A New York street snapper.

A friend of the blog pointed me to a Helen Levitt show at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto and I finally manage to toddle along. The show, named “In a New York Minute”, is worth attending if you can make it; unlike the overblown Cartier-Bresson one earlier this month at SF MOMA, this one has relatively few pictures on display and leaves you wanting more. That’s how it should be done. Plus you can see a great collection of Rodin sculptures and tour the Stanford campus while you are there.

The distinguishing feature of Levitt’s work is that it is never less than witty. Often it’s laugh-out-loud funny. You could never accuse HCB’s output of that.

You can read Levitt’s biography here. The theft of many of her color originals from her home only further emphasizes the need for every photographer to have multiple back-ups – there is no excuse in a digital age not to, using technology not available to Levitt.

Though there’s a paperback of Levitt’s work available for browsing in the gallery, their bookshop only has a very costly $60 hardback of her work. Duh! I asked the salesperson and she didn’t even know there was a paperback ….

No matter. Do the smart thing and order the same hardback from Amazon for much less. It’s beautifully printed and an essential addition to any street photography fan’s book library. I just ordered one of the last ones, so you may have to wait! But a search of remaindered booksellers will get you there for a like price.

Levitt’s work often features children and many of the images in the show are in color, which only adds to their impact. Color is another thing largely missing from HCB’s work which, if you have seen his color snaps, is just as well.

Here’s a typical Levitt photo, full of wit and whimsy:

The show is not lacking in humor either. There are but two props, visible in the following snaps, which I took once the ever watchful guard’s back was turned. (Excuse me, but why exactly are they ‘guarding’ machine made prints?) If you want to get a camera in there, don’t take a backpack as they make you check those. My shoulder bag, Panny G1 and all, survived the strip search ….

All snaps on the Panasonic G1 with the Olympus 9-18mm MFT superwide zoom at 9mm and at ISO 1600. In truth, that’s really pushing the poor little sensor in the G1 which starts emitting creaking sounds at anything much over ISO 400, but it works at a pinch when the light is really low. Levitt – and HCB – would have loved it!

Not great.

I finally made it to the Cartier-Bresson show at SF MOMA and have to say it was underwhelming.

There are four ‘periods’ in HC-B’s work:

• The surrealist masterpieces 1931 -1951
• The photojournalism – tourist snaps of China and Russia before they opened up
• The portraits of famous people
• America

The first is a beacon for modern photographers and was poorly shown, replete with low contrast small prints poorly lit, many yellowed. The curse of the ‘original print’ which I described here. Sure, his technique wasn’t the greatest, his exposure all over the place, but the work is definitive. It needs better display than MOMA managed. It’s this period that haunts, amazes and inspires.

The second is blah. Notable only for the fact that no Westerner had photographed these exotic places before.

The third has generally left me cold but I’m warming to it after this show. Too bad they didn’t include those two great shots of Giacometti crossing the street in the rain and moving one of his sculptures in the studio.

The fourth? Well, he sees only the crassness and vulgarity in America, something the show’s narrative repeats. He just does not ‘get’ America but, then again, he was French – an honorable excuse!

It’s on for another week, then moves to Atlanta. The MOMA show has too many mediocre works and displays over 200 pieces. 80 would have done it.

As you can see it was zooed, making the small prints even harder to enjoy.

A Brazilian photojournalist

A friend of the blog sent me this link to the work of Brazilian photojournalist Felipe Dana, documenting last week’s landslides in Brazil. The work does what pictures do best – inform, question, shock – while simultaneously displaying great compassion. Click the picture for more.

It just gets better.

I wrote of John Maloof’s serendipitous discovery of Vivian Maier’s wonderful mid-century Chicago street photography here and eagerly await the DVD of the documentary he is working on about this great photographer’s life and work.

Meanwhile, here’s a brief introduction to her work which, I think you will agree, is as fine as anything in the genre (Note: The code is buggy so refresh the page if it does not display the video. It’s a Flash video, so it will not play on an iPad).

Maier’s world reminds me of Angel Rizzuto’s – the unknown talent with a singular dedication to his or her photography, dying unknown only to be discovered posthumously, each leaving a vast treasure trove for later generations to explore.

An unknown street photographer.

Kickstarter is a sort of poor man’s venture capital fund raising effort. I first came across it when an engineer designed an elegant watch band for the sixth generation iPod Nano, soliciting the required $15,000 in funds to get production off the ground using Kickstarter. I happened to have a Nano lying around so sent the young entrepreneur Scott Wilson $50 for his beautifully designed LunaTik watch band. Scott ended up raising an astonishing $941,718 with each investor getting one of his watch bands when they become available.

Now there’s another thrilling Kickstarter project devoted to showcasing the work of a 1960s Chicago street photographer named Vivian Maier. John Maloof came across some 100,000 (!) of her negatives at an auction and realized he had hit on a treasure trove of great work by this reclusive photographer.

Click the above and you will be taken to the Vivian Maier blog, where you too can subscribe. This is a great way of supporting little known photography which is desperately in need of exposure.

Here’s an example of her work: