Book review
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This is a charming and inexpensive introduction to some of Evans’s most interesting work. Highly recommended.
Walker Evans: Signs
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Category Archives: Book reviews
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Saul Leiter
Book review
Recent comments by reader Giovanni Maggiora in response to a couple of journal entries here (1 and 2) saw recommendations for the color work of Saul Leiter, a photographer I had never heard of.
Paso Robles hot rod show, 2007. Canon 5D, 24-105.
So I hopped over to Amazon and a few days later Early Color by Leiter was in my hands. You will understand the level of trust I place in my readers when I admit to having blown $45 on this small volume, which is some sort of record given that I ordinarily only buy remaindered photography books. A remaindered Brassai is a cheap Brassai, after all.
Leiter’s work uses color sparingly in these pictures, taken during 1948-60; frequently, the colors are faded. The style is somewhere between Ralph Gibson (Leiter’s work being far more approachable) and Andre Kertesz, which is funny when you recall how much Kertesz denigrated color photography. As much as I (mostly) denigrate monochrome today. Stated differently, the style is street photography, but has nothing to do with the Decisive Moment school. People often feature in Leiter’s streetscapes, but as an architectural adjunct, seldom as a subject. As the text suggests, he would have done more color but couldn’t afford it. Boy, do I know how he felt.
I found the work wonderfully fresh and inspiring to look at, not least because my own style of street snap is very reminiscent of Leiter’s work. I say that unselfconsciously, having never heard of him until now. So while I can honestly report that Leiter’s work did not influence me one bit, the similarities are striking.
I make some disclosures below about the copyright aspects of reproducing Leiter’s work here; bottom line, I make no money from it and, hopefully, he will when you buy his book. Additionally, I have added an imprint on his pictures to make things clear. Then, compare his work with some of my color street snaps over the ages:
Madison Avenue, NYC 1982. Leica M3, 35mm Summaron. Kodachrome 64
Leiter’s version, 1960
Stanford University campus, 2002. Olympus C-5050 digital
Leiter’s version, 1956
Union Square, San Francisco, 1999. Leica M2, 90mm Asph Summicron, Kodak Gold 100.
Leiter’s version, 1954
Chinatown, San Francisco, 2000. Leica M2, 35mm Asph Summicron. Kodak Gold 100.
Leiter’s version, 1956
Eiffel Tower, 1977. Leica M3, 35mm Summaron. GAF Ansco 500
Leiter’s version, 1959
If this “street/color” genre appeals to you, do take a look at Leiter’s book. And thank you, Giovanni, for putting me on to Saul Leiter’s work.
Update:
Leiter passed away, aged 89, on November 26, 2013. The New Yorker has a thoughtful obituary here.
Thomas Eakins
Book review
Growing up as a lad in London I knew but three things about Philadelphia.
- It’s the HQ of the Mob.
- The great impressionist painter Mary Cassat was a native.
- Photographer Thomas Eakins also hailed thence.
Well, I’m no longer sure about the first fact (I think the mob has now moved to Detroit where it runs GM), though Rocky did make out well in Philly.
I’m certain about the second, having adored Cassat since I first saw mention of her work in John Rewald’s definitive ‘A History of Impressionism’. Now famous, her work holds its own with the best. And while you are at it, check out Berthe Morisot’s canvases – another less known but outstanding painter of that age.
As for the third, I grew up knowing Eakins (1844-1916) as a photographer not as a painter. This book is one where various scholars pen chapters on aspects of Eakins’s work, so you never get bored with any one writer’s approach, and has an excellent chapter addressing how Eakins used photography as a tool in his painting. Indeed, Eakins was most secretive about his use of photographs to flesh out details in his paintings, in the face of a raging debate whether photography was art.
The book, gorgeously produced and illustrated, shows that this fine photographer was a superb painter. The idiom is uniquely American, strong, forthright, confidently realist, and his work is always memorable, as the 243 plates and 209 illustrations attest. Even if you don’t care to read the text, get the book for all those pictures.
Not cheap, it’s available from Amazon and is a splendid value.
Volkswagen: A Week at the Factory
An extraordinary book by Peter Keetman.
What the Leica is to rangefinder cameras and the Nikon F to SLRs, so is the VW Beetle to cars. Each is an icon which transcends time and criticism. Each was the very best that its respective designers and engineers had to offer.
The photography in this book is exceptional. The cover picture is a foretaste of what is to come. Keetman, who spent a week in the VW facory in 1953 without a commission or pay, does not document workers toiling in tough conditions making thousands of cars. Social statements are not his interest. Rather, everywhere he points his camera he sees geometrical forms, shapes repeated, industrial beauty of the highest order.
Hundreds of differential gears look like so many flowers in a meadow. Stacked body panels create beautiful, repetitive designs. Cylinder heads look like nothing so much as immense, expressionist buildings – think of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles or the BMW headquarters in Munich.
An exceptionally honest essay by Rolf Sachsse pulls no punches as to the provenance of the Beetle and Armin Kley provides a useful technical piece on the development of this cultural icon – the iPod of its day.
You do not need to like cars to love the great photography in this ninety page paperback, first published in the US in 1992. Amazon lists used copies for very little. Rush out and get one before they are gone.
Ralph Gibson – Deus ex Machina
Mass passing as class.
You either like Ralph Gibson’s work or you hate it. The pretentious Latin title is certainly a warning. And you really need the nude on the cover?
I’m OK with it, but anytime you see a book published by Taschen, be assured there will be lots of gratuitous nudity, and this one is no exception.
Gibson does have a strong, identifiable style and that has me coming back to this very thick book time and again. And every time I like it a little more. Or hate it a little less.
Too bad he didn’t exercise more critical editorial judgment when deciding what to publish.
768 pages of Elliot Erwitt I can handle, but 768 pages of Ralph Gibson?
Worth a look, I suppose; Amazon has it.