Jerome Liebling's Color and Black and White

May Day, Union Square Park, New York City, 1948

The Steven Kasher Gallery has announced its representation of the estate of Jerome Liebling (1924–2011) with the exhibition 'Jerome Liebling: Matter of Life and Death.' Curated by Liebling's daughter, filmmaker Rachel Liebling, the show includes both early vintage photographs and later large-scale prints in black and white and color. Spanning six decades, the 75 photographs in the show comprise a retrospective of selected works that explore the themes of youth, maturity, and death.

"My sympathies have always been with the everyday people; they are the center of my photography," Liebling said. "There is a sublime and special respect that is ordinary, but which I think I sometimes push to heights of importance." Former student Ken Burns called Liebling "a fierce warrior, insisting on a kind of justice, a kind of truth, and an utterly American vitality. He saw in every individual his or her own worth."

Men's Hat Shop, Jerusalem, 1979

In light of our recent conversation, Jerome Liebling was a accomplished black-and-white photographer who really understood color. Steven Kasher Gallery has put up an  extended slideshow of Liebling's work from the new exhibit. Or if you can get there in person, "Jerome Liebling: Matter of Life and Death" will be on view from March 13th to April 19th, 2014. Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Mike
(Thanks to Dave Sailer)

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kenneth Tanaka: "Looks like a terrific show, typical of the energy and effort Mr. Kasher puts behind representing his artists. His is among the best photo galleries in the world today. When I die I would like Steve Kasher to haul my work photos away. Thank you for the heads-up, Mike! I do not know much of Jerome Liebling's work but now must remedy that deficit."

JK: "'Men's hat shop' to me is about as lovely a color photograph as can be. I get an immediate, visceral sensation from a shot like this that I'm not sure B&W ever quite delivers. The problem is that you can look a long, long time before finding a shot that works that well in color. I have to admit that the main reason I shoot mainly in B&W is that for every really good color shot I see, I find about a hundred in monochrome."

David Miller: "This wonderful series of Liebling's photographs quite neatly spans my lifetime. Perhaps because of that, but more likely because of the nature of Liebling's artistry, I don't see the photography, I see the people and the times he photographed.

They are familiar people, particularly in the '40's and '50s—working class and rural, from a time when the people I knew were not so damned clean as they are now. Like my farm family they probably washed off the day's dirt in a basin and had a bath once a week before church or—for non-churchgoers like us—before driving into town on Saturday afternoon. Two sets of clothes (usually hand-me-downs) were sufficient: one on and one in the wash. (Plus one for Sundays or school concerts.)

"Perhaps that familiarity lies behind my preference for black-and-white photographs: those are the photographs in my family album, the photographs of the people and houses of my childhood—the time when I was most myself and least influenced by the alien world beyond the borders of my own."

Comments

[Nigel]

Thanks for these. Some of them are just beautiful. I've just downloaded a bunch, and I'm looking forward to working out why I like them so much. For now, I'm just enjoying them.

[robert quiet photographer]

A beautiful set of photo in the slideshow. Thanks, it is a pleasure for the eyes! Tones, composition, connection with the subject: everything works very well.
robert

[James Sedwick]

Liebling's photographs are beautiful! I like how the people in May Day rest before the monumental figures in the background; Liebling's "sympathies" are apparent.

[lyle]

In a NYTimes interview, Ken Burns said that Liebling used to always ask of his students, "where is your work coming from? / Why are you doing it? / What is it you see?" ... a little something to ponder from a master...

[Robert Billings]

Mike and Dave,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Such wonderful images.

[Dennis]

Wow - very nice ! His b/w is fine, but to me, he stands out as a color photographer. It reminds me of (what little I've seen of) Saul Leiter.

[Rich]

"Men's Hat Shop" could be a candidate for your "Quiet Color" book.

[Another Phil]

Hi Mike,
I like how you unerringly pick the best B&W and colour photos from the slideshow.
The muted colours in "Men's hat shop" complement the grittiness and I'm not sure it would work as well in B&W.
"May Day" reminds me of the statue in St. Pancras station;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGPTu5ES7DE

best wishes phil

[Ben]

Thanks for this, Mike! I enjoyed browsing through the online gallery, and the transition from B&W to the incredibly painterly, Hopper-esque first color photo was a real treat.

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

I am struck by the contrast of subjects in the wonderful "May Day" photo. The people in the tableau are decently, handsomely naked and the people sitting are comparatively, over dressed. I think it says a lot about how Society views our natural state of nakedness.

[David]

Interesting stuff, never knew of him. Some of his color work is outstanding in it's light 'n subject..I was particularly taken by a few of the color selections

Lot's of meat and potatoes in the body of work shown there.

The one of the people sitting in front of the relief at Union Square Park is a masterpiece.

Thanks for the turn..excellent.

[Dillan]

That was really, really good. His work is so inspiring. I don't take enough pictures in public, and when I see something like this slide show, I can see why it's important to do so.

Thanks for this, Mike.

[robert e]

Quiet, poetic images. Quiet, poetic color.

"Jerome Liebling... really understood color."

That's the thing, isn't it? Real understanding of color is not a common thing; even many painters don't seem to understand how they do what they do with color. And documentary photographers have much less freedom.

If we consider the great masters of photography, I think there are relatively very few that we'd consider masters of color. Which shouldn't be surprising. Not only is documentary color difficult to wrangle--from seeing all the way to presentation--photographers simply haven't been at it for that long; I'd say roughly half as long as they've been messing around with artistic monochrome photography. And that simple fact has compounding implications, like lack of information and precedent, cost of access, entrenched custom, outright prejudice...

Accomplished color photography is of course more common in commercial applications, e.g. cinema and advertising (at least once they matured beyond the color-as-spectacle phase), where many people and resources can be brought to realizing a vision or intent.

Commenter JK sounds like someone who understands color.

[John Boeckeler]

Jerome Liebling's photograph "May Day" should be the gold standard for B&W documentary/urban photography. Maybe I'm just nostalgic, and I'm sure it dates me, but his work perfectly exemplifies the best period for B&W work in this country.

Liebling was one of the founding professors of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. He founded Hampshire's film and photography program and taught there from 1970 until he retired in 1990. Before that, he taught at the University of Minn. Hampshire's film, video, and photography center is named after him.

I shouldn't mention myself in a thread for such a notable photographer as Jerome Liebling, but I'll take the risk and mention that my photographs are on exhibit at the Jerome Liebling Center at Hampshire College from March 7 until, I believe, April 14. The show has not been publicized or noted in any art listings, but it's there, about 40 large format B & W silver gelatin prints.

[Chuck Holst]

Thanks for posting the link to Jerry Liebling's work. Though I took a class from him in the late 60s, I don't recall having seen any of these photos before. It makes me want to scan and print some of the photos I took for that class 45 years ago.