contact sheets from the masters

[dxphoto]

Where can we see the contact sheets from those masters? Do they publish them???

 

[Michael W]

I have seen a few contact sheets from great photographers & they are very interesting. Mostly they are in retrospective books. I have an issue of a photography magazine from about 5 years ago (think it was the UK B&W mag) that printed a few & said it was from an exhibition that some guy had organised of proof sheets. It showed the photo that had been chosen for printing at the time alongside the contact sheet it came from. I recall it had the well known shot by Marc Riboud of a guy painting part of the structure of the Eiffel tower. Very interesting to see the framing decisions he tried. I would love to see more of this stuff. Especially for killer shots - I want to see what came before & after. e.g. there is a great shot by Josef Koudelka of a guy in Spain setting off a fireworks rocket - backlit with the smoke from the rocket glowing & you can see the rocket just about to leave the top right of the frame. Plenty of other good stuff happening in that frame as well. I would like to see what Koudelka was seeing before & after that frame.

Some examples that I do know of
Revelations - the Diane Arbus book has a few proof sheets. The one of the boy with a hand grenade is interesting.
Fragments from the Real world - the Gary Winogrand book has a couple of proof sheets.

 

[matti]

The UK Magazine Black & White Photography publish a contact sheet and the story behind it in each issue. Or did they stop with the lay-out remake?

/matti

 

[jmal]

A few sources include: Garry Winogrand, Figments...
Robert Frank, Moving Out
Contacts Vols. 1,2, and 3 (DVDS)
Not sure if these are to your liking, but since you mention Riboud and Koudelka, you'll probably like them. Contacts 1 has HCB, Erwitt, Riboud, Klein, Doisneau, and others.

Jmal

 

[dxphoto]

Yes, I like HCB, Riboud and Robert Frank. Yes the Arbus book has a lot of proof and contact sheets. The Contacts V1 is great, esp the episode on HCB.
B/W mag has contact sheets once a while. I like them too.
I am wondering if they every publish their entire archive, even for those who have passed away. Do they ever release them or these are something never going to be released/published.
By studying their Contact sheets one can really learn a lot, better than any books, even those written by themselves.

 

[Trask]

Famous San Francisco/60's "rock photographer" Jim Marshall's book "Proof" is nothing buy contact sheets -- he prints the whole sheet, then you see on the facing page the one he chose. Interesting.