American optimism under threat.
A splendid article in the New York Times relates how preservationists are fighting to save Googie architecture, the whimsical style of the sixties largely found in Los Angeles.
While nothing quite beats the Union 76 gas station in Beverly Hills, which is not mentioned in that article, the splendid photography is worth visiting.
A fine early photographer.
Some two decades ago I wrote about Degas not just as one of the greatest painters of the 19th century but also as a fine photographer.
His ‘L’Absinthe’ painting of two denizens of the late night crowd zonked out on the poisonous drink had a significant effect on my seeing:
When photographing North Beach in 2013 I very much had this painting in mind when I snapped a modern version in The Saloon, one of the oldest buildings in San Francisco and a rare survivor of the 1906 earthquake and fires:
To learn more of Degas’s photography you can download the catalog of the Met’s 1998 show by clicking the image below, as intensely a photographic painting as you will find:
Free, from New York’s Met.
The Metropolitan Museum of New York has a substantial volume of free downloads addressing the work of significant photographers. One of the finest is the catalog of the 1979 show of 55 of Eliot Porter’s landscape studies, the first show of color photographs ever at the Met.
Porter tends to focus more on intimate details than broad panoramas, the images frequently printed on the dark side, and the gentle appeal of his beautiful abstraction is a joy.
Sub-optimal travel.
Immigrant? Watch out. Only this time the steerage will be full heading east over the Atlantic.
Still going strong at 84.
When the word ‘class’ pops up in my mind in the context of photography it’s generally the fashion work of Arthur Elgort which features high on my list.
And that one word is all that’s needed to describe this beautiful study from 1992.
More about the man can be found here.