authenticated. I'm very eager to see these....

American, Surfaces

One of our gallery tour stops was the Alex Klotz Gallery for a show of Andreas Feininger photographs. We realized we weren't on the mailing list, and therefore signed the gallery's address book.

Stephen Shore had signed in just before. We looked around, but have no idea what he looks like now. Might have been standing right next to us.

You know, the author of The Nature of Photographs -- also featured in a recent ICP exhibition.... That Stephen Shore.

You Could Google Ana Mendieta

Yes, today is the day when Spencer Tunick will pose a lot of people without clothes at the Sagamore Art Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. I don't mind that, though I find the photographs less interesting than they should be.

What I do mind is his pretense that he's an "installation artist" or a "land artist" or anything but what he is. As always, the breathless press release spins out of control:

"Creating his seminal temporary site-specific landscapes involve the recruitment of many nude figures arranged in specific public sites and follow on the tradition of the popular art of the early 70's known as land art. ... The poetic whole culminating from this sea of individual figures which are arranged in a sculptural way, further challenges traditionally held stigmas associated with nudity, privacy and social and political issues surrounding art in the public sphere."

There are only a few things wrong with this -- he's not seminal, he doesn't actually follow in the tradition of land art, and there's no culminating involved. Also no challenging.

As a documentary-film person, I've watched all of the documentaries on Tunick. They reveal him to be what he is: a guy with a big schtick.