Category Archives: Photographers

Watching a genius at work – Geoffrey Unsworth

Movies

American Art.

Purists and aesthetes would have you believe that Motherwell, Rothko and Pollock are what passes for American Art in the twentieth century.

Utter rot.

Where America’s genius lies in the world of art is in the movies.

And while you could argue that a British cameraman making American movies flouts that rule, the reality is that Geoffrey Unsworth, British cinematographer extraordinaire, could only have worked his magic in the United States, the land of infinite opportunity and imagination. And the land of abundant risk capital.

2001: A Space Odyssey remains Unsworth’s masterpiece, but if you seek a perfect evocation of America between the wars, one of infinite hope and generosity, then Superman is just the ticket.

Just take a look at these images, then watch the original in Blu Ray set to John Williams’s music:

When Superman – the fabulous Christopher Reeve – takes Lois for the flight around Manhattan, the myth is complete:


Is this photography or what?

Technicolor? But of course. British genius? Of course. American capital? Natch. Made in Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire.

Watch Superman.

Debunking the myth

Photographers

The jumping man.

Oceans of ink have been spent by would be experts explaining how Henri Cartier-Bresson’s divine sense of timing allowed him to make that picture of the man jumping the puddle behind Gare St. Lazare in 1932.

Click the image for the video and jump to 16:23 where you will learn not only that there was no timing involved, HC-B couldn’t even see the subject when he pressed the button! As the great man goes on to say, “all photography is an accident” (especially that of Ansel Adams, come to think of it, though the world would have been better off had those accidents never happened).


HC-B – ‘J’ai rien vu’. Click the image for the video.

What is so especially charming about this disclosure that it is said without artifice or pretense. Decisive Moment, my hind quarters. But the image remains one of the greatest ever made.

Clifford Coffin

Photographers

Vogue photographer.


Vogue, 1957.

Clifford Coffin’s star shone brightly at London, Paris and New York Vogue in the decade ending 1955. As the elegance and generous use of fabrics of that era, inspired by Dior, gave way to a more severe look he faded from view, disillusioned with the trend in women’s clothing. A fire in his New York studio on Lexington Avenue, which destroyed all his personal work (only that at Vogue survived) saw him quit photography altogether, his fortune made. He moved to Pasadena, living the life of a recluse and on his death his bequests totalled almost $400,000, a startling sum for the time. His earlier education included business studies at UCLA where he developed considerable acumen in money management, as the size of his bequests confirms.

While little known today, he left a large body of studio work for Vogue, all of it quite exceptionally elegant. His perfectionism saw him doing his own hair and makeup for the models, something impossible to conceive of today. There’s a fine monograph on his work by Robin Muir which you can see at Amazon by clicking the image below.


Vogue, November, 1954.

Movies

Photographers

Finally indexed.

Because they are so important a source of visual inspiration, I have indexed the articles here referring to movies.

You can access the index by clicking the drop down menu in the masthead, as illustrated below.


Or just click the image.