A photographer’s photographer

Sam Abell’s book, ‘Sam Abell: The Photographic Life‘, is out of print but after reading the copy in my local library I tracked it down and bought a used one. It is that special.

I mentioned his work earlier when I reviewed his book Seeing Gardens. The Photographic Life, by contrast, is just that. An autobiography by a man who seemingly has done nothing but try and satisfy his fascination with the medium throughout his life, starting at a very early age.

This book is special. He relates how his father educated him in photography and how he risked his life time and again for a picture, not because he wanted to but because the drug of photography had him in its thrall. Later, as his father developed Alzheimer’s and could no longer recognize his son – what a cruel affliction this is – he still photographed him. It’s at once shocking and deeply moving.

In 1971, aged 20 and poor as a church mouse, I was desperately saving every last penny for my first Leica – an M3 that was to be my constant companion for 35 years when I finally bought it in 1973. Yet, when I saw this issue of Camera at the newsstand, savings were forgotten and my pennies deposited on the counter at W. H. Smith in Kensington because I simply had to have the picture on the cover. Yes, that cover, which haunts me to this day, was by Sam Abell and remains in my library. It also appears in this wonderful book.

Colinet, Newfoundland, April 1971

It’s one of his first color photographs and its appearance in this book brought back a flood of pleasant memories.

Did his work influence me?

Thomas Pindelski, Arizona, 1988. Leicaflex SL, 50mm Summicron-R

Thomas Pindelski, Burlingame, CA. July 6, 2009. Panasonic LX-100.

A very personal book by a very special photographer.

My used copy, through Amazon, was $84. Not a lot when it’s so important.

A master of color

This picture by Ernst Haas (1921-1986) is the earliest ‘art’ photograph in color which I recall, having probably seen it in my early teens.

Talk of starting at the top!

While abstraction pervades his work, Haas never abstracts just for the sake of doing so; rather, the context is always clear, the vision insightful and the feel warm and sympathetic.

Check out more of his work in the book Ernst Haas – Color Photography – hard to get, expensive and worth it.

As good as they get

Edwin Smith (1912-71) was a photographer of the British heritage. That sounds pretty dry, but once you have seen the work of this architect-painter-photographer, you realize that he really is as good as they get.

His wonderful vision, perfect technique and aesthetic sensibilities are perfectly displayed in this book, published by Merrell and the Royal Institute of British Architects, with monochrome reproductions of the very highest quality.

If high aesthetic sense is your thing, executed at an incomparable level of excellence, this book is for you.

Superb and original work.

I make no secret of the fact that I dislike authority in nearly all its guises, for so much of it is mindless. So when it says “Don’t Walk on the Grass” I generally make a point of doing just that.

Jonathan Haeber is a kindred spirit, but one much more daring. I last referred to his work when he showed pictures of the awful Jackling Mansion – Steve Jobs’s property in Woodside, CA, which he is having such difficulty tearing down owing to misplaced envirolooney thinking, and possibly by local councillors looking for a kickback. C’mon, let’s get real here.

This time, with his pictures clandestinely snapped from within the abandoned PacBell building in San Francisco, Haeber has outdone himself. With friends he gained access to the innards of this neo-Gothic masterpiece through a manhole cover in the dead of night, and the results speak for themselves.

Click the picture for more:

The PacBell building at night

Our world needs more Haebers to restore the ‘can do’ American spirit and to deny creeping authoritarianism. Well done, sir.