Yearly Archives: 2008

The most famous photographer in the world

Photographers

No question about it.

The current issue of Vanity Fair has an extract from Annie Leibovitz’s book illustrated with three superb photographs – of Demi Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger and HM Queen Elizabeth II, and a not so good one of Mick Jagger. Read it here.

I was very much taken with Ms.Leibovitz’s modesty and straight forwardness. I hope you will be too. Surely, there is no more famous photographer working today?

The current issue also has a fine survey of the great photographers who have been published in Vanity Fair over the past 95 years, by Christopher Hitchens. Is there a finer English writer today? Berenice Abbott, Helmut Newton, George Hoyningen-Huene, Harry Benson, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Weber, Edward Steichen – they are all there.

And finally a piece on Vladimir Putin with a penetrating portrait by photographer Stéphane Lavoué. I was about to write what I really think of this fellow but decided against it. I do not own a gun and feel, if I said anything bad, I would have to meet those burly guys with dark glasses and ill fitting suits suitably prepared. So, for once, discretion is the better part of valor.

Thanks, Mr. Land

Cameras

Polaroid is no more.

The technology of photography was never more magic than when you used Polaroid cameras and film.

Now, as the WSJ reports, Polaroid film is no more. Even with modern DSLRs capable of tethered shooting and near instantaneous screen display of a snap, nothing will ever match the magic of Polaroid.

You can read more about the Einstein of photography and the creator of Polaroid, Edwin Land, here.

Not in the Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 5D

Rumors abound – these you can be certain of.


Teaser ad on the Canon site

With all that speculation about the iminent replacement for the Canon 5D, here’s my list of things I can pretty much guarantee will not be in the 5D Mark II:

  • A 21mp sensor. No way. That would immediately cannibalize sales of the ultra-high margin 21mp 1Ds Mark III which goes for $8,000 a pop. And with the 11 mp in the 5D being as good as it is, reckon on no more than 16mp. Let’s hope they don’t muck up resolution in the process.
  • Ultra-high framing rates like in the 40D and 50D. Same reason as above.
  • Full weather sealing. No way no how. This camera is aimed at the advanced amateur snapper, not the pro in rain forests, even if a few rubber gaskets cost $1.50 to add.
  • Eye controlled focus. That’s the fabulous technology available in some late Canon film SLRs. The camera focuses where you look. (This still seems like magic to me). For some reason Canon have never added it to any of their DSLRs. Just imagine using something like Helicon Focus with eye controlled focus. Sight down your subject – click. Look a little further – click. Oh! wow. But not to be in the Mark II.
  • A smaller body. That would cost too much to re-engineer. Canon will add already mature and developed technologies like sensor dust removal and live view (ugh!) but a comprehensive re-engineering of the body would cost too much.
  • A change for that dumb Print button to make it useful – such as a mirror lock-up control. Someone at Canon has a real axe to grind for their printers (surprise!), so expect more of this silliness.
  • Lens aberration correction inside the camera’s software. See the first bullet point above.
  • A permanently attached vertical hand grip. That would look too ‘professional’ and adds needless bulk to an amateur’s camera. Indeed, one of the appealing aspects of the 5D is that it does not look professional – especially if you add some electrician’s tape to all those gauche logos.

Expect the announcement in late September at Photokina in Cologne.

Edward Hopper and photography

Book reviews, Paintings

Even if you don’t care for painting, check him out.

I have written before about the American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967) and of both the love I have for his work and the strong influence he has exerted over my way of seeing as a photographer. For Hopper is that most photographic of painters. And I don’t mean photographic in the dry, sterile, rather sick sense of the photorealists (gee, if you are going to kill yourself making a painting look like a photograph, why not just photograph the bloody thing and save some time?). No, I mean it in the sense that with his people-in-the-city paintings there are all the elements of photographic composition with the painter’s singular advantage that distracting clutter can simply be blended out with some brushwork.

Case in point:

Edward Hopper, Two on the aisle, 1927

You get a touch of realism in the ‘decisive moment’ timing of the picture, a touch of surrealism in the detailing of the woman’s face and a touch of Degas (also a fine photographer) in the back of the woman in the box on the right. The perspective is gently skewed in the best Bonnard tradition.

Invariably, when it comes to people, Hopper trends to the lonely vision of the American Experience, as here:

Edward Hopper, New York Ofice, 1962

I know exactly how he felt.

Leica M3, 50mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64, Anchorage, 1978

Nor is that vision unique to American cities:

Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, Kodachrome 64, Paris, 1974

There are many fine books on Hopper. One I recommend is “Edward Hopper: Light and Dark” by Gerry Souter, Parkstone, 2007. Barely published and already remaindered, it’s replete with many illustrations (over 140) and Souter’s text makes for interesting reading, devoid of pomposity. Any photographer looking to sharpen and refine his vision could do worse than plonking down $25 for a remaindered copy.

Click the picture for Amazon.

Italy from Above

Book reviews

A superb book.

The most beautiful women.

The world’s greatest art.

The finest fashions.

The most beautiful cars.

The magic of opera.

The best wines.

The most sublime architecture.

The deepest possible contempt for government and taxes.

The realization that you work to live, not vice versa.

And if that wasn’t enough, why not throw in the most gorgeous landscapes?

That is Italy and to say that the photography in this large book is spectacular is to do the photographers – Antonio Attini and Marcello Bertinetti (names to conjur with!) – an injustice.

No fewer than 423 pages grace this book which comes with a DVD of the Alps. Aptly enough, the foreword is by Franco Zeffirelli, and if you haven’t seen a Zeffirelli staging of an Italian opera, well, you haven’t lived.

Mine came from Edward R Hamilton, a tad shopworn, for $19.95, DVD included. Sure, they don’t take web orders but at that price, what’s your hurry? Get an envelope and a stamp. And don’t ask. Just go out right now and get this fabulous book.

As an adjunct, if you want to learn how Brunelleschi worked his magic on the dome in Florence, add this while you are at it.