The Online Photographer

It's 9/11...

...And Bag News Notes has an interesting photographic discussion of our memories (well, Jim Nachtwey's, anyway) getting darker over time, and whether that's ethical.

Of all the sets on their site, I like the "straighter" 2001 versions better in almost every case. See what you think.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Hugh Crawford: "The weather on 9/11/2001 was what they call severe clear, i.e., super clear sky and as eye-searingly bright of sun as you can get in September. Any photos that show it as dark are just plain wrong. I live close enough that I could hear the second plane hit, and bits of paper and dust were falling for three days after. Friends who walked home from ground zero were covered in pure white. For a long time really clear fall days made me anxious.

"Oddly enough the two tornadoes we had on Saturday made way for a crystal clear skies today."

Photo Industry World Righting Itself Again

As most of you know, the biggest event in the photo industry calendar is Photokina, which takes place in Cologne (Köln) Germany every two years. Photokina is the world's biggest photographic trade show. This being an even-numbered year, it's a Photokina year, and we're in the runup to this year's event right now—it takes place from September 18th through the 23rd.

It's open to the public. I would go, but I'm quite sure I would get lost, and not make it out of Germany again for many months. And even then I would probably find myself in some remote corner of Luxembourg. (At least with my leg chained to the leg of the desk, I know where I am.)

Photographic industry companies used to reserve their biggest and splashiest introductions for Photokina. It got all the coverage, and woe to the poor passed-over company that had nothing new to show.

Then, for a few years in there, companies were no longer tying their introductions to Photokina or any other scheduled trade show. The reason was that the pace of digital development was just too fast and furious: the "window" of currency (and profitability) for any particular new product was bitterly, crazily short, so the product had to be rushed on the market just as soon as it was ready. (And sometimes just a little before.) Some products missed that narrow window altogether—by the time their product was out of development and ready to be marketed, the rest of the industry had passed it by (whether technologically or in terms of selling price) and it was too late.

Well, things are calming down. Despite the intense flurry of new products cascading on to the market these days, the pace of digital progress has slowed sufficiently that many companies actually can time new introductions to coincide with the major trade shows once again, just like they used to. Consequently, we're beginning to see more important new introductions reserved for or timed around Photokina.

I say "around" because few introductions will be saved for the actual show...most, like the bevy of new Pentax products (and presumably all those rumored new Sonys), will make their appearances in the days just prior.

If you go to the show, of course, then it's the big event—but viewed from afar, just looking at what's new, the show days can seem a bit anticlimactic...all the new stuff has already been announced, and the days of the actual show bring relatively little news.

Usually.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

OT: Congratulations, Andy Murray!

I know we have a lot of readers in Great Britain, so let me just say...

...First Fred Perry beats Don Budge, and now this!

Heh.

But seriously: congratulations. Tremendous. What a fabulous match—easily one of the very best I've seen. I'm exhausted, and all I did was sit on the edge of my chair for five hours. That match had everything. Really terrific tennis.

Cheers! Now you lot* better turn in; tomorrow's a workday.

Mike

*Am I allowed to say "you lot"? I sometimes wish I were British.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by robert p: "You think you're exhausted—it didn't end till 02:15 over here!"

Great Big Leak

The intrawebs were abuzz yesterday with leaked news'n'pictures of new Sonys—the NEX-6, the A99, and, especially, the camera pictured above, called the RX1, which is apparently either a) a mirrorless full-frame compact with a fixed Zeiss 35mm ƒ/2 lens or b) something someone Photoshopped together to tease me.

We'll apparently see on Wednesday, when the official announcements are supposedly due. Until then, I think I'll refrain from repeating any of the rumors that are flying about. If you want to see the leaked pics, see the Sony Alpha Rumors site.

Side note: rumors make intrawebs very happy.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Jeffrey Goggin: "An aperture ring on the lens? An exposure compsensation dial on the top plate? As much as I love my X-Pro1, I'm 80% sold on one of these already!"

Featured Comment by "Curmudgeon-in-Chief, Bruce Robbins": "Bah, who cares? Yet another digital offering. As if we weren't awash with them already. This is about as exciting as a new firmware upgrade."

Question from Robert Roaldi: "What does the red 'T*' on the lens mean?"

Mike replies: Pronounced "tee-star," it's Zeiss's longtime name for its proprietary multicoating.

Featured Comment by Karl: "Call me and old school dinosaur—I don't like looking at the back of a camera like a mini groundglass with the occasional glare issues. I like looking through the camera, through the lens or through a decent window in real time. Harrumph...."

Mike replies: Apparently there will be a choice of add-on optical viewfinder or add-on electronic viewfinder. Or buy 'em both and switch back and forth if you want. Whoops, I said I wasn't going to discuss the rumors....

Featured Comment by Steve Jacob: "Interesting, but is anyone actually going to buy a fixed lens camera for $2700? Love my X100, but not as an only camera."

Open Mike: The Red-Tailed Hawk

(Note that there's no picture with this post.)

I've taken to walking to try to improve my deteriorating heart-health (having your ankle chained to the leg of the desk all day isn't all that good for you, turns out). I walk a circuit around the river (bridge to bridge) because it's flat. Our thoughtful town fathers installed not one but two paths—one for walking, the other for anything on non-motorized wheels. Trés civilized.

Yesterday was a perfect day for walking: clear, 64°F (~18°C), windy. And partly cloudy—but they were those gorgeous, fleecy, lit-from-above clouds that seem made for the camera. (I think those of you on the East Coast are due to get the same weather today.)

Regarding that "made for the camera" comment, I know it's said you should always carry a camera, that the best camera is the one you have with you, etc.—you know the adages. I didn't take a camera with me yesterday, however, on purpose—because I need to keep moving, rather than continually stopping to work a picture.

And a good thing. On a fine Saturday, the people are out. I would have gotten distracted by warm'n'fuzzy little human-interest ops. A small boy tethering a huge bundle of helium balloons, fer instance (okay, a little sappy); a couple sitting on the riverbank picturesquely holding hands; a very pretty blonde mother with a mop-headed blond child on a recumbent bike with—never seen this before—a recumbent-bike sidecar; a very tiny baby (maybe a year old—with his/her parent, of course) feeding a flotilla, an absolute Armada, of mallards—I mean like two hundred of them. Not greatly promising ops, maybe, but good guilty pleasure stuff if you've got a camera in your hands.

I might have been able to ignore all those if I'd been feeling disciplined. But then there was this: right next to the town's life-sized, lifelike statue of three bears...a guy in a bear suit. I know. (And, don't ask me.) How could I have resisted that? I would have stopped for that, for sure, no question.

I even encountered some bonafide wildlife. I got right up on a red-tailed hawk. It was at eye level and not more than eight feet away (I would have said six, and I really think it was six, but if I say six you'll think I'm exaggerating) when it took off right across my path. And get this, I didn't even notice it until it took off. It was right in front of me, on the lowest branch of a small sapling, but there I was, just trundling blindly along, dum-de-dum-dum.

This may be nothing more than a gentle conceit, dear Reader, but here's what I believe. If I'd been photographing rather than just walking, I wouldn't have missed that hawk. I would have noticed. Having a camera in your hands just puts you into a heightened state of seeing, one tier higher on the visual alertness scale. Just holding a camera I miss less. It's not entirely something I can turn on and off at will. The camera is the switch.

Going by the weather, at least, yesterday was the first day of the fall, and fall is by far the best season in Wisconsin. Not a day too soon.

Mike

"Open Mike," the moniker for the Editorials on TOP (often but not always or completely off-topic), shows up on Sundays.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Jim Simmons: "I hear ya, Mike. When I was in my 20s and lived with a camera strap practically sewn into my right shoulder, I saw everything around me. Heightened visual presence at all times. Having spent a few years in art school helped hone that discipline of course.

"But then I took on dependents and responsibilities and other forms of adultism. The camera would get left behind. And slowly my mind began to be overwhelmed with the mental noise that Eckard Tolle has taught me I am sometimes consumed by. I can now walk for miles and not see a damned thing. My head is so busy 'thinking' and my eyes are so dulled, it's a wonder I don't get run over most days. Common phrase in my family—'Earth to Jim.' I am realising more and more that I need to carry a camera and work it as a form of therapy. Photographing and 'trying' to play the guitar are the two best forms of forcing thought to leave my head. I need it terribly!"

Featured Comment by Lois Elling: "I feel naked if I take a walk without a camera, but I'm also well aware of the fact that I do less walking with it than without it. So, I understand your choice to walk without one.

"Last June I was walking at a local reservoir and was walking on a cloud because I'd just spent several minutes photographing a beautiful great blue heron. He seemed to be quite patient with me and let me shoot away. After he left, I moved on down the path, rounded a bend, and was surprised by a hawk flying out of a low-hanging branch right in front of me. And I did have my camera with me. Of course, I kicked myself for not paying more attention. On the way back, I found the hawk (a juvenile) again and got some pictures, although he wasn't nearly as accessible as the heron. Some images just have to be burned into your brain, rather than on film or sensor, I guess."

Fuji Announces 'Sweet Spot' X-E1

Fuji has been on a real roll lately, so anything it does
is bound to be interesting.

So, Goldie, the X10 is just a bit too...point'n'shooty? The X100 is a bit too much of a "Repleica," too fixed-prime-lens-y? The X-Pro1 (even with B&H's current $300 off deal) too fat-wallety?

Well, Fuji's been calibrating the sweet spot for ya, Blondilocks. Vectoring in from above and below on the ideal compromise. Honing their can't-seem-to-miss chops. Slightly smaller than the X-Pro1, even handsomer, usefully cheaper, with the same sensor and the same controls, more or less, yet with a pure EVF à la the NEX-7, the new X-E1 is poised to be just right as a backup for X-Pro1 users or, well, the "just right" option for anyone left on this blue orb whose GAS button Fuji hasn't tweaked yet. And the Fuji guys promise that the image quality is the same as an X-Pro1.

Available in black or silver, body only or with its XF 18–55mm ƒ/2.8–4 Optical Image Stabilizer kit lens. $999.99999 (maybe slightly less) and $1,399.95 respectively. Yum, yum, yum. Tip to the wise bear: preorder NOW to get one from the first shipment, as these will likely be scarce in the woods for some while.

Will the X-E1 prove to be the perfect Fuji, the exquisite point of perfect balance? So little time...so many cameras.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Mark Cotter: "So, after months of dithering about whether to get the X100 (like the idea of the prime lens) or the X10 (like the idea of having a bit of a zoom), rejecting the X-Pro1 as too expensive even though it's the most lovely, and finally deciding to go with the X10, Fuji announce the camera that does hit all the right notes for me! Yay! Just need to hang on a bit for some reviews and to see some images from it and then decide on lens(es)...."

Mike replies: But by that time there will be another new camera out. Only you can make it end....

Response from David Dyer-Bennet: "I've been telling people since the 1980s that the best time to buy a new computer is six months from now. It appears to be true of cameras these days too!"

Another Monochrome Digital

Jarred Land announced the Epic-M Monochrome over at Reduser.net yesterday. I quote:

• Newly Developed Mysterium-X Monochrome Sensor.
• Native ASA 2000.
• Increased net resolution (removal of the debayer process, so every single individual pixel is used for luminance/image data )
• New Low Pass Filter...to accomodate the reduced pixel pitch (1x1 vs. 2x2 Bayer)
• $42,000 (brain only) includes upgrade to Dragon Monochrome Sensor, spring 2013.
• David Fincher [link ours —Ed.] is shooting his current project solely on Epic-M Monochrome cameras as we speak.
• Pre-orders open on red.com Monday...ships October 1st.

End quote. I'll take two.

I love the commenter who says, "Hmmm...trying to grasp the significance of this. Does this somehow mean that all color will be added in post? Even as I say that it sounds weird but otherwise...what? Just B&W images?" Sometimes I really feel like I am living in some sort of weird parallel Universe. (This has been an especially weird week.)

There are no sample images later in the post, as of now. Just in case you're tempted to go looking for them.

Re the price, memories are growing dim already, but this was the way it was in the early days of digital in the 1990s. Six-megapixel digital SLRs the size of fat books (most of which said "Kodak" on them...again, what happened there?) cost $25,000. It looked in those days like only newsrooms and top pros were ever going to be able to afford them. The story of the next decade was in part the story of trickle-down, as digital technology entered the realm of the affordable (for various definitions of "affordable") from the top.

I hope I live long enough to see the same migration in monochrome digital that we saw between a mid-1990s Kodak/Nikon or Kodak/Canon digital SLR versus, say, the Sony RX100 I shot with last Thursday. Somehow I'm pessimistic, but hey, "could happen."

Mike
(Thanks to Nico Burns)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Stan B.: "Mine's a cheaper, smaller, albeit less advanced but better looking version...."

Featured Comment by Daniel Evan Rodriguez: "Of all the current players, my guess is that Fuji will be the first with an 'attainable' monochrome camera. The X line may be the perfect platform for this, and considering the defining characteristics of the X-Series (viewfinder, manual controls, idiosyncratic sensor), a B&W-only option doesn't really seem like that much of a stretch."

Featured Comment by Kevin Purcell: "Note it has a optical low pass filter (unlike the Leica Monochrom). I've heard others say 'oh, it's monochrome so it's doesn't need a OLPF because there's no color moiré.' This has become another internet trope that photographers 'know' that isn't actually true. There isn't color moiré, of course, but that's not the only aliasing artifact that an OLPF supresses. There is luminance moiré, stairstepping, and much more. Sampling theory requires the any digitized signal to be 'band limited' for faithful reproduction (avoiding aliasing artifacts). Depending what you photograph you will see more or less of it (sometimes you'll see it when you least suspect it).

"One other point about monchrome cameras is they still need a filter on chip in the same place as the Bayer filters to flatten out spectral response . A raw silicon sensor doesn't have the color response that silver halide has. Leica have done that really well on the Leica Monochrom.

"Making a monochrome sensor is really down to asking the fab to make a custom sensor that changes the RGGB dyes for a single color dye. It's an almost trivial change (once you have the dye or dye mix you want) so there are no technical issues.

"The major issue is can you make a profit from a niche market for a monochrome camera? Of all the current camera makers I see Fuji being the most likely to do this."

Random Excellence: Giles Duley's Greek Statue Self-Portrait

Giles Duley by Giles Duley

When I was still in intensive care, I had an idea in my head of a photo I wanted to take—a self-portrait—I could see it so clearly. It was in my head for months. I called the idea my 'broken statue image.'

I wanted to take a portrait that didn't hide the reality of my injuries, but also didn't show me as a victim. When thinking about it I realized I wanted to photograph myself the way I had photographed others.

This was to be the first photo I would take following my injuries. Nearly nine months to the day after it happened.

—From the photographer's website

-

A lot of people wanted to take my photograph, but I was aware it was their interpretation of me. I wanted to show people exactly how it is.

People who look at Greek statues never say it's a shame because they're not complete.

I wanted to go back to my days as a fashion photographer and shoot myself in the same way I'd shoot someone for Vogue. I was exactly the person inside, but people talked to me differently because I was in a wheelchair.

I wanted to be blunt about it. That picture represents the strength I felt inside.

—From the inspiring story at BBC News Magazine

-

Mike
(Thanks to Christian Kurmann)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Richard: "Thanks for sharing this inspiring story. I also found a wonderful TedX talk where Giles shares some of his experiences...

"...And an interview with Giles at NBC. Humbling and inspirational."

Featured Comment by David Aiken: "When my wife got her brain tumour and could no longer drive she got very frustrated with me, and others, trying to do things for her, both the things she could still do and also the things that she couldn't do when that meant that we would stop doing the things we would otherwise be doing in order to do something for her. I couldn't understand why she felt that way and then, three years after she died, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery and came out of hospital with my son and friends wanting to do everything they could for me while I recuperated. I found myself understanding my wife's response to our efforts to assist her. It wasn't that she was ungrateful or didn't appreciate the love that was behind our efforts to assist, but she saw very clearly that what she needed to do was to keep being the person she was and not the one we were seeing. She wanted to get on with her life and she spent the rest of the next nine months living a very full life, not fighting 'a battle with cancer' which was a term she hated. Her example was invaluable to me when I received my own diagnosis.

"It's a wonderful photo and it says very clearly to me that 'This is not what you think it is or what you fear. Nothing important to living and being a person has been lost.' That's a wonderful thing to be telling people."

CW in Florida

From October 14 to 21, Carl Weese will be artist in residence at The Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin, Florida. There will be talks, demonstrations, and two digital photography workshops. More details are available here. Anyone near the Tampa Bay area might find some of the activities interesting.

Carl writes: "During the weeks before and after the residence I'll be finding and photographing drive-in theaters on the final leg of The Giant Road Trip. I have a good handle on the surviving theaters in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida and will be working out a route for them. If anyone knows of closed but still standing theaters anywhere in this area, please let me know. They are harder to work with because, while there are lists of closed theaters readily available, only a tiny fraction of them are still standing. Finding those needs sheer luck, or tips from local informants."

(Carl writes for TOP.)

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Vile Rumors

Rumors* to the contrary notwithstanding, it's not TOP's fault that there's a sudden global shortage of the new edition of Walker Evans' American Photographs. Not counting Amazon Germany, Amazon Canada, or The Book Depository, TOP readers have ordered fewer than 900 copies of the book through our links. That's enough to cause a temporary draining of the supply pipes (Amazon.com shipped 166 copies before running out of immediate stock), but I don't think it's enough to cause a real shortage. I have no idea how many copies MoMA printed, but given that they have several thriving museum bookstores I'd peg the number at, what, maybe 15 to 30 thousand? That could still be way off; who knows, maybe they printed 50k or 100k so they'd have NOS (new old stock) for years to come. (An ordinary photo book is doing well to sell 5,000 copies, and 15,000 is a bestseller. But that's through ordinary distribution and marketing, not counting in-house museum stores.)

At any rate, it's sold out at The Book Depository, but both Amazon.com and Amazon U.K. are still accepting orders for delivery in up to three weeks. Your chance has not passed.

American Photographs by Walker Evans at Amazon.com (U.S.)
...at Amazon U.K.

Mike

*P.S. There's nothing remotely "vile" about them. "Vile Rumors" was the title of Jean Lindamood Jennings' column for Automobile magazine and the trope just jumped to mind. (The rumors she discussed weren't vile, either.)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Jeffrey Goggin: "I've actually spent some time researching this matter and in my opinion, an 'ordinary photo book' that sells 5,000 copies has done far better than just well, as the typical press run for photo books these days is more like 1,500 copies, with many runs being closer to 1,000 copies than 2,000 copies.

"In fact, if one wants a first-edition copy of a photo book, the general rule one should follow is to buy a copy from the very first bookseller who can deliver it, because for many in-demand books, there may not be a second chance. I've learned this lesson myself, especially when ordering (and pre-ordering!) books at a discount through Amazon, because they sometimes won't receive enough copies to fill their pending orders and by the time they let me know, it's too late to buy a copy elsewhere without paying a premium for it.

"P.S. It appears I was one of the lucky 166, although I also paid the $23.10 price...you win some, you lose some, eh?"

Mike replies: Well, that's true, in general. I meant a successful book, in the sense that a successful novel will sell 100k copies—that's far below bestseller level, but far above average. I guess I shouldn't have said "ordinary." But for a major issue of an important title by a name photographer, I think 3,000–5,000 would be more the norm. The wild card for me is that I have no idea how much better a title will sell through being featured in museum stores. I assume MoMA books sell well at MoMA stores, but I have no way to know. At the very least, they have a good reason to print more copies, because presumably they'd like to have the book available in their stores for a good stretch of time.

I've written before about the vagaries of timing. A book collector friend of mine contacted me some time after the Vivian Meier book came out, needing to find a first edition; he was already having trouble locating one. And he's been a book dealer, and really knows the trade. I sent him mine. Other times (as I'm sure you know, Jeff) one can move heaven and earth to acquire a copy of a certain title and then, out of the blue, it'll be reprinted and all over the place.

Not long after his book Lonesome Dove came out, I ran into Larry McMurtry in the local deli (this in Washington, D.C.), and after chatting for a while I asked him if he would inscribe a copy for me. I hadn't bought it yet at the time, and when I went—unconcerned—to find one, all the firsts had vanished and gone. Whoops. And it had only been out a month or two, is my recollection.

The strategic buying of books makes picking stocks look easy (although that's glib of me to say, since I don't pick stocks).

Featured Comment by Paul Richardson: "Stange coincidence department: I ordered this the other day, and it arrived yesterday. So did a visitor from Vancouver, Canada, who brought me a gift, in the form of—American Photographs. He handed it to me not fifteen minutes after I'd opened the box from Amazon, just as I was about to show the book to him."

Mike's Day Out

Taken with the Sony RX100.

I went down to Chicago yesterday to imbibe some art. Ctein was in town for a convention and tacked a few extra days on to the end of his trip, and Ken Tanaka gave Ctein and his friend Bayla Fine a tour of the Art Institute of Chicago. I tagged along.

First of all let me just say that every time Ken takes me around that Museum I see something new. This time it was the Japanese galleries, which are stunning.

At the start of the day Ken handed me his Sony RX100 and told me he'd give me the card at the end of the afternoon. So I have for you a definitive, one-word, three-letter verdict on this camera: F-U-N. On his, Ken had a wonderful little aftermarket grip made by Richard Franiec, which I must say is much more beautifully made than many aftermarket bits tend to be—hard to believe it wasn't engineered with the camera from the start. Makes the tiny camera very nice to hold.

I spent quite a bit of time staring at a lovely old 19th-century picture in the permanent galleries, only to learn later that it's one of the Photography Department's latest prized acquisitions, and that what they had to pay for it would buy you a very nice house in most parts of the country. Worth it, I say, as long as it's not my money. A bewitchingly beautiful print. (I didn't take a snap of it—sorry. Maybe Ken can provide a link*.)

This is something I don't think I've ever seen before. It's a paper negative, by one Gustave de Beaucorps, c. 1859—but the display is beautifully back-illuminated using cool, non-destructive LED light. Really lets you see the subtle quality of the negative. Ken told me the display was a huge headache for the conservators to create, which I can believe. But their efforts were certainly successful. (That's Ken in the reflection.)

Sensors are getting better all the time, I know, but from what little I can tell after a few hours of happy snapping with it, it seems like the sensor in the RX100 is a particularly talented one. The results (see top pic) are sort of lush, luscious, and rich. Digital is starting to look less digital, it seems, which is a good thing.

Mike

*Ken adds: Hey, I enjoyed the day too, Mike! How can we not enjoy a day at a place like the AIC?!

Re: the 19th century piece you enjoyed so much (and you're not alone!), it's an albumen titled "The Day's Orders" by Camille Léon Louis Silvy. Even though it's a very staged image it is considered the first true work of photojournalism. It's a richly storied image of a type and condition that almost never become available for purchase. Matthew Witkovsky, the photography department's curator and chair, managed to track this down and strike a good deal to get it accessioned in 2011.

The Gustave de Beaucorps image is also a real wonder and something you'll not see every day (or probably in a typical life). It's a wax paper negative. Unfortunately it's not yet viewable online but SFMoMA has one online of a very similar size to ours. You can also see (and buy) a print from one of de Beaucorps's wax paper negatives at iPhoto Central.

For those planning a visit to Art Institute of Chicago both of these gems from the permanent collection are currently on display in Gallery 10 just outside the main photography galleries.

A further addendum: Ctein, for his part, managed to put himself into one of the world-famous Thorne miniatures:

Did you spot the Lilliputian photographer?

Taken with an OM-D, 14–42mm, ISO 3200.

(For those who've never heard of the Thorne miniatures, they are a whole series of exquisitely rendered three-dimensional miniature "dollhouse" rooms behind glass, showing period-accurate interior spaces in 1/12 scale—mostly (but not entirely) European, mostly (but not entirely) upper-class. The room Ctein photographed is not more that a couple of feet wide, high, and deep.

Narcissa Niblack Thorne was a socialite who essentially ran her own atelier in the 1930s to create the 68 model rooms, employing workers ranging from a real architect to design the spaces to a specialist trained to needlepoint tiny rugs and fabrics. The level of detail—and of attention to detail, not quite the same thing—is astonishing, and has been delighting museumgoers in Chicago for decades.)

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Will: "I feel that this isn't the first time you've written of a trip to The Art Institute of Chicago, and every time you do mention going, I'm flooded with longing to return. As a former Chicagoan now living in New York, I should want for very little in the way of museums. Still, there's something magical about that place and its collections, and I'd trade it for any two NYC museums in a heartbeat."

Featured Comment by John King: "Wonderful to spend a day at such a fine museum and with a knowledgeable friend as guide. You probably know that DxOMark just published its Sony RX100 sensor test, giving it an overall rating of 66. This rating puts the little Sony sensor in the company of many DSLR scores. Of course there's more to a camera than a sensor rating but it's nice to finally have a second camera that can perform this well."

Best Internet Post Ever

Your own favorite printer excepted—I'm sure yours works fine—the following post will nevertheless resonate with certain individuals who have experienced, uh, difficulties with printers. For those individuals, I think it's possible that Oatmeal's "Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell to Make Us Miserable" might actually be the best thing ever put up on the Internet....

Mike

P.S. Due to recent health problems I haven't cracked the box on the Canon Pro-1 yet. I'm still aiming to get there soon. I'm sure this post doesn't apply in any way, shape or form to that one...(please god...).

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Paul Crouse, Kyoto, Japan (this was the first comment that came in for this post —Ed.): "Ha ha ha! I was just having printer problems as we speak. I came to your site to help me calm down so I didn't throw it out the window."

Featured Comment by Hugh: "This sums it all up—cat vs. printer." [Work/school warning—there's some profanity in this —Ed.]

iPad Followup

By Ctein

Since my review of the new iPad, I've revised some opinions and found a very useful free app to recommend.

Let's be clear; in no way am I going to tell you why you should have an iPad. If you think you need one, fine. If you can't see any use for the device, fine. I'm not out to persuade you differently. You can read my previous articles to find out why I value the iPad, but as for whether or not you should get one you're on your own. Now, on to the updates.

After thoroughly trashing the usability of the camera in the new iPad, I found myself using it on rare occasion. Consequently, I will raise its ergonomics rating from –273 to a more modest –100.

One of the least exotic of the dishes at Travail (halibut, sunchoke, roasted tomato and pearl onion). No tweaks, no adjustments, just cropped. Even with a splash of direct sunlight, awfully good exposure and color.

In April, my friend Beth Friedman and I were having our second dinner at the fabulous and surprisingly inexpensive molecular gastronomy restaurant, Travail, near Minneapolis. (If you don't know what molecular gastronomy is, Google it. I will not even try to explain.) We take notes when we order the tasters' dinner, because there's no way we will remember the wonderful and imaginative dishes we've been eating. I typed into Notability on the iPad and, in a flash of inspiration, decided to see if I could use the built-in camera to photograph some of the tapas-sized courses. It worked astoundingly well, even with highly uneven and very mixed lighting and white china. Two of the photographs are reproduced here, with nothing done to them save some cropping.

Absent direct sunlight, the results were even better. Despite the mixed light sources, the color balance and exposure were excellent. Again, no tweaks.

The built-in dictation feature has worked even better than I expected. I wrote and edited my entire column about printing for Ronny sitting in the car one evening while on a trip, using the iPad's dictation. If this ever becomes user customizable, it will be my favoritest program, ever.

On the minus side, the runtime/recharge time issues have been more of an aggravation than I thought they'd be. In the bright light circumstances where I'm likely to use my iPad, I rarely get to turn down the brightness much. Since that's the main determiner of run time, I rarely get anywhere near 10 hours usage; it's more like seven or eight, at best. When I'm using Google maps in an automobile, 20% of the battery life can get sucked away in an hour. I bought one of those little $10 cigarette lighter USB chargers so I could keep the iPad plugged in while driving.

Because the new battery pack has such long charge times and the iPad has such high power consumption, plugging it in for short periods of time doesn't get you much. The calculus is pretty straightforward: with the old iPad, one hour of plug-in time would buy you about three hours of run time. With the new iPad, it may only buy you a little more than one hour of runtime.

The bottom line is that you're going to run out of power more frequently and more inconveniently, and it's going to be harder to do anything about it.

I'm still pleased that I got the new iPad, but if longer runtimes and more convenient recharging is important to what you do, and you don't really need the new and improved features, you'd be better served by a new or secondhand iPad2.

An app that helps
Lastly, I found a nifty new app for printing. It started when Walgreens advertised the Canon iP2702 printer for $19.95. It seemed like as good an opportunity as any to replace our ancient DeskJet 970. Paula asked me, "If we get this, will I be able to use it to print from my iPad?"

After some research, the answer came up no. After some further research, though, I stumbled across Airprint Activator, a program for the Mac that lets you access any printer that's hooked up to your Mac as an Airprint printer. Currently it is free and fully enabled, although a donation would be much appreciated.

It works like a charm. I can print to not just the Canon but the Epson 3880 as well; heck, I could print to the 9800 if I had a reason to do so.

I sent the author $10. It was worth it.

Sadly, I don't own any iPad apps that are particularly smart about printing; they lack controls for paper size, type or print quality. That's not an Airprint problem; Airprint is just a way of getting data to the printer. The application still has to tell the printer what to do. Consequently, I have no control over formatting at this time and all I can get out is plain paper quality. But I can print with no hassle and no fuss.

Maybe I should be shopping around for a few smarter apps.

Ctein

Ctein's weekly column appears on TOP on Wednesdays.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by -et-: "With your background, I suspect that I am about to mention something that you have already considered. However, we all have moments when we overlook the obvious, so I'll go ahead anyway.

"All of the 'standard' cigarette lighter adapter (CLA) chargers have a built-in limit of 0.5 amps current flow to a USB connection. The iPad needs (and can accept) a current flow of 2.1 amps to keep up with the power drain while operating. If the iPad is not operating, it will just charge more quickly with a 2.1 amp CLA than with a 0.5 amp CLA.

"There are CLAs that can provide this amperage, but you have to look for them carefully. (There are some CLAs with two USB outlets that deceptively claim to provide the amperage, but when you read closely you find that they provide this as a total amperage—but split between the two outlets. So read the fine print.)

"Additional misleading factors are that most of the USB outlets on computers are also limited to 0.5 amps charging current, and that all USB cables are not equal. The 'standard' cables will not tell the charger that it should provide more than 0.5 amps—even if it is capable of doing so.

"I do not have an iPad, but I do have a Nexus 7 that needs and can accept more than 0.5 amps. I looked at CLA options for some time. and ended up purchasing a TomTom Hi Speed Multi-Charger from Amazon for $20. It has been very satisfactory for me, but YMMV."

The Return of 'American Photographs'

By Kenneth Tanaka

American Photographs by Walker Evans has just been reissued by the original publisher for the first time in a quarter century. The new reissue is the 75th Anniversary Edition. Here are the links:

American Photographs by Walker Evans at Amazon.com (U.S.)
...at Amazon U.K.
...at The Book Depository (worldwide)

Ask any in-the-know photo history enthusiast to name a seminal American photo book and chances are s/he will immediately cite The Americans by Robert Frank. Yes, that storied 1958 book is a good choice. But there is an even more seminal book.

In 1938, 20 years before Robert Frank's The Americans, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) held its second* one-man photographic show, titled American Photographs. The show, basically a 100-print, 10-year retrospective of the 35-year-old Walker Evans, was accompanied by a book (not a catalog) that has since become arguably the most important photo book in the history of the medium in this country. In fact Robert Frank has often cited Walker Evans as being a significant influence in his work**.

You could be excused for not knowing American Photographs. Although it has been previously reprinted twice since its first edition, it never garnered the wide publicity or the following that Robert Frank's The Americans attracted. It was not the controversial body of work that The Americans was, nor is it as starkly provocative. These are quiet, almost deadpan images that often require study and consideration to appreciate. If many of Frank's images seem like frames clipped from a movie, Evans' images are like a long stare. The longer you look the more you see (not exclusively with your eyes, either).

A page from American Photographs (top) compared to one from The Americans.

American Photographs features one of the most austere designs you'll encounter in a photo book. Taking readers on a rather lyrical tour of America and Americans during the Great Depression, its 87 large format, captionless black-and-white images are presented one per page with the image on the recto faced by a blank numbered page on the verso. Captions for images are listed separately at the end of each of the book's two sections. Evans wanted readers to view the images serially, and without the "distraction" of supplemental information.

Reproductions in the new edition are absolutely gorgeous.

It's interesting to note the strong design similarity between The Americans and American Photographs—more evidence of Robert Frank's admiration of Evans?

How does this newest edition compare to the original? Coincidentally, several days before this edition began shipping (unbeknownst to me), I was involved in reviewing some of the 200+ Evans prints we have at the Art Institute of Chicago, and spent much of the day with one of the Museum's first editions of American Photographs. So my memory of the first edition is quite clear as I write that this new edition is absolutely gorgeous compared to the original. The basic design is quite faithful to the first edition. But the 87 rich duotones of the new edition make the original edition's look like pencil sketches. The crisp type of the new book is also an enormous improvement over the lumpy type of 1938's book. This is actually a most powerful testament to the remarkable advancements that the graphic arts industry has made in 75 years. Of course if you're an antiquarian you will probably continue to lust after a $1,200–$1,500+*** fine/near-fine copy of the first edition. But if you want the book that Evans and MoMA could only have dreamed of producing in 1938, you'll want this newest edition.

If you think you do not like Walker Evans' work, that's cool, but buy this book right now anyway, particularly if you're a young (<40) and devoted photo enthusiast. It's a no-lose proposition. MoMA has priced this 75th anniversary edition at a very reasonable $35 list ($23.10 on Amazon). It will most certainly sell out before long and soon be accessible only on the secondary market for far higher prices. If you continue to pursue photography there's a good chance that you will eventually grow to appreciate much of the work in this book. But even if you don't you will certainly be able to resell the book at a handsome profit. Win-win.

Ken

American Photographs by Walker Evans at Amazon.com (U.S.)
...at Amazon U.K.
...at The Book Depository (worldwide)

UPDATE: As of late Tuesday, Amazon.com is saying 1–3 weeks for delivery, which means they're awaiting new stock from the publisher. But also, they've reduced the price to $21. —Ed.

*American Photographs was originally declared as MoMA's first one-man photographic show. But Sarah Hermanson Meister notes at the back of this 75th anniversary edition that it was actually the second such show. The first was a 1933 show of architectural photographs...also by Evans.

**For example, the 1958 U.S. Camera annual features a tribute to Frank’s Guggenheim grant work (which would, later that year, be first published in the U.S. as The Americans) by Evans. It also features a statement by Frank in which he notes: "The work of two contemporary photographers, Bill Brandt of England and the American, Walker Evans have influenced me. When I first looked at Walker Evans' photographs, I thought of something Malraux write: 'To transform destiny into awareness.'"

***Or more. —MJ.

Note (from Ken): For those interested in the relationship and parallels between Evans and Frank, Todd Papageorge presents an excellent comparative essay in Core Curriculum: Writings on Photography. Aperture Foundation, 2011, pp. 64–74. The essay, and the whole book of Papgeorge's essays and talks, is well worth the read!

Featured Comment by Jeff: "The original cost of the 1938 first edition (as marked on my excellent copy) was $2.50. At the long term average U.S. inflation rate of 3.43%, that equates to just over $30 today. So the Amazon price is a real bargain. :-)"

Featured Comment by James: "Another reason to get this book: as Kirstein rightly points out in the accompanying essay, these photographs have to be seen together, in a series. I'd seen single Walker Evans pictures reproduced here and there, and I confess they weren't doing much for me. It wasn't a matter of general photographic taste. Given what I like (Adams, Shore, Gossage, Graham...), I expected to like Evans too. My copy of this new edition arrived a few days ago (nice to be ahead of the TOP curve!), and although it's still early days, I can already see what I was missing. It was the whole: the patience, logic, contrast, accumulation, development. The steady, thoughtful, unfolding. Obvious, really."

Question from cb: "How do the duotones in the new issue compare to original prints? I want to perceive the original look not some oversharpened digital forgery."

Ken Tanaka replies: Although I am not an Evans scholar or expert, I have seen enough Evans prints (of our 200+ prints at the AIC) to offer an opinion. In brief, the book's plates look as good and often better than the prints I've seen. Note that Evans was not a printer. His work has been printed by various people for various purposes over the years, each imposing a degree of interpretation on the images. As such, some sets of prints by a particular printer might be favored over those by another. (Not at all unlike, for example, Henri Cartier-Bresson prints.) Among the most important reasons to get, or at least see, American Photographs is to get a visual benchmark of Evans' own intentions. For example, the Art Institute of Chicago has three prints of the iconic "Sidewalk and Shopfront, New Orleans, 1935" (Section 1 plate 5), each probably printed by a different person and each with slightly different crops. [Compare this to this, for example  —Ed.] The plate in the book represents the way in which Evans himself wanted to present the image.

Labor Day in the U.S.A.

Happy Labor Day to all those of you who celebrate it, here and in Canada. We'll be off today for the holiday and back tomorrow.

Mike & the TOP team

Open Mike: Five Books To Make You Think

Michel de Montaigne by François Quesnel and
Geoffrey Canada by Marco Grob

Recognize this title? You've seen it before—I stole it from Ctein. I've wanted to write my own take on the idea ever since his column appeared.

I can't speak for Ctein's picks, but my choices are books that will make you think as a side-effect—while you're being entertained. None of these five books are too heavy...depending, of course, on how much thinking they inspire in you. They're books that are deserving of the highest accolade my own writing ever got (from Sally Mann)—they're "tasty."

In no particular order—

Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence by Geoffrey Canada. (The title refers to the increasing lethality of the weapons commonly used in inner-city fights over the years.) You've probably seen Geoffrey Canada on television*—as the Founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, he's become a leading social activist and educator, and he was the kid who was waiting for Superman in the award-winning movie Waiting for Superman. Before all that, however, came this 1995 memoir about what it's like to deal with daily violence while growing up as a poor kid in the inner city (in his case, the South Bronx). Just read the short first chapter about the stolen jacket (which you can do online), and you'll get the measure of this one. It's a wonderful little book, one that I read shortly after it came out (on my brother's recommendation—hi, Scott) and have never forgotten

Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton. (U.K. link; U.K. cover shown.) My favorite book yet from one of my favorite writers. The author freely admits that his title will turn off people on both sides of the debate; atheists will react by saying "but I don't need religion!" and the religious will say, "but I'm not an atheist, so this book isn't for me." But not so fast. The book is an entertaining and enlightening (and dare I say, original) look at the way religion and its institutions function at a social and emotional level to keep communities healthy. Botton, who describes himself as "very respecful [of religion] and [yet] completely impious," necessarily overlooks religion's shortcomings, and some of the "solutions" he offers in the spirit of being helpful are only remotely likely to come about. But those are quibbles here. It's a delightful short read, and if this one doesn't make you think, then...well, you're probably not a thinker. Note that I've linked to the hardcover—that's deliberate. It's a lovely little example of fine bookmaking, and you'd be cheating yourself out of a pretty little artifact for your bookshelf by reading the book (um, like I did) on the Kindle.

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen—who, by the way, looks a bit like Abraham Lincoln might have if he had grown old. This is an almost outlandishly popular book for a history title, having sold more than a million copies since 1995. Intellectually, it's like candy. Just a treat. Every nation has it "mythos"—the inspiring lore that props up its power structure and unifies its citizens, like the "fact" that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree as a boy and then refused to lie about it to his father**—and there's nothing wrong with that on the face of it; peoples and nations need their stories. But the truth behind the stories is often far more fascinating, and, not surprisingly, reflects human nature with greater authenticity. (Note that the readers' reviews on Amazon run on arguably longer than the book itself, and contain every conceivable slant on interpretation. I suggest you just read the book yourself instead; it's easier, and much more fun, and afterwards you can make up your own mind.)

Montaigne: Essays, translated by John M. Cohen. (U.K. link.) Sarah Bakewell's brand spanking new biography of Michel de Montaigne, How to Live, which I loved, has ignited a brushfire of interest in the French philosopher and writer, inventor of the essay and type genus of the reflective introvert. And that got me to thinking about reading Montaigne. Screech, in England, and Frame, in America, are considered the standard translations, and although of course I have the 1300-page Frame tome (doesn't everybody? I can't conceive otherwise), which is always described as "contemporary," it's actually pretty creaky, being as old as I am (vintage 1957), and Frame tries to respect the somewhat unfamiliar diction of Montaigne's 16th-century French. Like most people, I read several of the essays in school, and acquaint myself with one or two more from time to time, and then put the brick back in place up on the shelf. So I did a little readin'n'research, and concluded that the best volume for actually reading Montaigne is John M. Cohen's Penguin Books selected works. Cohen's English has an easy fluency that I find good to read, and, let's face it, you really don't need to read all of Montaigne to get a good idea. Better to read Cohen's selections and Bakewell's biography together. Frame's language, admirable though his translation undoubtedly is, seems halting and a bit opaque by contrast.

Our Inner Ape by Frans de Waal. (U.K. link.) The author looks at human nature through the prism of primatology. Some readers complain that he anthropomorphizes chimpanzees too much, although that might just as well be a function of human beings' extreme reluctance to associate any of our own honored feelings and impulses to animal behavior and instinctual programming. Theory aside—this is a popular book rather than a scientific one—the renowned Dutch ethologist and primatologist is a facile and entertaining writer and a fine storyteller, and at the very least you'll come away from this book having "met" the bonobo as a distinct cousin of the chimps (and of ours), and with a heightened sense and appreciation for the drama of the lives and societies of these amazing creatures. (If you can read the famous story of Luit without emotion, you have a steelier heart than I.) He also really does make you think about our animal nature—however you come down on the issue in your own mind. Not the last word on human nature—what is?—but a rewarding (and thought-provoking) read for sure.

Mike

*Apologies for linking to a right-wing conservative show***.

**Itself an invention, made up by a popular biographer of Washington, Mason Locke Weems, after Washington's death.

***UPDATE Monday the 3rd: 'Kay, so here's the joke. The Colbert Report, the source of that interview link, is a liberal show, but the premise of the show (and the source of much of the show's humor) is that the host is a right-wing demagogue. On the show, part of the gag is that Stephen Colbert, the host, always stays in character. So what I'm doing here, y'see, is continuing the gag, by pretending that I think The Colbert Report actually is a "right-wing conservative show." If I had really linked to a right-wing conservative show, I wouldn't have apologized for it. Because that wouldn't have been funny. Are we clear now? It wasn't my intention here to insult anyone. My mistake, to assume that everyone would know the premise of that show. Incorrect assumption, it turns out.

"Open Mike" is a series of off-topic posts by Yr. Hmbl. Host that appears only, but not always, on Sundays.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Dave: "Great list Mike. Lies My Teacher Told Me has been on my night stand for over a year. Maybe I'll finally pick it up. While your on the subject of books that make you think I'd like to suggest Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright. Nonzero really changed the way I think about world history and human relations. To me, Nonzero was just as big of a mental bombshell as Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel."

Featured Comment by valerie: "Have you seen Sacred Economics? Charles Eisenstein...if not check it out!"

Featured Comment by Ed Kirkpatrick: "Might I suggest, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt? 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction; 2011 National Book Award for Non-Fiction. Couldn't put this one down...."

Mike replies: Great minds think alike; it's on my bedside table.

Only £4!

John Claridge, At the ’59 Club, 1973 (JPEG courtesy spitalfieldslife.com)

You're going to want to jump on this. Remember John Claridge, the photographer of the East End of London we featured the other day? He's got a new little book out—halfway towards a pamphlet, really, and only 28 pages—of some of the best of his East End pictures.

On the good side, it's only £4, and most of us can spare that...I don't smoke, but I think it's less than a pack of cigarettes, in either the U.S. or the U.K.

On the bad side, there are only 100 numbered copies available...actually no more than 99, considering I just ordered mine. So you'll have to act right quick. Lightning fast. Do not wait. These will not last long.

(You should only buy one if you intend to keep it and take good care of it, though. This is the sort of ephemera that will be rare and driving Claridge collectors crazy in future years. You are its custodian.)

Mike

UPDATE 6:58 a.m. Wisconsin time, 12:58 p.m. in London: ...And they're gone.

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.