Category Archives: Photographers

George Barbier

Art Illustration, Paintings, Photographers

Art Deco illustrator.

For an index of articles on art illustrators, click here.

George Barbier (1882-1932) died young, just as the Great Depression started to roar. That’s somewhat appropriate as his delicate Art Deco illustrations are frequently about flappers and society people of the 1920s, the newly rich who saw no end to stock market gains. They had disappeared by the time of his death.

“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau,” quoth the famous economist Irving Fisher in early October, 1929. Proving that you should never take investing advice from an economist. Black Thursday, October 24, saw the market drop by 11 percent, followed four days later by Black Monday, when it fell another 13 percent; and the next day, Black Tuesday, when it lost 12 percent more. Good market timing, Irving.

Sounds just like today when stocks are overvalued by 50% as the market continues in denial about 40 million unemployed – and largely unemployable – American workers. Today we are waiting for the pandemic to ‘magically disappear’ courtesy of the moron in the Oval Office. Nothing changes.

Here are some favorite Barbier images from the Roaring Twenties, ones no photographer could ever equal:




The Roaring Twenties and its denizens.


Exquisite use of line.


Before the days of sardine cans masquerading as transportation.


Simple charm and great sophistication. Hitchcock
appropriated the firework background in ‘To Catch a Thief‘.

Like Dufy and Gruau after him (see the previous two posts here) Barbier’s work was always in demand.

If you are interested in learning more about the gorgeous bias cut dresses frequently draped so elegantly on Barbier’s women, check out Madeleine Vionnet.

The winter of our discontent

Hall of Shame, Movies

Hopefully, history repeats.



“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York”

Those opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III are the most elegant and complex ever penned in English. Replete with metaphor, pun, humor and egotism, they say everything about the speaker, the future Richard III of England, a murderous psychopath whose two year reign came to a sticky end at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. That same battle saw the end of the Plantagenet and York dynasties.

America and the world is now confronted with a like psychopath and murderer, the abomination which occupies the Oval Office. The ‘T’ word, used in this household, is rewarded by a quick exit for the speaker, the front door shown with alacrity. Rather, the only acceptable usage is ‘Pig’, the preposition dropped as a nod to Pig’s appalling spouse, the Slovenian Slut, chest by Dow Chemical.

Why this mention of Richard III?

First, because hopefully history repeats and Pig gets his equivalent of Bosworth Field very soon. Richard’s dying cry of “My horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse” will be equally apt in Pig language, with the sole change being that ‘horse’ is replaced with ‘lawyer’.

Second, because my son’s Shakespeare studies in his last semester as a senior at prep school are now focused on this finest of plays, one which reminds me of my teen years, for I am vicariously piggybacking on his work.

Those teen years saw me watching Laurence Olivier’s 1955 film of the same title, easily the most chilling performance committed to celluloid. And we will be watching it later this week, ever hopeful that Richard’s fall from his horse is emulated by Pig and his ‘dynasty’ of spawn:



Richard, with attendant sycophants. Look familiar?

You should watch it too.

A note to Pig voters: This blog is about Photographs, Photographers and Photography. It ordinarily eschews politics. However, at this time of national tragedy, a tragedy whose number of deaths has been compounded by a psychopath masquerading as President, it is every American’s duty to protest loudly and to work for regime change. If you voted for Pig last time and have come around to seeing the error of your ways, all well and good. We all make mistakes. However, if you still fall in the trap of believing that Pig is making America great again and propose voting for him again, not only are you emphatically not welcome here, your very presence disgusts me. Do the right thing. Go elsewhere with your stupidity, your ignorance and your bigotry.

Pete Souza

Photographers

A fine White House photographer.

Pete Souza was the White House photographer before the Gangster and his crew of grifters took over. It should be added that over 60 million American morons voted for Pig, not to mention several million Russkies. (In deference to his Slovenian Slut spouse, I have dropped the preposition). Those morons are unavailable for comment as they are busy praying the virus away.

The link will take you to a video where Souza explains his gear choices, but it’s the pictures he shows which really matter:



Click to go to the article.
You do not need an Instagram account.

As for Pig, it gives me zero pleasure to say “I told you so”.

Lewis Hine and the Empire State

Photographers

Images for the ages.

While Lewis Hine is known as perhaps the greatest social conscience photographer of the past century, he was also there with his camera when the Empire State building was being built.

Every statistic about this skyscraper is nothing less than breathtaking.

Started a couple of days after the Black Tuesday stock market crash in 1929, it would be the world’s tallest building. Actual construction started on March 17, 1930 as the Great Depression was starting to rage. It was completed on April 11, 1931, with opening a few days later. Read that again. 102 floors in the center of Manhattan built in just 13 months in an era when the blue collar man was grateful for a job rather than for a handout. The site is that of the old Waldorf Astoria hotel which relocated uptown to Park Avenue, and Lewis Hine was there to record the construction process with unforgettable photographs.

When you visit it – and you should – do what I do when entering this Art Deco masterpiece. Get on your hands and knees on the green marbled floor of the lobby and run the tips of your fingers over the brass inlay strips separating the marble slabs. Perfection.

Arguably three key technologies made this building possible – structural steel (Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Bethlehem Steel), electric elevators (Elisha Otis) and air conditioning (Willis Carrier). This was an era when American companies used American resources and American immigrants to craft great things.

Everything about the Empire State building is nothing less than breathtaking but most breathtaking of all is its stunning beauty.

The joy of 18

Bio

My son is a man.

Winston turns 18 today and, as luck would have it, received an offer from his college of choice last night. There could be no finer birthday gift.



Winston’s home for the next four years.

All you need to know about the college is that it enjoys the same weather as his prep school (snow!) and is in the most perfect setting imaginable.