A man of grace and beauty

Mention Edward Quinn’s name today in photography circles and you will get puzzled looks. Partly that’s because he was a quintessentially European photographer, meaning that maybe the US saw less of his work. Part is that his work is just too refined to appeal to modern tastes.

Grace Kelly by Edward Quinn

Yet Quinn (1920 – 1997) was the first among those who plied their trade on the Côte d’Azur, where his subjects were the rich and famous, much of his work gracing the pages of Paris Match or Life magazines.

I first came across his work in the English Edition of Leica Fotografie issue 4/1966 (I was published there in 1974, by the way, back when I cared about such things). His picture shows a rather formal, slightly over-dressed tweedy individual, holding an M3 with the 35mm Summaron I knew and loved so well. He looks to have come from central casting for a movie on the British Raj. While his subjects are invariably famous they are clearly at ease with this ‘Master of the Leica’ as LF styled him.

Take a look at his web site which, while a bit of a mess organizationally, shows his work well.

His book Riviera Cocktail is available from Amazon. Sadly the text seems to be in German, but the pictures are timeless.

Nothing new under the sun

America 1932 or 2008? These folks lied on their mortgage application, the lenders colluded in the fraud, and now the four remaining taxpayers in the United States are expected to bail these felons out – the crooks in the car, that is. The people in the line are working folk.

Thank you, Margaret Bourke-White. The only difference today is that the undischarged bankrupts will be driving to the soup kitchen this time, not walking. You can sleep in a car but you cannot drive a house.

Bare bones and worth it

The site may be pretty bare bones (quite beautifully designed) but you will not find a better collection of hilarious and surrealistic pictures than the ones on Matt Stuart‘s site.

A great photograph.

The collapse of the latest bubble on Wall Street prompts mention of what may be the finest picture ever taken of that great locale.

Now brace yourself, it’s by Paul Strand, a photographer who is vastly overrated.

This was taken shortly after Alfred Stieglitz had taken Strand aside and talked him out of his genuinely frightful soft focus phase, and I think you will agree that Strand’s newly found religion of objectivism is a standout image in the age of modernity.

Paul Strand, Wall Street, 1915

The best yet on the web

English pro photographer Rod Edwards dropped me a line the other day, attaching a QTVR of a church interior he had photographed. As I am learning is typical of Rod’s work, the finished piece just oozes quality. And this is one of Rod’s first QTVRs! He also happened to make mention of a site which is basically a QTVR magazine named Arounder Magazine.

By a quantum leap this is the best web presentation of a magazine I have yet seen and the QTVRs accompanying most of the 141 (!) pages are a joy to behold. True, Florentine buidings are never hard on the eye, but it takes a very good technique to do them as well as they are executed here.