Dave Heath

Ste_S · Mar 12, 2019

Went and saw this at the weekend and enjoyed it
https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/dave-heath-dialogues-solitudes

Have been flicking through the accompanying book since and trying to work out how he took such seemingly candid intimate portraits. Anyone familiar with how he worked ?

jimjm · Mar 12, 2019

I've read that he used longer lenses for many of these shots, and from the mid-60's started using lenses as long as 200mm. He also had no qualms about cropping the image in the darkroom, if it suited the composition.
I imagine he was also very good at blending in and not being noticed by his subjects.

He was a master printer, and was heavily influenced by his contemporaries like Robert Frank, Harry Callahan and especially Gene Smith.

Dave Heath is one of my favorite photographers - I'd love to be able to see his prints in person.

larfe · Mar 12, 2019

Thank you for the heads up on this, I'll definitely check this out!

Like Jim has said he cropped quite a lot, the image of the man and woman together staring into the void is a very heavy crop!

warden · Mar 12, 2019

Long lenses and aggressive cropping for the most part. He was one hell of a photographer and printer.

awty · Mar 12, 2019

Never seen his works before, they are truely wonderful. Thanks

Lachlan Young · Mar 12, 2019

Selective cropping & a lot of ferricyanide à la Eugene Smith. One of the books published on Heath a couple of years ago had a chapter on his printing approaches.

warden · Mar 12, 2019

Lachlan Young said:
Selective cropping & a lot of ferricyanide à la Eugene Smith. One of the books published on Heath a couple of years ago had a chapter on his printing approaches.

Multitude Solitude. It’s a wonderful book.

Ste_S · Mar 13, 2019

Thanks all. I did wonder if he worked with a telephoto as there was no way he could get in that close with a 'normal' lens without getting a reaction. Surprised that he cropped, his prints don't look like that at all. I guess just proves what everyone else is saying that he was a master printer.

Dave Heath has been a bit of a revelation and inspiration for me not having heard of him up until recently. Will definitely be going back again before the exhibition closes.
Multitude Solitude is out of print and appears to be going for silly money second hand, picked up a copy of the recent (but not as in depth) Dialogues with Solitudes in the meantime.

warden · Mar 13, 2019

Ste_S said:
Thanks all. I did wonder if he worked with a telephoto as there was no way he could get in that close with a 'normal' lens without getting a reaction. Surprised that he cropped, his prints don't look like that at all. I guess just proves what everyone else is saying that he was a master printer.

Dave Heath has been a bit of a revelation and inspiration for me not having heard of him up until recently. Will definitely be going back again before the exhibition closes.
Multitude Solitude is out of print and appears to be going for silly money second hand, picked up a copy of the recent (but not as in depth) Dialogues with Solitudes in the meantime.

Recently I learned my copy of Pentti Sammallahti's Here Far Away (another jaw-dropper of a photography book) has increased in value in a similar way to Heath's book. I should have purchased extra copies and used the proceeds to buy more film!

Hopefully the price of the book will come down with a second printing and you can get it because it's a valuable resource. Heath shares his thoughts in it, as well as examples of cropping, printing, etc. Here's one of his 35mm negs, cropped nearly to a 110 size negative (which he then printed beautifully). He was fearless with cropping and not shy about burning away detail he didn't want as you can see here.

Ste_S · Mar 13, 2019

@jawarden Thanks for posting that, it's really eye opening. That crop is the dust jacket for Dialogues with Solitudes and still looks great enlarged to A4 (?) size. Moriyama is the only other person I can think of who crops and burns like that and he gets very different (intended) results

Hopefully Multitude Solitude gets a reprint after the touring exhibition (with its accompanying book) has finished, sounds like an amazing book.

jtk · Mar 14, 2019

Wish I could visit that show! It's sad how the full-frame obsession hit art photography back in the 60s'

warden · Mar 14, 2019

jtk said:
Wish I could visit that show! It's sad how the full-frame obsession hit art photography back in the 60s'

I saw the show in Philadelphia and it was amazing. He could seemingly conjure detail from nothing.

As far as I know there isn’t yet a biography for this artist, but there is certainly enough material to make a good one. Hopefully a quality writer will take up the challenge.

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 14, 2019

Fantastic work.

Ste_S · Mar 15, 2019

jtk said:
Wish I could visit that show!

I think it's touring ? Was in Paris before coming to London.

There's a Dave Heath article (along with a Graciela Iturbide one) in the next issue of the UK B&W Photography magazine on sale April 11th for those interested.

Dave Heath

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