Random Excellence: Ruth Orkin

Ruth Orkin, Couple in MG, Florence, 1951

Of course there's no one standard of the "excellent" in photography. In aesthetic appreciation there is general rough agreement but also a wide range of opinion. And no sort of unanimity. We all like what we like. I'm reminded of the late comedian Mitch Hedberg talking about the heavy metal band he and his friends had when they were teenagers: "People either loved us or they hated us. Or they thought we were OK."

I laughed as soon as I saw this. In the words of the "Stefon" character on SNL, "It has everything":

1. It's classic 35mm B&W photography, which I love above all the other wonderful forms and formats of photography;
2. I'm mildly fascinated with the style of the period lately becoming known as "Midcentury Modern";
3. I have a thing for roadsters, even though, tragically, I don't own one...and an MG with a fold-down windscreen* just pushes that button;
4. That wonderful hand gesture (gesture in photography, understood better by an earlier generation of critics, is underappreciated these days); and, let's face it,
5. ...Funny hats and/or surreal eyewear never hurts!

This print—sorry, the print of this JPEG—is currently being auctioned by Artnet Auctions. The opening bid is $3,600, and it has an estimate of $4,000–$6,000. It's an estate print, "printed later" and signed not by the photographer but by her daughter, the "estate executrix."

Ruth Orkin took one extremely famous photograph of a type not currently in fashion that has graced countless frame-shop posters. It was called "An American Girl in Italy" and it was taken the same year this was. Contrary to rumor (and appearances) it was not staged. The photographer was following the subject around photographing her for an editorial feature about women traveling alone in Europe.

Ruth Orkin, self portrait

I got to know Ruth's work from a book called A Photo Journal that was in the library at my art school (I knew every single book in that library). She had a lively career that moved between photojournalism, editorial illustration, and Hollywood portraits, and spanned still photography, filmmaking, and teaching (she taught at the influential School of Visual Arts in New York City in the late 1970s). I've always had a bit of a soft spot for her work—there's usually humor, beauty and a certain light-heartedness to be found in it.

The funny goggles and hats are a bonus.

Mike

*Mark Sampson says it's an MG TD which was a current model in 1951 and available in both left-hand and right-hand drive.

Original contents copyright 2017 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.

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

Aashish: "I absolutely love the first picture. I like everything about it. To me it simply says 'joy' or 'happiness' or—insert your preferred synonym—. Absolutely delightful!"

David Boyce: "I have a thing for roadsters as well. And also Ruth Orkin's work. I was introduced to her work sometime in the late '70s and it was a slow burn. I initially dismissed it as 'not serious enough.' I was an angsty young punk and thought grit was everything. But her work kept reappearing, and people who I respected kept mentioning her. It took a while for me to see the subtle use of humour often conveyed other subtexts. She is one of the people who I considered for my From the Shoulders of Giants series a while back. I need to go and look at her work again. Thanks for the memory jolt."

Ernie Van Veen: "I've always been torn between believing "An American Girl in Italy" was staged or spontaneous. The stares and gestures of the men made it seem staged, too outrageous; however, the look on the woman's face, and her body language, made it seem very real. Perhaps a better title would have been 'Lamb Among the Wolves.'"

hugh crawford: "An MG like that was our family car until my little sister and I grew to be larger than that suitcase in the photo.

"Ruth Orkin and her husband Morris Engel also pretty much invented modern cinema with their movie 'Little Fugitive,' at least according to François Truffaut who credited them with inspiring the French New Wave as well as John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese. Morris Engel build his own 35mm handheld hidden cine camera with Charlie Woodruff (shout out to photographers who build their own cameras, yay!) that was later borrowed by Stanley Kubrick and Jean-Luc Godard. I met Mary Engel, the executrix of which you speak, when my wife and I started an outdoor film screening series in Brooklyn in 2006 and I picked 'Little Fugitive' as the first film. It's one of my favorite films of all time, and is as Brooklyn as you can get (little boy runs away to Coney Island). Mary introduced the film that her parents made and it was a wonderful evening and it turned out that she lived a few blocks away. I love Ruth Orkin's work. That 'American Girl in Italy'? Well you have to see this. Mary Engel is great, and worked on a book about 'Little Fugitive.'"

John W.: "Cool image. Some years ago I had the extraordinary pleasure of taking a workshop with Jay Maisel, who talked at some length about 'gesture' in photography...even inanimate objects can have gestural value. I've never forgotten that and years later it keeps turning up in my images.

"A few years ago I started a print group called Photo Friday (we meet the last Friday of the month). Initially most of the members strove to eliminate people from their images. Over the years that has steadily changed; now they strive to incorporate not just people but gesture...animate and inanimate."

Ken Tanaka: "Excellent choice, Mike! Some years back the Art Institute had a show of mid-century New York street documentary work which naturally included Morris Engel and his wife, Ruth Orkin. That was my first introduction to Orkin and I've been a fan ever since. I had the opportunity to meet and become acquainted with Mary Engel (daughter), a lovely person who has been devoted to maintaining her parents' legacies. Speaking of which, Mary has a wonderful archive site of Ruth's work. Also, I recently came across a site that features the contact sheet from Orkin's most famous 'American Girl in Italy' image, as well as a great current-day snap of its subject, 'Jinx.'"

Dan Gordon: "Prompted by this article, I browsed through other photos in the American Girl series. I contemplated 'Jinx at Cafe,' noting in art-student-style how her eyes draw the viewer in, then direct it to the young man across, whose sloping shoulder and arm lead to the Coke bottle on the table, which in turn points us back to her hand and then her eyes. After a few cycles of this I realized my 2017 brain was interpreting the object in her hand as a smartphone. After all, doesn't everybody seated at an outdoor cafe brandish a smartphone? Is there a lesson here about how we see pictures with our own contemporary attitudes and expectations? I wish I could, for a moment, grasp what this photo would have meant to a viewer in 1951."

Comments

[Anthony Shaughnessy]

"In aesthetic appreciation there is general rough agreement" - I don't know where you get that from. Do you mean "general rough agreement within the art establishment" ? I think you'd get a different answer if you included all the general public.
As for me and this picture, I like it. I like the way it conveys the period and the people, I like the sense of motion, and I like the composition. I'm sure I partly like it because I also like old sports cars and like the idea of driving one around italy.
Anthony

[Bill Mitchell]

What is "Midcentury Modern," please.

[Basically, 1950s style. --Mike]

[Jim Allen]

If that photo doesn't make you smile, nothing will.

[Huw Morgan]

Mike, I'd be very interested in what you think about "estate prints". I was recently at a show of work by Robert Mapplethorpe where they were charging over $10,000 for estate prints. The prints were very well done (spectacular really), but something in me balks at paying top dollar for a print that the artist never saw or approved. I'm not even sure these were printed by Tom Baril, Mapplethorpe's printer supremo. Is there a market discount for estate prints versus prints that were done or approved by the artist?

[-et-]

Is that image printed correctly, or was the negative flipped? The caption says that the image was taken in Italy in 1951, and I did not think that MG was producing left-hand drive cars for Europe at that time.

- Tom -

[Kevin Purcell]

An interesting self-portrait that shows the photographer with a camera but isn't taken with the shown camera.

I'm so used to mirror self-portraits that I initial rad it as that but then I realized the camera is pointing in the wrong direction.

[Paul]

Dear Mike
I was wondering if you could shed some light on a doubt I have which you've mentioned in this post. With the advent of the latest top digital cameras and printers what would be career wise advantage of still shooting for example classic BW 35mm film? Are those photographers who are still choosing to shoot film doing it out of simple personal preference or is it an added advantage when it comes to working with art galleries?
I continually come across successful photographers in all genres who's prints are being sold by galleries who still use film, be it color or BW, 35mm or medium and large format film. There must be some reason apart from personal taste knowing that digital has reached a point where in many ways it has equaled film and of course the "basic" monetary advantage of digital shooting.

Thank you Paul

[Hi Paul, Well, the post is not about shooting 35mm film now, nor anything about its effect on a career. I just like looking at it is all. --Mike]

[David Bostedo]

I didn't notice the hand gesture when I first looked at the pic - the hats, goggles, and smiles drew all of my attention.

But looking closer it appears she's holding something between her middle finger and thumb... hence the unusual hand position.

If so, does that make a difference? I.e. that it's not a gesture, just that she's holding something?

[Lothar Adler]

What camera does Mrs. Orkin hold in her hand? Is it a Contax with a Sonnar? (Because the bokeh in her picture "Couple in MG" is very appealing)

[Sven W]

It wasn't staged, but it was posed. Ruth Orkin and her new buddy (model Ninalee Craig) spent a couple of hours walking around town, contriving photo ops. When Ruth noticed the men gawking at Ninalee at this particular street corner, she took a snap then asked Ninalee to double-back, so she could take another. The second image (only two were taken) is the magic one.

Here's a nice write-up with more photos:

https://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/today/timeless-ruth-orkins-photos-still-resonate-today-44177747

[Mark Sampson]

Ahhh, that's the life... touring Tuscany in an MG-TD with the windshield folded down. And no doubt a Leica in the glovebox. Lovely photo, too; pictures that good are always in style. Ask Peter Turnley!

[Tyler]

The camera that Ruth Orkin was holding is a Contax III. The lever to the right of the lens is the "setting lever for the delayed-action shutter release". The regular shutter release button was in the center of the film advance knob on the top right of the camera.

Based on this, plus the angle and position of the camera, suggests that the picture was not made with this camera, and probably was not a "self portrait".

PS: My first new 35mm camera was a Contax IIa.

[

Thanks Tyler.

I'll just point out that it can still be a self portrait even if the camera in the picture is not the camera taking the picture. --Mike]

[Michael Matthews]

I clicked through to see the American Girl In Italy image. It's spot-on documentary material. A year earlier that could have been my mother in the spotlight. We had the good fortune of accompanying a ridiculously wealthy woman on a three-month tour in the summer of 1950. A different place from today...still too close to the end of WWII. People were living in bomb craters in Monte Cassino. In the big cities, though, that was the scene. Right down the motor scooter.

[Doug Chadwick]

I am still trying to figure out whether that is a TC or a TD. I am leaning toward TD because of the folded top hardware and low rear fender.

[Dan Gorman]

Thanks for the intro, Mike! Ruth's work is well worth getting to know. Is it just me, or is there more than a hint of Ruth's influence in Vivian Meier's pictures?

Cheers,
Dan

[William Lewis]

Nah, the real bonus is the Contax III in the self-portrait. Glorious camera.

(I really should buy a good Kiev II again - it would be nice to get a Sonnar & a Tessar for it going again. )

[Bob Johnston]

Yes it is a great picture. I hadn't heard of Ruth Orkin, and then you mentioned the "An American girl in Italy" and of course I realised I had seen this without knowing who's it was. Shame on me. Interesting composition. Many would have put the occupants further into the frame. But then the sense of the road they are in would have been lost. Thanks for introducing me to her work.

[Michael Perini]

Ruth Orkin's work is just wonderful.
"American Girl' is a really wonderful Picture, but it does overshadow her other work. Thanks for the reminder.

[Mark Sampson]

It's an MG TD. Current production model in 1951, and available in LHD, while its predecessor, the TC, was RHD only.

[Rob Griffin]

What a great photo, so much fun!

Tom asked if the image might have been flipped. Looking at the direction that the man's jacket is closed would probably indicate that he image is not flipped.

Rob

[Jimmy Reina]

For years, we had a copy of "American Girl" (it's so famous, the title has been shortened to a diminutive nickname) hanging in our house. When my daughter made a trip to Italy, we wound up with our own version-

https://jimmyreina.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/american-girl-in-italy/

I wrote to Ms. Orkin's, estate, and they gave me permission to use her image in this blog post.

[Doug Chadwick]

I guess that's the "American Girl" Jinx Allen, or Ninalee Craig as she is known today, again. It seems to be part of that shoot.
http://www.howardgreenberg.com/exhibitions/ruth-orkin-jinx-allen-in-florence?view=slider

And it's a TD of course, LHD as Tom pointed out and that rules out the TC which were never available other than RHD.

[Ned Bunnell]

Mike,

You should have waited until today, September 3rd, to post this wonderful article about Ruth Orkin. You could have celebrated her birthday!

https://instagram.com/p/BYmaoKuhRTy/

Cheers,
Ned