Photo by Vivian Maier from the Maloof Collection. I can't see to know for sure, but I hope those two little white lines in the foreground are two discarded matchsticks on the sidewalk....
Seriously, I mean "must see." If you do nothing else this week, you should watch the video of Chicago Tonight's telling of the Vivian Maier story. A terrific presentation of one of the absolute best stories in American photography from the decade now ending. Or American and French photography, I should say, since Maier was Franc0-American.
The video was prepared in conjunction with the first American exhibit of Maier's work, which will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center next to Millennium Park in downtown Chicago from January 8th to April 3rd, 2011. Here's the link to the Cultural Center's page about the show.
I have to say I love what I've seen of this woman's photography, and the story of her and her accidental rescuer John Maloof ranks right up there with Berenice Abbott rescuing the work of Eugene Atget. I'm definitely unchaining myself from the leg of the desk and firing up the bus and trundling down to Chicagger for a gander at the show.
Don't miss the video. Heartwarmin' stuff for the holidays.
There's also a nice article by Nora O'Donnell at Chicago Magazine online, from its January 2011 issue.
Mike
(Thanks to Gary Mortensen, Tom Kaszuba, and Peter Turnley)
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Featured Comment by Christian: "Mike, I don't know how you feel about us linking to other people's blogs in your comments, so if this is un-kosher please feel free to not approve the comment.
"Portland photographer Blake Andrews posted about her pictures on his blog, "B," and in the comments there comprise an interesting (especially to a lay person such as myself) conversation. Mr. Maloof even chimes in some, including talking a little about his experiences curating Ms. Maier's work."
Question from paul logins: "I don't get it. Why do you 'hope those two little white lines in the foreground are two discarded matchsticks'?"
Mike replies: Because it would be what's called a "telling detail." It would mean that the two ladies with the nearly identical legs and nearly identical shoes and nearly identical dresses and nearly identical handbags are puffing on cigarettes together. And probably holding them just the same way.
It helps give the picture a narrative (in that it helps answer the picture's basic question, "why are those two women sitting there?") and helps me imagine some of what the picture doesn't show....
When the Fuji X100 site went up the other day (something we announced here), a tab called "The Story" was left blank and listed as "coming." It has now been published. Or at least, the story of the lens has been published—and it's interesting enough (back focus is only 5.3mm—take that, SLRs!). As for the story of the viewfinder, it's available—but only by guessing and plugging in the likely URL. Maybe we're jumping the gun just a bit in saying it's been "published"—it doesn't seem to be linked to the main site yet and probably isn't intended to be "live" yet. You might want to take a look soon, as Fuji might yank it. (Although it will certainly be back eventually.)
Some cynically say that the X100 offers nothing new: very wrong. What's new about this camera is the hybrid viewfinder.
"...For those who have a deep familiarity with cameras, it was wondered whether such users would like to once again experience the pleasure of shooting photos through an extremely clear and sharp viewfinder."
Even through the translated, careful and somewhat opaque language of the marketing website, the excitement and enthusiasm of the design team's "'Eureka' moment" comes through.
The hybrid viewfinder design team:
Takashi Soga, Hitoshi Miyano, and Shigeru Kondo
This sparked an idea. If we were considering a custom LED display, why not a custom LCD panel? This would not only enhance the freedom to display information content, but also open up a broad range of display item variations such the display of histograms and 'floating' text. This concept suggested one after another display patterns and applications.
One look through the prototype confirmed the development team’s confidence in the selection of an LCD panel as they viewed the sharpness of the frame and floating text—a quality that they likened to looking at the control panel of a luxury car.
The result? Hitoshi Miyano: "I am proud to say that we have developed the best viewfinder on any camera that has ever borne the Fujifilm brand." Takashi Soga: "This is the only viewfinder of its kind in the world."
It remains to be seen how good the viewfinder actually is, but it is the only one of its kind in the world, and it is a genuine innovation. Seems significant to me.
One small revelation: the brightness of the viewfinder's LCD projection is tied to the camera's light meter! And the viewfinder has its own shutter. Interesting.
Here's the link, with the caveats mentioned in the first paragraph. I'm about to shut the site down for Christmas, so I won't be around to correct this if the link breaks—just be aware of that.
Mike
(Thanks to Bharat Singh)
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Photo by Brenda Ann Kenneally
Sandra C. Roa's short introduction to Brenda Ann Kenneally—who had to get out of Albany and landed in Troy—at Bag News Notes. "I really don't have any desire to go to another country...there's so much to do here."
Mike
(Thanks to Michael Shaw)
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Featured Comment by Geoff Wittig: "Brenda Ann Kenneally's photographs of the inhabitants of her drug-blighted neighborhood in Brooklyn from a few years ago were unbelievably intense. Like Eugene Richards on a good day, which is saying something. Her photographs of the underclass in Troy, New York, are just as good. I also live in a poverty-stricken upstate NY community, and I find her photos almost unbearably tragic. These are the people I know. Yet when I listen to her describing her own work, I just can't get past her cigarette-scarred voice. I can't help thinking she hasn't escaped this self-destructive cycle at all."
Featured Comment by Eamon Hickey: "I second Geoff's opinion of Ms. Kenneally's work documenting the drug culture in and around New York City—among the best photojournalism I've ever seen. She is not unknown (she's won several important photojournalism awards over the years, and gotten the odd Guggenheim, etc.), but I think she's underknown—doesn't have the wider reputation she deserves given the quality of her work (or at least that used to be true back in 2005 or so when I first came across her; maybe it's changed since then)."
From the current Westlicht auction in Vienna, Austria—
Zorki "Cut-Modell" counterfeit Leica
1920 Sanderson (English cameras like this come up on Ebay occasionally)
Elmo Elmoflex IIIF
Kern Sport-kamera
1952 Ilford Witness (best-ever camera name!)
One of only 100 Canon F-1 High-Speed cameras produced for press use at the 1984 Olympic Games in L.A.
1958 NASA Hasselblad used in the Mercury space program
Dubroni No. 3 outfit
Rare Panon wide angle camera
Kodak Stereo Cameras
Leitz Leica IIIg in box
Soviet-made Minox Riga spy camera (these are tiny, if you've never seen one)
Tomiyama Art-Flex-8x10 TLR (and this is enormous—note size of handle)
Bakelite cameras
Göerlitzer Stella studio portrait camera with rare Nicola Percheid lens
Belgian Louis Van Neck Excellentis detective camera, c. 1900
Olympus Pen FV half-frame black paint
Bermpohl Fotomeister wooden monorail
1996 Leica S1 Pro (first digital camera made by Leica)
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The auction takes place tomorrow, and you can bid online. Note that there is a concurrent auction for photographs, including—to refer back to a post from a few days ago—a couple by Eadweard Muybridge.
Unfortunately I missed some interesting cameras—apparently when lots are pre-sold they're removed from the online listing (that was the case with the first camera here, which I hope I'm remembering the name of correctly). You know what they say: Oh well.
Mike
(Thanks to Michael O'Donoghue)
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Featured Comment by Kubiksovs: "Hey, nice list! (With a nice price tag, no doubt.) About the Minox—it was made by Latvians. Riga is our capital city and the Soviets occupied Latvia in 1944. And before that we were ocupied by Germans. When Soviets invaded, Minox was moved/sold to West Germany and the brand survived. Later the Soviets copied Minox cameras with Kiev brand. Just a little clarification."
ADDENDUM from O.G.: More about the Witness.
Featured Comment by David Bostedo: "Regarding the Leica S1—I never stopped to wonder why their new one is called the S2, but I guess that explains it. Neat."
Featured [partial] Comment by Chuck Albertson: "If I recall correctly, that mojo-motor Canon could zip through a roll of film in under two seconds, which is coincidentally the longest time anyone could hand-hold it...."
Featured Comment by Scott Kirkpatrick: "The Leica S-1 was a scanning back camera that was made for a brief period in the mid '90s. For an unforgettable description of its use in recording irreplaceable works of art, see this New Yorker story, which describes copying both sides of all of the Cloisters' Unicorn tapestries, and the horrendous task of reassembling the resulting mosaics of images with every thread in the right place."
My friend and former boss Ailsa McWhinnie, Founding Editor Emeritus of the English Black & White Photography magazine, recently found herself in that unfortunately familiar condition, the dreaded shooting slump. So she headed to France's Belgian frontier for the "Hell of the North"—the classic Paris-Roubaix bicycling race—with her Mamiya, meaning to face up to her reticence about shooting strangers.
Ailsa in action (frame grab from filmwasters.com)
Filmwasters.com included the story of her day in a recent video podcast (Ailsa's star turn starts at 1:20 and goes until 7:55 or so).
If you've ever been in such a slump yourself, you might sympathize.
Both black-and-white photos above by Ailsa McWhinnie.
...And speaking of friends and former bosses, Ed Buziak, the Founding Editor of the U.K.'s Darkroom User magazine (renamed Camera & Darkroom prior to its unfortunate demise) is selling off some treasures from his print collection. Ed's wife Trish, always a fine free spirit, has long been an invalid, and can now move only her hands, arms, and mouth. Ed has cared for her selflessly for many years—I have honestly never heard even the shadow of a complaint from the man—but they get not a penny of help from anywhere, and Ed needs to raise some funds for Trish's continued care.
Ted Orland, The Zone System Shooting Range, a one-of-a-kind print
offered for sale by Ed
He's currently got 25 or 26 prints listed and there will be 15 or 18 more posted in the next 24 hours, including a lovely Ted Orland portrait of photographer Sally Mann and some pictures by the photo writer Tony McLean, as well as some of Ed's own. All the prints are very reasonably, even cheaply, priced. Bought one myself, this morning (Ted Orland's "Even Ansel Adams has to Earn a Living").
Ed and Trish are an ever-optimistic, high-spirited, loving older couple who live their life together to the fullest. Let's see if we can help sell out this lot, in support of a better holiday for both of them!
Here's that link again. Pass it along.
Mike
P.S. Yours truly wrote many articles for both Ailsa and Ed, once upon a time.
UPDATE from Ed: "Mike—just briefly to say 'a very big thanks' to you and everyone who has visited my site and bought prints (15 so far). Also, remarkably, visitors have also been reading my many pages of photo techniques, darkroom dodges and nature notes...with over 15,000 page impressions recorded in the past 15 hours! That's certainly up from my normal 650 or so impressions in a normal 24-hour period. So thanks to everyone again...and I hoped you also enjoyed what I have written. P.S. My wife Trish was awake most of the night—I kept saying quietly to her, 'Another print has been purchased' and she was so excited she finally said before snoozing, 'Will you put the Christmas tree up in the morning.' All the best to you, Ed.
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The purchase of a 65mm Schneider Super Angulon prompted Steve Smith, who has access to a CNC drill/router used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards, to build a do-it-yourself 6x12 cm panorama camera.
Damián Ortega's "Olympus, 2009," an artwork which consists of every piece of an old Olympus camera suspended in a real-life exploded view, prompts a short meditation by Sebastian Smee on boston.com.
And finally, TOP reader Clay Harmon got a new Nikon D7000—one of the first—but didn't find the bits and pieces in the box that he expected to find. (What's the book he tosses out at the beginning? Wasn't there supposed to be a new edition of that?)
(If you can't see the video here, here's the direct link.)
Mike
(Thanks to Philip Jelatis, Steve, and Clay)
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Featured Comment by Paul W. Luscher: "Re Damien Ortega's piece: Atrocity! Butchery! Murder! Dissecting an Olympus OM like that (and a perfectly good one too, I'll bet). Isn't there a Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Cameras?"
Mike replies: Don't worry—the artist makes a big deal about including every single piece in his creations. To me, that says a good tech could always put the camera back together again. I'm just sayin'.
Photo by Mark Pain, The Mail on Sunday
How can a golf shot be both very bad and very good?
That was the case when Tiger Woods hit an errant chip that smacked Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain right in his Nikkor 24–70mm lens—and Pain managed to get a shot of the ball right before it hit.
Pain's remarkable shot—and Woods' remarkably bad one—came on the 18th hole at the 2010 Ryder Cup in Newport, Wales, U.K. Woods, who is famously irritable about photographers, didn't object to Pain's camera stopping his ball for him.
(Is the guy on the right with the cigar famous for his Groucho Marx impression?)
The shot came in a winning effort by Steve Stricker and Woods. However, the Europeans carried the day overall behind the last-minute heroics of Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, reigning U.S. Open champion.
What we want to know is, why didn't Pain's Nikon D3s focus-track the ball?
Read more at The Mail Online.
Mike
(Thanks to Adam McAnaney)
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Featured Comment by Michael Houghton: "I'm not into golf and I'm no fan of sulky-faced Tiger Woods, but I assure you this was an outstanding golf shot: it hit someone who works for one of the nastiest tabloids in Britain."
Featured Comment by Dan States: "The camera is so darned good it knew that no pro photographer could sell a blurry photo of Tiger and a sharp photo of a golf ball. That is technology for the better good!"
Featured Comment by Daniel Fealko: "The expressions of the onlookers are, to me, the best part of this photo. Study the photo and you see a range of reactions as people realize where that ball is headed."
Featured Comment by Jason: "Reading around the web, I think 'EuroCheech' is getting more attention than the ball."
Featured Comment by Ken Bennett: "Why didn't Pain's Nikon D3s focus-track the ball? Probably because he uses the thumb button to focus, and once focus is achieved on a static subject, he lets go of the button.
"This is a common tactic among sports photogs and photojournalists—separating the focus from the shutter button means I can leave my camera in continuous AF all the time, and adjust focus as needed with my thumb. If the subject starts moving, just hold down the thumb button and keep shooting. If the subject stops moving, let go of the thumb button. Repeat as needed. In this case Tiger isn't moving, so one quick thumb press to focus, then recompose and shoot as needed without having to refocus every time.
"This feature was present on the early Canon professional AF cameras like the original EOS 1 (film version). It helped a lot with the transition from manual to auto focus.
"(On my current Canon cameras, there are two possible thumb buttons. I have one set for center-spot focus, and one for all-45-area focus. It's surprisingly quick and simple to manage.)"
Featured Comment by richardplondon: "Ouch! I hope that didn't leave a painful mark (sorry)."
Featured Comment by Martin: "Compare my much less dangerous shot achieved with sellotape and a bit of string:
Jim Marshall (print by Ctein), Mick Jagger—Palace Laundry
I would never in a million years have seen this Guernsey's auction, but for the fact that my friend Ctein is selling off a portion of his collection of signed Jim Marshall photographs. But there's a lot of really cool stuff in this auction. Including, but not limited to, the pictures. I'm really curious as to who the John Lennon photographer is (lot 61) [It's David Spindel—thanks to Jeff and John Krill for pointing that out —Ed.], and I want the Maltese Falcon (lot 44).
Sam Spade: [impatiently] Now, let's talk about the black bird.
Kasper Gutman: Let's. Mr. Spade, have you any conception of how much money can be got for that black bird?
Sam Spade: No.
Kasper Gutman: Well, sir, if I told you...If I told you half...you'd call me a liar.
Some fun stuff there. Ctein's Marshalls, too.
Mike
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Featured Comment by Archer Sully: "With the mention of the Maltese Falcon, I couldn't help but think of this bit from Adam Savage of Mythbusters. He starts talking about his quest for the perfect Falcon at ~6:45."
Mike replies: That's the craziest thing I've ever heard! Great. Thanks.
Take a leisurely stroll through a long-gone America, courtesy of the Denver Post's Plog site. A nice presentation of some of the material from the massive L.o.C. website, and a nice portfolio to look through on a lazy Sunday afternoon. As a bonus, there's some nice stuff in here for rail fans.
The book
Mike
(Thanks to several tipsters)
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Tyler Monson, Not Pleased
Tyler Monson has just set up an anti-blog called 113reykjavik covering a recent 113-hour trip to Iceland.
As Tyler says, "The blog will be completed when you first see it; there will not be ongoing posts, so it is more like a book than a journal...also, like a book, it begins at the top/front and ends at the bottom/back—as Mother Nature intended."
Most of the pictures are of the urban-detail-and-doorway genre, but many repay a closer look. If your visual idea of Iceland consists mainly of scenic glaciers and black basalt* you might find his approach refreshing.
Tyler Monson, Economic Blessing
Mike
*Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Amazon's Digital Photography Review, a.k.a. dpreview, has recently given itself a fairly thorough makeover.
A redesign is a big moment in the life of any publication, whether in print or on the web. It's a chance to modernize, to respond to perceived shortfalls in the previous look 'n' feel, to rethink priorities, to reorganize, to refresh. It's usually fraught with considerable peril, because many subscribers or readers will have gotten used to the old ways and be temporarily discomfited by the new—and this is especially true of websites, since they're interactive. The peril is real, because one might not recognize missteps until they've been made. It's an opportunity for evolution, but it's also an opportunity for a publication to hurt itself.
Personally, not that anyone asked or cares, it seems to me they've done a good job. The redesign seems mainly to accommodate ads, but that's important. And otherwise it manages to refresh and rationalize while being respectful of its established identity. Which is what one wants.
Some people may feel that the ads make it a bit busy, but dpreview is one of the content sites in our segment that is moving beyond sole proprietorship—it has staff, which means salaries, which means a nut to crack. As traditional "mass" media declines and the web rises to fill the void, websites are going to have to learn how to grow—so they can do things like commission photography, hire editors and copy editors and fact checkers, and pay writers and reporters for content. So far the web has had a siphoning effect on traditional media but at the same time has struggled to rise to the standards of traditional media's strengths. I won't criticize any site for making sensible adjustments to grow toward filling a bigger role and taking on more social responsibility (even if the "society" in this case is a niche). It's what the web is going to have to do.
Mike
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"Bob was my dog, an English Bull Terrier. He was very handsome, stubborn, and dumb as sh*t. But there wasn't a mean bone in his entire body, which was basically a large muscle attached to a large head. And there'd be times he'd take take your breath away just by watching him move, run, and I swear he could even pirouette—when he wasn't knocking stuff (including myself) over. I sure miss the guy; I always will...."
From Stan Banos's blog Reciprocity Failure, reproduced with permission, on account of I like dogs. And by the way, Bob was terrified of cats....
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Also on the blogs this morning: On One Hell of an Eye, Mike Salisbury tells the strange story of the Dale picture, which I actually remember from the car rags back in the day.
Mike
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A Buck or Two
