Around the Web on a Tuesday

Still the gold standard for creamy bokeh: a comparison of the modern soft-focus Cooke Portrait PS945 and the ancient Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality IV Series II it was designed to emulate. Is it wrong to be a little alarmed by the Black Queen? Yikes!  :-)

Our friend Peter was featured on ABC-7 News New York.

On this day in history, April 28th, 1945, Hitler's poodle, Benito Mussolini, the narcissistic fascist dictator of Italy during WWII, was executed by Italian partisans while attempting to flee to a neutral country. The reason Hitler gave orders for his corpse to be burned after his suicide was because of the gruesome photographs of Mussolini's desecrated corpse being displayed in public. Don't Google that if you're squeamish.

Last year of war: The latest by S.C. Gwynne is out. He's the author of my favorite book about the Old West, Empire of the Summer Moon, a vivid history of this continent's most powerful Indian tribe, the Comanche. His new book is Hymns of the Republic, about the final year of the American Civil War.

Sam Gwynne

Interviewed by Benjamin Thomas on The Writing Train, Sam said, "A few years ago I wrote a biography of Stonewall Jackson, entitled Rebel Yell, that ended with his death in May 1863 and thus covered roughly the first two years of the war. When I was researching the last year of the conflict, I was struck by how much more violent, desperate, brutal, and vengeful the war had become. This was the product of many things, including the progressive destruction of southern property, southern industry, and southern wealth; the staggering body counts from the Grant-Lee fight in Virginia; the anti-civilian warfare of William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan; the rise of the prisoner of war camps; the rise of a bitter guerrilla war; and the presence of 180,000 black soldiers in the northern army, which drove Confederate soldiers to unprecedented acts of violence. I wanted to try to convey how deeply the war had changed, and the final year gave me a mechanism by which to do that."

A lesson in visual literacy: I don't read Danish, but these pictures are worth several thousand words. The title auto-translates to "How close are people to each other? These pictures are taken at the same time, but show two very different things." (I was once hired to photograph a demonstration at which exactly six demonstrators showed up. My photographs cleverly implied that there were many more people protesting than there actually were. Although they amounted to propaganda—lies—they scrupulously followed all the standard rules of conventional photojournalism. The camera doesn't lie, but sometimes photographers do.)

This is how: How did NASA get those great film shots of Apollo and the Shuttle? A YouTube video.

Deaths in the family:

• Eric Renner died on April 9th at age 78. Eric was one of the world's leading experts and practitioners of pinhole photography. Sadly, he missed this year's Pinhole Photography Day, which is the last Sunday in April, two days ago.
• Ted Grant died on April 19th at the age of 90. Ted was a leading light of Canadian photojournalism, and had long been liked, admired, and appreciated as a member of the Leica community online and in person. 
• Peter Beard has died. He disappeared from his home a month ago (he suffered from dementia) and his body was found on April 19th. He was a larger-than-life wildlife photographer in love with the myth of Africa and fascinated by human destruction of the nature he loved. His obituary is certainly a riveting read; one of his three wives was supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, and he once narrowly escaped death after being gored by an elephant. He was 82.
• John Pfahl succumbed to COVID-19 on April 15th at the age of 81. He was an inventive, distinctive landscape photographer who played with perspective, references, and humor in his artwork.

John Pfahl. Photo by Sharon Cantillon, Buffalo News.

Is it Ned, or is it Lee? Our friend Ned Bunnell channels Lee Friedlander.

Serif's Affinity Photo for Mac isn't free, but close enough. It's currently on sale for only $24.99.

Fantastic book on color: I'm currently halfway through one of the best books I've ever encountered on color photography. It's called Lifelike by Pavel Kosenko, and, unless you read Russian, it's available only on Apple Books. Totally engrossing. Really good read.

MaxMax's most recent monochrome conversion camera is the Sony RX100 Mark III. They're selling deluxe masks now, too.

Nicholas Hartmann, Vase (no number). November 2019; 3-1/2" high. Wheel-thrown from Special Buff clay; grooves cut on the wheel at the rim, shoulder, and base; foot trimmed. Brush-glazed with Raku Copper Sand (body) and Raku White Crackle (neck) glazes and raku fired.

Got time on your hands at home? Catch up with Joni Mitchell's "Shadows and Light." All the performers are excellent in this and play beautifully together, but it's most poignant for showcasing Jaco Pastorius at his amazing best. Jaco was the Pete Maravich of the bass guitar, an astonishing, flawed, and ultimately tragic virtuoso—his was a sad, sad story, as you can read in this excellent, moving biography. One commenter said, "Jaco...forces you to listen to what he is doing to the bass line of the song...but never gets in the way. Impossible...how does one do that?" This was one of the great jazz records of the '70s (recorded '79, released '80), but got no respect as such because Joni came from folk and pop.

From the World's Best Photography magazine, two features about photography in these awkward times: "Still Lives: In this unnatural state of isolation, photographers show us the things that bind," and "Bored Russians Posted Silly Art Parodies. The World Has Joined In." You have to go look up the originals to appreciate the latter article, but both of these are wonderful.

Finally, the Shelter In Place Gallery. Don't give up on this one too soon—I suspect you'll be delighted when its secret is revealed! Shades of Michael Paul Smith. "…In my opinion," says the gallery's creator, "it's an extremely silly project. It’s the kind of idea that nobody would really care about except for now when we have no choice." Love this.

Mike
(Thanks to Richard Man, Oren Grad, MM, Ned Bunnell, Steve Caddy, Carl Weese, Rich Beaubien, Hugh Crawford and others)

Original contents copyright 2020 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.

Many thanks to all for your support

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

Jack: "That Peter Beard made it to 82 is amazing. I met him once at a gallery opening showing his African work. The gallery was lit as if we were in Africa including jungle music and a remarkably realistic campfire. It was a fantastic setting with Peter sitting on the floor next to the fire. Alcohol was served and I had my share, enough that I decided I needed to buy one of his works. I decided bigger was better and purchased a huge 5x3-foot shot of an elephant herd from the air that is featured in his book End Of The Game.

"I forgot to consider what I was going to do with it. It was huge and our house had no African theme. My wife, who had gone along with the purchase since she had been served alcohol, the next day stated there was no way I could put it in our house. It remained in our garage for twenty-five years until donated to the Milwaukee Art Museum. At that moment, Peter had been gored and the value shot up in anticipation of his death. So I had accidentally waited for the correct time to make a donation. The value was ten times the purchase price. One lesson for me was don’t drink at photo gallery openings."

Mike replies: Speaking of the value shooting up, hang on to that book. You need some luck to buy a decent copy for less than $300 these days. Abebooks lists copies all the way up to $7,500 for a signed copy with a lock of Beard's hair pasted into it!

DavidB: "I really enjoyed the 'Bored Russians Posted Silly Art Parodies. The World Has Joined In' and the 'Shelter In Place Gallery.' Now that people have been forced to slow down, their creativity is being given a chance to blossom. This might be the 'silver lining' to the current pandemic."

Richard Man: "Uncle Ted Grant was an incredibly kind gentleman who loved to share his love of photography and Leica. Even though he was a 'big name,' he would mingle with amateurs without any airs. He will be missed. (And thanks for the link.)"

David Comdico: "Great post! Lifelike is a good book and covers a popular topic for which, when you get right down to it, there is very little useful information. Interestingly, after publication the author seems to have moved to film and a Hasselblad."

Jim Arthur: "Shadows and Light: In high school I was a member of an 'elite' three-member basement salon. One of our members played bass and built his own speakers. Another had a brother who played bass and built his own guitars. I was the artist and so I painted the instruments. As a result, I have Jaco’s solo debut album (Chris Squire’s too) in my collection. I’m sorry to admit it has not seen the light of day in many years but it is now front and center, clean, and on the turntable. If I’m to be true to the tenets of my 'elite' 1970s high school salon I will now need some sweet weed from South of the border, cheap beer (Olympia as I recall, smuggled in through the basement window), and a bean bag chair.  :-)  "

Comments

[robert e]

For non-Chrome users, using Google Translate

https://translate.google.com/

to translate an entire web page is simple, but how to do it may not be obvious:

Enter the page's URL into the left box, then when the URL appears in the right box, click on it to open the translated page.

Thanks for the great roundup. After a random minute-long taste of the Joni Mitchell set, I look forward to giving it my full attention ASAP!

[Dan]

Mike, Also playing with Joni Mitchell here is Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Lyle Mays (who just passed away in earlier this year). This concert has a who's who of jazz fusion to enjoy.

[And don't forget Don Alias on percussion. --Mike]

[Carsten Bockermann]

I'm very sorry to read that Ted Grant passed away. We met online at the CompuServe Photoforum back in the 90s. When I was in Seattle on business in '98 or '99, I discovered that I could fly to Vancouver Island, where Ted lived, on a floatplane for very little money.
So I did, and we spent a great time together. I got his photo book about the medical profession, "This is our work - The legacy of Sir William Osler", which is a true classic by now.

[William Lewis]

Mike,

It's a very different style of music, but Los Angeles punk rock pioneers X have released their first album in decades with the original line up. Considering they range in age from 67 - 73, IIRC, there are a multitude of amazements and amusements here.

But most importantly, "Alphabetland" sounds like they did back in 1980 when "Los Angeles" dropped. For those of you here who might be interested, their link at Bandcamp: https://xtheband.bandcamp.com/album/alphabetland

[What a coincidence that I only very recently published a picture of this band! And it was coincidence I assure you, I had no idea this was coming. --Mike]

[Dan Gorman]

In re Sam Gwynne's quote on the last year of the Civil War, if I recall correctly the Grant vs Lee Virginia campaign is regarded by many historians as having been something of a (rather grisly) preview of World War I, complete with trench warfare, machine guns, hand grenades, and sappers digging tunnels to plant high explosives underneath enemy positions.

Then too, Sherman's "March to the Sea" campaign through Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina was a precursor of the 20th century concept of "total war" - explicitly designed to destroy the enemy's economy and therefore their physical capacity to supply their forces, along with civilian morale and their psychological will to continue the fight. Events in the "distant" past aren't always as far removed from us as we tend to think.

Sounds like his book would be an excellent read.

Cheers!
Dan

[hugh crawford]

We also lost John Pfahl to covid.
His writing about what he was trying to do with photography is worth seeking out as well.

[Oh, too bad. One of the first shows I ever saw was one of his. Always got a chuckle out of "Moonrise Over Pie Pan." I added this to the post. Thanks Hugh. --Mike]

[anthony reczek]

To answer your question: yes I do seem to have a little more time on my hands these days. Went ten days without going off to any store recently, but my neighbor holds the record around here, going a full four weeks without venturing into any store (his wife doesn't mind doing the food shopping).

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions! I followed a few links to the Facebook Rijksmuseum, and found that particularly interesting; the Frida Kahlo spoof is hilarious!

And if you loved "Empire of the Summer Moon", you probably will also enjoy "Panther in the Sky" by James Alexander Thom, a novel based on the life of Tecumseh. Or William Cronon's "Changes in the Land", one of my favorite histories of the coming of Europeans to New England.

[Tim Bradshaw]

If Clapton was God, who was Jaco Pastorias? The internet has destroyed my ability to just soak myself in records the way that you once had to, but after rediscovering him a few years ago I listened to his first solo record perhaps ten times in a row.

[Sanjay Nasta]

I am so sad to hear about Ted Grant's passing. Got to know him on the Leica list. Was thrilled when he critiqued a couple of my photos. Such a kind man and with such great stories. I think I have a couple of his photos from the Leica Print Exchange.

[David Bateman]

"MaxMax's most recent monochrome conversion camera is the Sony RX100 Mark III."

Mike for only $85 extra dollars you can get a monochrome X-t1 from Dan. Its listed at $2185 currently. Just saying.

Or test out a Sigma Quattro SD camera. You can rent one from Lens Rentals now quite cheap. 20% off rentals I think is still going on.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Good post, Mike! Thanks especially for the heads-up on the book Lifelike by Pavel Kosenko. As you know, color is my thing. I've been a bit of a student of color since the age of 10 (studying at museum classes) and have casually collected quite a sub-library of books especially devoted to the subject of color, whether in photography or in more general art/science terms. Most are loaded with color "science" clichés and well-trod ground. But the best also have little turns and twists of expression that help readers gain new handles on the subject. In my preliminary fly-through Kosenko's Lifelike appears to offer such nuggets.

And the "Shelter in Place Gallery" is brilliant, isn't it? It reminds me of endless days of my youth as an architecture student building models. FWIW, this is not at all dissimilar from the way in which museums design their biggest exhibitions, both for conceptualization and sometimes for insurance.

[bill white]

Always loved Joni Mitchell and 'Shadows and Light" are a particular fav. Great band. The concert was filmed as well and on Youtube, I still believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1XFbhSMxIM&t=1844s

[I thought I linked to that. Link didn't work for you? --Mike]

[Kodachromeguy]

You mentioned Hitler's poodle. Are we going to talk about Putin's poodle? That is quite pertinent to today's situation.

[David Drake]

Sad news to hear of Ted Grant's passing. It was actually a shock to read here (as I will explain). Ted taught photojournalism at the photography school I attended in 1990 in Victoria, B.C.. I remember him as an inspiring but humble teacher. I don't think that any of us were really aware of his status. He was a down-to-earth humble guy. Though we were aware of his work covering a number of Canadian federal election campaigns (when he photographed Pierre Trudeau I believe), he downplayed his career accomplishments. After graduating from the school, I assisted Ted on a photo shoot for a local auctioneer. I'm guessing he must have known the owner, as these were advertising images with hot lights! Then again, as a photographer, you take work where you can get it! I ran into Ted a few other times but I hadn't seen him in a very long time. Thank you for posting Mike. Sad news but I appreciate finding out.