Category Archives: Photographers

New England Ruins

Book reviews, Photographers

Dead.

For an index of all my book reviews, click here.

Whereas lamenting dead malls – see the previous blogpost – is hard, as who really cares about their mostly abominable architecture, Rob Dobi’s record of dead theaters, manufacturing plants and, most troubling of all, psychiatric institutions, is poignant and moving. Many of these buildings pose immense issues owing to the presence of dangerous chemicals or asbestos, so tearing them down to build something new is a non-trivial task. So many just sit there, rotting.

The changes in psychiatric care, with greater sensitivity to the needs of patients, saw many 20th century psychiatric hospitals closed, their inhumane treatment of the mentally ill a thing of the past. Thank goodness for that. These are beautifully photographed in this small book which maximizes impact by full page bleed of the excellent photography. The author occasionally struggles with the extreme dynamic range in some of hs settings but that’s a minor quibble.


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The author’s talent is not limited to photography. He is also a professional illustrator and you can see more of his work at RobDobi.com.

Abandoned Malls of America

Book reviews, Photographers

Dying.

For an index of all my book reviews, click here.


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We live in a post-mall age. Amazon has taken over retailing and, likely as not, the mall in your home town is now an Amazon fulfillment center.

Seph Lawless’s fine photography in this large book makes for depressing viewing and I confess I could only take his images a chapter at a time. But as a chronicle of what was once the quintessential American experience, the book belongs in any photo library.

Alfred Eisenstaedt

Book reviews, Photographers

One of the fathers of photojournalism.


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In 1947 four of the great photojournalists in Europe created Magnum Photos. They were Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger. But America’s LIFE magazine, recreated as a photo weekly, had been in the photojournalism business since 1936. Its first cover was by Margaret Bourke-White. Alfred Eisenstaedt followed one week later. By the conclusion of his career he had 90 LIFE covers under his belt. Eisenstaedt had had the foresight to leave his native Germany for New York in 1936 before the German killing machine could get at him and his family. Indeed, the apocryphal story has it that it was learning of Elsie’s ethnicity that put the scowl on Goebbels’s face in the famous image below.

Eisie was a lifelong devotee of the Leica camera, maintaining that its inconspicuous appearance – in contrast to the large plate cameras favored by many of his contemporaries – helped put his subjects at ease. Well, maybe not Goebbels.

This book is a marvelous collection of his finest images. Whereas HC-B specialized in composition of his many street pictures, Eisie was much more the journeyman snapper who could always be relied on to get the job done. Unlike HC-B he was also a fine portraitist, as these images show:


GBS


Goebbels – evil personified


Oppie


La Hepburn


WSC in 1951. A lovely, warm portrait.

Eisie also had a fine sense of humor:


Miami Beach on a cold day

If you like great portraiture and great photojournalism, this book belongs in your library.

Note: These high quality scans of the images in the book were made using the fine scanner in the Epson ET-8550 printer.

Viet Nam – 50 years later

Photographers

We have learned little.

It is 50 years to the day since America lost its first war. Viet Nam. The losing streak has continued uninterrupted since, despite an annual budget for the Pentagon and for Veterans’ Affair of $1 trillion.

The New York Times ran a superb piece focused on the photography from that conflict. The Pentagon had not yet adopted a policy of sanitizing its failures by strictly controlling access to photographers and journalists. Back then they were free to roam – armed solely with a Nikon – amongst the armed forces. And their work, along with the resulting student protests, saw the war come to an inglorious defeat for the land of the free.



A protestor confronts US soldiers. Click the image to download the article.

Many of those brave photographers died in the process of pursuing their passion along with 55,000 American soldiers and over a million locals. Read and weep.

Skidmore women

Photographers

1947 fashion.

In 1947 the great photographer Arnold Newman went to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY to document the then current fashions. Skidmore was still an all girls school, going co-ed in 1971 as did many such institutions. Interestingly some of our finest schools remain all girl to this day, and they include Barnard, Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke, all in the bastion of American higher education, the northeast.

The women are rich, beautiful, entitled and perfectly poised. There was no PC nonsense back then – these young women are going on to breed the next generation of America’s leaders:



College fashions in 1947. Click the image for Amazon.

The generous – nay, profligate – use of copious amounts of cloth in the skirts speaks to America’s newly found prosperity after the war. The picture is from the book ‘Arnold Newman: At work’ and I am delighted to see it now sells used for ten times what I paid for my new copy two decades ago.