Best Memoirs of Famous Photographers

[sasah zib]

 

[snusmumriken]

I think the most important part of what you said there is that the ability to explain it is irrelevant - that a photo is to be judged as a photo.

I’d prefer the word ‘accepted’ rather than ‘judged’, but yes.

Explanations can be very "insightful" - especially when they see things in the image that you have to truly work to see (and work harder to believe).

Sure, and I didn’t mean to imply that context is irrelevant. Photographers’ memoirs are fascinating, which is the point of this thread. For some photographers (eg Diane Arbus, Vivianne Maier) it’s quite difficult to comprehend what they were up to without knowing quite a lot about their lives and personalities. For others it doesn’t matter a jot, but one still wants to know.
My opinion of AA increased enormously when I saw in a documentary that he was also a very competent pianist. Irrational of me, but there it is.

However, just letting a photo sit and be whatever it is is not enough for a lot of people. They need to be able to discuss is.

Of course, and that’s really interesting, not least because viewers are not all the same. But still, on a purely visceral level either the photo speaks to you or it doesn’t.

 

[snusmumriken]

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When our kids were still small I thought it would be interesting to see the world from their perspective, so I gave them disposable fixed-focus cameras loaded with HP5+. They clicked away very seriously and thoughtfully, but sad to say the results were not in the least illuminating, in fact rather rubbish. It was so tempting to ask “What were you trying to capture here?”, but I didn’t.

Where is that passage from?

 

[faberryman]

Yet whenever an interviewer starts to try to get Eggleston to talk about the meaning of any of his photos, Eggleston gets pissed off and walks away.

That is part of Eggleston's carefully cultivated mystique. It is also likely because the images he created after his MOMA show in 1976 don't really hold up that well compared to his pre-MOMA show work, and he doesn't want to talk about them.

The MOMA show presented 75 photographs culled from thousands of slides spanning at least a decade of work. I invite everyone to edit as ruthlessly. Whittle those Flickr accounts down to your best 75 images. The exhibit was supported by a grant from Vivitar. Horrors!

 

[Dali]

When our kids were still small I thought it would be interesting to see the world from their perspective, so I gave them disposable fixed-focus cameras loaded with HP5+. They clicked away very seriously and thoughtfully, but sad to say the results were not in the least illuminating, in fact rather rubbish. It was so tempting to ask “What were you trying to capture here?”, but I didn’t.

Where is that passage from?

At least, you tried something. How many people are taking pictures without a clear purpose?

 

[Dali]

That is part of Eggleston's carefully cultivated mystique. It is also likely because the images he created after his MOMA show in 1976 don't really hold up that well compared to his pre-MOMA show work, and he doesn't want to talk about them.

For a lot of photographers (Eggleston included), talking about one picture does not make much sense as they are part of a whole that has a meaning. Another example would be Duane Michals pictures. Paying attention to a single picture and not the entire serie is missing the point.

 

[faberryman]

For a lot of photographers (Eggleston included), talking about one picture does not make much sense as they are part of a whole that has a meaning. Another example would be Duane Michals pictures. Paying attention to a single picture and not the entire serie is missing the point.

Duane Michals talks a lot about his photographs, including his sequences. I watched one interview where he talked for about 20 minutes without taking a breath.

If a photographer shoots in sequences, I am pretty sure he can tell you what he intended to convey by his sequence, and why an individual photograph contributes to the sequence.

Do you think photographers just shoot here, there, and everywhere with no thought to what they are doing? Maybe some photographers do. Maybe that is your approach, and you can't say what you intended to convey with your photographs. If that works for you, go for it. I would be careful not to project that on other photographers though.

 

[Dali]

I just mean that some individual pictures have a standalone meaning. Other gets their full power from the serie or sequence and the part they fill in it, nothing else. What I am doing is irrelevant in this conversation.

 

[Don_ih]

Almost all photographs exist because someone wanted a picture of whatever is in the photo.

That's not insignificant. There was no intent beyond taking a picture of x.

 

[bags27]

The late, very very great Barry Thornton, The Edge of Darkness, is part brilliant how-to book, part autobiography. Completely brilliant, like Thornton himself.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

The late, very very great Barry Thornton, The Edge of Darkness, is part brilliant how-to book, part autobiography. Completely brilliant, like Thornton himself.

It's a title that comes up here every 10 years or so. I need to get this book.

Edge of darkness by Barry Thornton

I've discovered this book on Amazon. It looked interesting with encouraging reviews so I've ordered it. It was good decision, one of the best I've made this year. I finished it yesterday and I'm amazed. Barry Thornton was on the side of classic BW photography and his enthusiasm or...

www.photrio.com

Edge of Darkness by Barry Thornton

I have had the misfortune of ending up in hospital and told to rest whilst they do tests. I saw this book mentioned in a threadonthe LF forum and decided to get it just before being dragged into hospital by my wife. I have just started to read it but already the phrase that comes to mind is...

www.photrio.com

 

[Dali]

There was no intent beyond taking a picture of x.

What do you mean by that?

 

[Don_ih]

What do you mean by that?

I was talking about most photos out of all photos. It's very rare that a photo is much more than just a "picture of x". But I imagine a lot of photographers strive to create such photos.

 

[snusmumriken]

I was talking about most photos out of all photos. It's very rare that a photo is much more than just a "picture of x". But I imagine a lot of photographers strive to create such photos.

I guess you are talking about some extra layer of meaning? As someone else said earlier, that’s often acquired by a series of photos with some common theme; or from collected diverse works from the same photographer, in which case their personality becomes apparent.

Can you give an example of a single photo that has that extra dimension on its own?

 

[David Reynolds]

Better yet. I was fortunate enough to study with Lissette Model at the New School. Reading about someone's work by a third party is enlightening but hearing it from the source is even better.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I just perused Amazon for Walker Evan's biographies - to see if Mellow's book was the one I have on a shelf somwhere. My Gawd there are a lot of books about Evans https://www.amazon.com/s?k="walker+evans"&crid=1EKBSHO6OT13K&sprefix=walker+evans+,aps,111&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

I've always found Adams' Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs to be autobiographical. I think autobiographies need to be oblique and talk about what the author considers significant in their life, not just what they did but their views of the the events that influenced them; The best example of this that I have read is Bruno Bettelheim's Freud's Vienna and Other Essays.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

When our kids were still small I thought it would be interesting to see the world from their perspective, so I gave them disposable fixed-focus cameras loaded with HP5+. They clicked away very seriously and thoughtfully, but sad to say the results were not in the least illuminating, in fact rather rubbish. It was so tempting to ask “What were you trying to capture here?”, but I didn’t.

That was my experience. I gave my loaded F4, with a small AF zoom, to a girlfriend's 7 year old daughter. The only thing interesting in the results was "I didn't know you could get an F4 to misbehave like that."

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I just perused Amazon for Walker Evan's biographies - to see if Mellow's book was the one I have on a shelf somwhere. My Gawd there are a lot of books about Evans https://www.amazon.com/s?k="walker+evans"&crid=1EKBSHO6OT13K&sprefix=walker+evans+,aps,111&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

I've always found Adams' Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs to be autobiographical. I think autobiographies need to be oblique and talk about what the author considers significant in their life, not just what they did but their views of the the events that influenced them; The best example of this that I have read is Bruno Bettelheim's Freud's Vienna and Other Essays.

You remind me that I forgot to put on my list Svetlana Alpert's Walker Evans: Starting from Scratch. It's combines both biography and analysis. She's very interesting and insightful when talking about his early years in Paris, and the influence Baudelaire and Flaubert had on his conception of photography.

I found Ansel Adams' autobiography anecdotal and of very little interest save a few parts, but loved Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs. You do get a sense of stylistic and technical development from one photo to the next, with interesting admissions of errors made. I rarely open his didactical, zone-system oriented trilogy, but go to this one quite often.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I ... loved Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs. You do get a sense of stylistic and technical development from one photo to the next, with interesting admissions of errors made. I rarely open his didactical, zone-system oriented trilogy, but go to this one quite often.

I find I get didactical when I am loaded with self-doubt about something but don't want to admit the doubt to myself, let alone someone else.

 

[MarkS]

Adams' "Examples" is most important in that it shows just how hard he worked to achieve his desired result. All his careful understanding of light, films, exposure, and processing only served to get him to the starting point... and often the finished photograph was quite different from what he'd visualized at first. But he didn't give up! until he got what he wanted.

 

[snusmumriken]

I find I get didactical when I am loaded with self-doubt about something but don't want to admit the doubt to myself, let alone someone else.

That's the most praiseworthy statement I've seen in a long time.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I find I get didactical when I am loaded with self-doubt about something but don't want to admit the doubt to myself, let alone someone else.

What is wrong with that. You are just like the rest of us.