Four Photographers You Might Not Know

Here are a few photographers readers sent me links to that I thought you might enjoy—

Alessandra Manzotti

Longtime reader John Hansen-Flaschen sent this link. It's a video with stills serving as a "virtual exhibit" of the work of Alessandra Manzotti, who was invited to join six other photographers on an expedition to Mongolia in 2018, where she documented the burkitshi, the eagle hunters of central Asia.  I admired the phrase "trading easy drama for resonant simplicity" quoted near the end. We should all be able to say as much. I like the work; it skirts around the pictorial and the picturesque with just enough specificity. John writes, "I spent three weeks in Mongolia years ago. The eagle hunters are among the most remarkable humans alive today." If you want to know more about them, there's a good article by Andrea DenHoad at The New Yorker.

Anne de Henning

Regular reader Animesh Ray sent a link to Anne de Henning, who I didn't know. Which makes some sense, as she appears to have been most active in France and the Middle East, and her books are published in French. As often happens, my loss—she's a highly accomplished photojournalist with a long list of credits, not to mention a life full of adventures. Take a scroll down through her brief illustrated bio—quite a life! (It might help to understand that when I was comin' up, the globetrotting photojournalist was the model for aspiring hobbyists and amateurs. They were who everyone wanted to be. Later, the model shifted to the moneymaking pros, and now I don't even know what the model is—social-media influencers? That's a post for another day.)

Raghubir Singh

Although obviously an accomplished photographer in her own right, I learned from Anne de Henning's website that she was married to the late Raghubir Singh, a photographer whose work I greatly admired when he was active. Although he lived largely as an ex-pat, his subject was his native India. Unfortunately he died young of a heart attack at 59 and he and his influence left the scene. I admit I hadn't thought of him in some years, although I have several of his books, including Kerala, River of Color, and The Grand Trunk Road. His website is moribund, but you can see a small sampling of small JPEGs at MetCollects. Raghubir Singh is ripe for a revival one day; he was the real deal. His is a name you should know.

Dina Litovsky

This video by the young New York City based photographer Dina Litovsky points up an important principle in photography—it's that, consciously or unconsciously, we tend to have stock or standard ways we like to picture things. The quintessential study of the Amish "the way we like to see them" is probably the lyrical, pastoral work of George Tice, as in the book Fields of Peace. That's the romanticized vision. But getting too stuck in tropes can mean we blind ourselves to people and things as they really are. As you'll see in the BBC Reel video Where the Amish go on holiday, that's what interested Dina Litovsky about the Amish on the beaches of Florida.

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Hope you enjoy checking out a few of these four. Big thanks to John Hansen-Flaschen, Animesh Ray, and my friend Steve Rosenblum, who sent along the Litovsky video link. (Thanks also to everyone who sends me tips, whether I use them or not. One of my Resolutions for 2022 is to follow up on more of them.)

The Print Sale starts at 2:00 U.S. Eastern Time today.

Mike

Book o' the Week:
Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny, by Ann Marks, is the most complete picture of the mysterious governess-photographer yet—and the picture is more surprising than we thought.

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Comments

[ASW]

If interested in the eagle hunters of central Asia (not just Mongolia), I can heartily recommend the 2016 documentary "The Eagle Huntress." The scenery is obviously a star, but so is the young girl attempting to become a female eagle hunter in a male-dominated tradition.

[Ben]

Thanks for this!

Also new to me, Frances Benjamin Johnston:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/obituaries/frances-benjamin-johnston-overlooked.html

[Thomas Walsh]

Mike, there are times when I read your blogs and can only think "meh". Then there are those times when your writing is just excellent and I am happy that I stumbled on TOP. But this statement,"But getting too stuck in tropes can mean we blind ourselves to people and things as they really are.", is outstanding.You have definitely hit the nail on the head.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Very interesting work, indeed. Thanks for calling it out!
Also noteworthy are this year's Leica Oskar Barnack Award winners:

Ana María Arévalo Gosen

and

Emile Ducke.

[s.wolters]

Poor Raghubir Singh (1942-1999). Not only did he die at the age 56, almost twenty years later he was also accused by his former assistant Jaishri Abichandani of raping her. She even organized a protest outside the Metropolitan Museum when they had a career-spanning exhibition there.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visualarts/review/2018/07/22/raghubir-singh-at-the-rom-genius-pioneer-monster.html
Looking at the portraits of Abichandani I find the story hard to believe. But even if this is true Singh’s photographs are still Singh’s photographs. Should we stop looking at the paintings of Caravaggio because he was a murderer?

[s.wolters]

I once read a story about the first meeting between Raghubir Singh and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Singh was a great admirer of Cartier-Bresson so he wanted to show him his portfolio. After an animated acquaintance Cartier-Bresson opened it and when he saw the first page he said: ”But…that’s color!” He instantly closed the book and with disgust he pushed it back to Singh.

(I tried to verify this, but I could not find the source and have to trust my grey cells here. It must be true though, because ever since reading this I can't look at the work of the old black and white fundamentalist anymore without thinking of this story).